A tisket, a tasket, here’s Wava’s May baskets

Wava Yepsen works on yet another of the many May baskets she is making for area seniors and shut-ins. While Yepsen used to make the baskets out of wallpaper scraps, she now uses tissue paper, and tucks a silk flower inside before attaching a ribbon door hanger. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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PRINCETON — A charming custom of a bygone day is being kept alive by at least one Princeton woman.

As May 1 approaches, Wava Yepsen continues to make May baskets, just as she did as a child.

“I learned from my mother, the best teacher in the world,” Yepsen said.

Yepsen said the making of May baskets was more common when she was a young girl.

“As a child, we used to make these way ahead of the first of May,” she said. “It was pretty popular when I was a girl.”

May baskets can be constructed in a number of different ways, but the general idea is to make a basket and place some flowers or candy inside. The fun part comes on the morning of May 1.

“We would leave it on somebody’s door and knock and run,” Yepsen said laughing.

While Yepsen doesn’t make the baskets every year, she’s had some interesting projects with them the last few years. Two years ago, she made 35 to 30 baskets for the children at her church, First Baptist Church, to pass out when they visited some seniors in the area.

Last year, Yepsen’s husband was in the hospital in Peoria, and she and her daughter were at his side.

“When you’re in the hospital you have idle time, so we went to a place and bought our supplies, and we made a May basket for everybody that was in the heart intensive care,” she said. “You could see some of the smiles.”

This year, today, Thursday, Yepsen will be teaching the women of her church how to make her May baskets, which will be delivered to area shut-ins.

“I think they bring joy to people, especially our seniors who are either shut-in or in assisted living or a nursing home,” she said. “They’re interesting, fun and they seem to give people joy.”

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