Today was the International Day of the Woman. Or as my father liked to put it:”The international day of the florist.” We would line up in front of the little glass building next to the Havanna Bar in Jastrzebie-Zdroj and we would then try to get some flowers for my teachers. Whatever was there, worked very well. Carnations, the flowers of the revolution, I guess, were there in abundance. All of the children had their flowers with them. The teachers were very happy to receive flowers. The desk of T. Piotrowska, my favorite teacher, and the mother of my best friend Zbyszek Piotrowski, was engulfed in an explosion of red carnations.
My mother was a teacher in the school as well, and I would have to help her bring the buckets filled with flowers home, at the end of the day. The flowers were beautiful, and yet they were a burden.
Tulips were definitely my favorites. Their colors were just so completely out of this world, especially if they survived long enough to open.
I still love tulips, of course.
I did not see any women with flowers today.
But I also do not see workers in the streets on May 1st, or happy masses of children on June 1st…
America is very different, somehow, it does not seem to be included in the term “international” when it comes to certain things… though I do not understand why they would skip some of the really happy times… I clearly do not understand much…
Oh, and Happy International Women’s Day… if you are or feel like a woman just about now…