In the weeks before Easter, Mama would take us downtown on the city bus to shop for new dresses, new shoes, socks, little white gloves and, of course, a new Spring hat.  The hats were generally white or tan, made of straw and trimmed with ribbons and flowers and most came equipped with a thin elastic band that could tangle in our hair if we weren't careful.   When we were little, we got the socks with lace on the edges and I especially loved black patent leather Mary Jane shoes but some years we got white slip-ons with bows at the toe.

We would go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the whole weekend.   Saturday night after we took our baths in the big, old clawfooted tub, brushed our teeth and got into our pajamas, we would build nests from green cellophane Easter grass on the hearth in front of the fireplace in the dining room, making them as BIG as possible.    We'd run around the house kissing everyone else goodnight and putting off the inevitable for as long as possible.  Then we'd troop up the stairs to our beds.

          Next morning, as soon as we opened our eyes we would run excitedly to the top of the stairs and try to spot any candy eggs that were "hidden" in sight of the stairs.  We knew not to go down until the adults were up, so we'd chatter until Mama and Daddy woke up, running up and down the hall to get their attention.  Then, when they said okay, we'd race down and begin the hunt.  First we had to check out the nests, where EB (Easter Bunny) always left a generous number of marshmallow yellow baby chicks and pink bunnies, jelly beans and at least one  impressively large chocolate bunny figure in each nest.  Then we would hurry from room to room, looking in every nook and cranny to find the goodies which EB had hidden.  Sometimes, my Sister Susan and I would leave the really obvious ones for our little brother David to find.  When we were ready to say 'that must be all of them', Grandma or Grandpa would say something like "Oh, I see one you missed" and we would race around some more.  They would play the Hot and Cold game to lead us to the strays so that we could get our breakfast and dress for Sunday School and Church.

          If the weather was good, we'd walk to the Church.  We always felt so pretty and so dressed up in our new Easter finery.   During the service we would marvel at the size of the Easter Lilies and pots of pink and blue tinted hydrangeas and sing such hymns as "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today" with a gusto becoming the joyous mood of the morning.

    Most Easter Sundays my Grandpa went to Church but Grandma stayed home so she could get the dinner ready.   We'd come home about noon and the table would be set with the pretty linens and the Easter Ham was smelling yummy.  The rolls were just being popped into the oven and we'd ditch the hats and gloves in on the hat rack in the front hall and run out to see if Grandma needed us to take a taste of anything, just to be sure it was "done."   Which she almost always did.

           After the dinner dishes were washed up, the grown ups would take hand-dyes eggs and plastic eggs outside to hide in the grass and under bushes for a fun hunt.  We took special care, when stepping so as not to bruise or trample any of the perennials just coming up through the ground, such as the dozens of peonies, placed  in rows through out the large side yard.   We would work off some of the excess energy of the day, fueled by too many jelly beans and too much chocolate, and after we'd found all the eggs, we would take turns hiding them for each other, like a great game of Egg Hide-n-Seek until it began to get dusk or became too cool to stay outside any longer.

           Wonderful memories....Happy times.....

Powered by Bravenet