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MAY DAY IN WEST VANCOUVER. This summer, Mr. and Mrs. Les Hughes brought into the Archives the program and some pictures of the 1948 May Queen festivities. They delivered them on behalf of an old family friend, Mrs. Evelyn McKeown, whose daughter had been queen that year. Even for a newly come like myself, the pictures evoked a host of memories of that child-centred day. Perhaps the following account will evoke similar memories for you. Let us recapitulate the pageantry and excitement that used to be May Day in Viest Vancouver. Central to May Day was the chosing of a May Queen. The choice was always made from the senior girl students of one of the elementary schools, and was, I think, alternated between the schools. In 1948, the queen-elect was Maureen McKeown of 1231 14 Street. Having lived through the furore that resulted from having a mere flower girl in the house, I can imagine the intensity of the preparation for a May Queen. Certainly, the community made a big thing of it with a picture and an article in the local newspaper. In other households there would have been similar, if lesser, preparations as a Queen must have an entourage; two maids of honour, six guards of honour, four flower girls, two chancellors (just to give the boys a chance to participate), a crown bearer and a sceptre bearer. All these were children selected from both elementary schools. May Day was indeed a day for children, at which parents and other adults were the proud and admiring spectators. True enough, the planning, organization, and preparation was done by a crew of adults who had to work enormously hard to makeacsmiQ^Jth-working success of the day's program. The day started always with a parade. In 1948, it started at 17 Street and made its way down Marine Drive to Ambleside Park. A colour party from the Canadian Legion led off, followed by the Chief of Police and the West Vancouver Boys' Band. Then the Children's Parade with its thirteen categories of costumes, surely the heart and soul of the parade.. The laggards were encouraged to keep up by the music of the North Shore Sea Cadet's Band behind. And after that the floats, school, commercial and society, tempting the oo's and ah's of the crowd. St John's Ambulance Brigade preceded the Seaforth Highlanders Pipe Band. And then, in splendid new convertibles, the Reeve, retiring Queen Donna and her court and Queen-Elect Maureen and her two maids of honour. The six young ladies selected as guards of honour walked proudly three to a side of the new queen's coach. The crowd generally waited until the Queen-Elect had passed them and then hurried off to get cholcer-seatsi i.i in Ambleside Park for the afternoon's festivities. It was to a full house therefore that the parade entered the grounds and circled the inside of the park before stopping in the area designated for each section. By this time, the three convertibles had drawn up on the north side of the field. The stand for the May Queen and her court was always on the south side. May Queen Donna, on the arm of Reeve Tom Brown, and escorted by a detachment of Seaforth cadets, made her way to the review stand. In due course. Queen Elect Maureen, on the arm of May Day Chairman Bill Mehaffey, and flanked by her guard of honour followed across. The arrangement