Friday, April 10, 2009

Easter childhood memories

Not wanting to take away from the religious significance of the Easter celebration, I bit into a cute little duckie Peeps and yuck, it still tasted like I remembered it. Full of sugar and dye and marshmallowy. Double yuck!

But, one thing the Peeps did was bring back memories of Easters long ago. When I was a little girl, Easter meant many things. It meant:

1. Sitting down the night before, getting my hair washed, pressed with a hot comb and then curled in sponge curlers.

2. Rehearsing the Easter church program speech over and over again, even if it was only one line. I remember one year, my speech was, "He rose!" Not too difficult to forget.

3. Coloring (dying) eggs the night before. It meant coloring a dozen eggs regardless of whether they got eaten or not.

4. Warnings from my mom, the next day, not to get dirty while we paraded around in our "Easter dress and bonnets".

5. It also meant being uncomfortable for the sake of looking cute. The petticoats were always itchy and once the curlers came out, the hair was bouncy and curly, just like Shirley Temple's hair.

6. Getting Easter baskets filled with giant colored candy eggs that were marshmallows but tasted like toilet bowl cleaner. It also meant, solid chocolate bunnies that after a few bites made me feel ill.

7. Going to church where the elderly ladies showered us with more hard boiled eggs. Before church was over, we had a basket full.

8. Sitting still while it seemed like church last 4 hours instead of actually 1 and a half hours.

9. Easter dinner with relatives. It also meant sitting on the floor on newspapers and napkins tucked under my chin so that I wouldn't get my dress dirty. It meant ham, collard greens, potato salad and candied yams. It meant homemade yeast rolls and pound cake with strawberries and coconut cake. It meant hunting for Easter eggs and dividing them up after it was all said and done.

10. It meant going back to church before Easter was over, wearing the same clean dress and sitting still all over again.

The memories bring a smile to my face. Those really were the good ol days.

Happy Easter Everyone!!

14 comments:

Deb said...

Thanks for the reminder. It is so easy to forget those things!! Happy Easter!

Nana said...

What I remember most about Easter from my childhood is being forced to go to church in the morning by my mom, and the chocolate we'd wake up to. As well, the mountains of food; the Kielbasa, the cakes... yum yum

Cinder Rail'lee said...

HAPPY EASTER!

YOu brought back some sweet memories for me.
I remember those darn rollers. I'd have to sleep with them in. (Even though my hair was natural curly) the rollers helped control the curls.
My dresses, God help me, I'd find the dirt, didn't matter if my mom said stay out of the yard.. THE DIRT FOUND ME!
The candy.. I walked by Calebs easter basket..seeing his little (ok, a HUGE pile of chocolate) I took one, and about gagged.It wasn't real, it was that fake chcolate with the fake peanut butter..and the memories came flooding back!

I love reading your posts, it's like I'm there.. as an observer.

Veronica Lee said...

Happy Easter!

Debra Lynn Shelton said...

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. Being a token Jew, I've always felt left out at Easter and Christmas. Everyone takes for granted that everyone else celebrates these holidays.

Of course, being committed to finding humor first and foremost, I addressed Easter vs Passover from a child's perspective in my first novel in the following way:

"While we Jewish kids were choking down four glasses of Welch’s grape juice at Passover, our Christian counterparts were chomping on chocolate Easter bunnies. Come on, now, if that isn’t child abuse than what is?"

Happy Holidays to all!

travel girl said...

Happy Easter!

I had soooo much fun making a basket for Mr. J's son. I think I could get use to it:)

Christine said...

I've awarded you the Noblesse Oblige Award...congratulations.

nikkicrumpet said...

That sounds like the Easters I remember...and I'm with you on those peeps tasting horrible. But how can anyone EVER get sick of chocolate lol

Veronica Lee said...

Happy Easter, my fav blogger!

Jill said...

Great post!

Happy Easter!

MOMSWEB said...

This was great! I enjoyed my visit and have a joyful Resurrection Day Celebration!

Kathy said...

Happy Easter, I just had some of those marshmallow peeps this morning with the kids.

Anonymous said...

My family was poor, but I always had new while Mary Jane's (shoes) that hurt and were stiff, and a frilly dress, and a basket with boiled eggs (yuck) that mom and dad ate later. A cream filled egg for me and dad that was huge. Not like today's.

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter!!!

 

Template by BloggerCandy.com | Header Image by Freepik