Ascension Day

Its back to normal today.....no sun, a lot of wind and its chilly!   For this May that's normal.
Its also Ascension Day but we are all still working!  In my  childhood we all had a day off for the moment  the Lord rose into the heavens.   I'm not sure thats quite how we  thought of  it then...I suspect it was more like Pancake Tuesday, an excuse for getting into all sorts of mischief!
There are no Ascension days that stand out in my memory in any way but the mindset of the law givers was that obviously as a Holy day, it was not much kept!   At least not by school children!
When I taught at a Church of England primary school, we did keep it, it was one of our days when we could do our own thing.
My stint in a Primary school was an experiment....I had a small baby and so did my neighbour and friend....we saw this job advertised and applied for it together...and we got it....I did the English, History, Geography Art etc and she did the Maths, music and games....I did mornings and she did afternoons. The whole arrangement was quite radical at the time...we were I think the first job sharers in our part of the world.
For the short time that it lasted....it worked well, we both arrived at school fresh and eager to teach....and our classes were huge....We had 48 in our class but we did teach them....they thrived  on our watch.
Eventually I moved back to teaching in Secondary schools and she took over the whole day....
I wonder now if that school and all the other church schools still have Ascension day off too?
A few lines by Charles Wesley.

Hail the day that sees Him rise
Ravished from our wistful eyes
Christ, awhile to mortals given
Re ascends his native heaven!

Hail indeed!