Easters

1988 Dewey, Oklahoma

      One year when I was quite young, maybe even as old as five, I got up one Sunday a couple of weeks before Easter and looked out the front window at the snow-covered lawn. I was looking for rabbit prints in the snow – because even though I believed in the Easter Bunny and believed in the baskets he put together and delivered to every house on Easter morning, I did not give the Bunny credit for being bright enough to know when Easter was – I mean, he was just a rabbit, how could his calendar be the same as humans? That particular Sunday I was convinced that the Easter Bunny could have come early – if I saw his prints in the snow, I would have started looking in the house for my basket.

      The combination of the words snow and Easter in the same sentence tells a lot about Western New York. When I grew up, there were a lot more white Easters than white Christmases! In fact, I remember more rainy Christmases than snowy ones, and I remember that any pretty Easter clothes I might have gotten would be covered up with a winter coat for church!

      And at our house, Mom and Dad hid entire Easter baskets – one for each kid, which we had to hunt for in the house. The baskets had candy and colored hard boiled eggs and usually one chocolate bunny of a good size per basket. I don't recall how the baskets were individualized – I do not think our names were on them – but maybe a name was on a colored egg – or we recognized an egg we had colored ourselves.

     The Easter basket story that got the most mileage over the years was the Sunday my parents hid Eric's basket in the oven – he could not have been more than two or three that year. And the oven was one of the forbidden places in the house – we were to never touch or open the oven door. So even after all these years, it still does not seem right that Mom and Dad teased Eric each Easter about the time he could not find his basket in the oven!

      Easter evening, we would get together with my mother's family, at our house or my grandmother's or my Uncle Jim and Sharon's place – and there would be a meal, similar to the Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings we had.

1989 Plano, Texas

      When my girls were growing up, they had baskets that were out on the table on Easter morning, and Sarah and Amanda went on a hunt throughout the house for plastic eggs filled with chocolates like M&Ms or jelly beans. And Grandma Mary, my mother, sent them each an Easter dress every year, and Grandma Kay would send them each a summer outfit. Not only a great tradition, but the gifts made for wonderful photo ops!

      This year, Amanda arranged for family that is nearby to come here for dinner – these days our holiday dinners are in the early afternoon, not suppertime. We won't be having chocolate or baskets or even hard boiled eggs. But there will be ham and smoked turkey, salads, and lots of desserts. We'll talk about the Easters of yore and the sense of holiday will feel just like those old days!

95 20150405 Easter