Happy Easter Everyone!

Things I remember of Easters past:

Getting a new dress (and it usually matched my older sister's) and new patent leather shoes. We usually also got a little purse to go with the outfit. I vaguely remember having white gloves to wear on that day also. (Whew, i think I am really dating myself with that statement). Sometimes we got a little corsage to wear on our dress. My brothers would be dressed in suits and ties (I am sure they loved that!) We would go outside and have our picture taken in the front yard, all of us together, and then usually one of the girls together and one of the boys together. My hair would of course have been curled by mom with great effort since my hair is poker straight and always has been. I usually had a Toni perm put in the night before or a few days before in her effort to create some curls for the Easter picture. How I hated those perms. Sitting still while each little lock of hair was saturated with that smelly perm and then wrapped in the rubber curler with the split in the middle. My mom would leave the perm on my hair longer than the instructions called for in hopes that my hair would cooperate. Oh wow, how some of those perms turned out...with lots of tears on my part during and after.

We used to go to the Methodist church at the corner of our street, usually walking together with my sister in charge of the rest of us. Our parents didn't go with us although this used to be the church my father attended when he was younger.

We would wake up to a basket of candy, each of us having our own basket. There would be chocolate bunnies, chicks, jelly beans, marshmallow chicks (which I always gave to my brother Jeff), and of course the eggs we had dyed the night before. By the end of Easter week, the green, pink and yellow straw grass from the Easter baskets would be all over the house. We would each compare what we got in our baskets and then make swaps.

For many years we got a live baby chick at Easter time. Back then, you could buy them in the five and ten cent store (what in the world is that? my kids may ask). Okay, you could get them at GC Murphy store. We would go and pick out which chick we wanted. We would be so excited and full of love for that special little chick. We'd take them home and put them in a cardboard box with some water and the food that was purchased with them. Of course, five little kids all having chicks at the same time, and five sets of hands picking them up so they knew how much they were loved, probably wasn't so good for those little chicks. Probably was inhumane actually. I doubt they loved being handled as much as they were. Many times their lives were cut short and they didn't make it. Some years they got bigger and we had no way of caring for them in the city and my grandfather would take them to a relative's farm to be cared for.

I remember making Easter baskets in grade school out of strips of construction paper weaved into a basket.

I remember egg hunts at the local city parks. I remember running around having no clue what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to look at my first egg hunt at Wick Park. I quickly caught on and enjoyed the day.

Speaking of egg hunts, I remember taking Karin and Kenny to Tod Park in Girard for an egg hunt. Kenny was about three years old, still a little shy. After the egg hunt, we walked over to see the Easter Bunny who had shown up for the affair. Kenny walked right up to the bunny and instead of saying "Hi!" or shaking hands with the bunny like most of the kids, he walked up and punched the bunny in the stomach! Oh my!

I remember the first Easter Ken and I were married. He was so good about buying me gifts. I came home to a bounty of gifts from him that year for Easter. He had bought me a new dress (black) and a white Lily! Black dress and a lily???? Did you have something planned for me Ken?

I remember singing with the choir at Youngstown Baptist Church during my teen years and seeing the large crowd of people who attended services for Easter. In later years, Ken and  I took Karin and Kenny to Northside Baptist Church which had a smaller, younger congregration.

The main thing about Easter that I will always remember is the gift of life given to me by Jesus Christ when He died on the cross and rose again on Easter morning. Thank you Jesus.

HAPPY EASTER!