Tuesday, April 26, 2011

One More Little Look

Now that my wonderful Easter church service is a glorious memory, I'd like to go back for a brief nostalgic look at my childhood. First of all, we always got to go shopping for an Easter dress. I always wanted a nylon one because they were so colorful and pretty and the "in" thing. My mother didn't care for them for some reason. Finally, one year she gave in and we each could pick out our prettiest dress. When it came down to it, my sisters got nylon dresses, but I fell in love with a grey and pink flowered organdy dress. It was similar and not as scratchy. It turns out that I often seem to be wearing that dress in my favorite pictures. Every other year or so we would get the accessories like a new hat or new white gloves or patten leather shoes. (At the little shoe store, we always stuck our feet in an x-ray machine and saw our green bony feet. This was to see if the shoes were big enough.)

Another thing I loved was our Easter baskets. I can almost smell the chocolate of the bunnies we always received. Mom wasn't big on candy, but on Easter she pretty much let us eat what we liked, within reason. I usually had my bunnies ears off and part of the head before service. We also got lots of jelly beans, shiny turquoise, red, and yellow eggs called duck eggs. I loved these and I'm not sure they make them anymore. They are sort of marshmallowy with a hard candy shell. We also got little pom pom ball chicks with orange feet and cute little hats. I loved these and saved them from year to year.

We also took our yearly pictures out by the garden with my little sister squinting at the sun and me with lots of silly curls in my usually straight hair. Over the years I have made peace with nearly every picture, except one where I obviously had a brand new perm. Ohhh, it was bad.

In some ways, I loved wearing white gloves and Easter hats and doing a lot of this and that for the special day. It sure was a lot of fun. Now, I am glad that, even though I do a little dressing up and candy buying for little ones, the whole day just seems much more focused on the special meaning of the resurrection. I am happy about that.

6 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I totally remember when I was growing up it was all about "the Easter hat". Yeah, glad that's not such a focus for me anymore either. :)

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  2. We always dressed up for Easter too. I always wanted to wear a large Easter bonnet but wasn't brave enough. :O)

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  3. How fun!!! I hope my kids have such good memories when they grow up. :-)

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  4. We always got a new outfit for Easter and baskets, too. When I married my husband and found out he never got a basket, I began making him a huge one each year. We love delighting each other with favorite candies!

    But the best is Jesus, alive and well on planet earth.

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  5. Hi Nancy -

    Oh, what lovely memories!

    I also had a new Easter outfit. One year, my grandmother bought me a lavender spring coat, pocketbook, and a white hat. I think that's when I fell in love with purple. :)

    Like you, Resurrection Sunday is now focused on the true significance of the day.

    Blessings,
    Susan

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  6. Oh, you've inspired a flood of childhood memories in me, Nancy! I remember the hats, plus we always got a new pair of white lace tights to wear. And my parents were a lot like yours. Easter was one of the few occasions we got to eat candy--and boy could we eat!!

    I do love how my kids focus on the "reason for the season" (to steal the Christmas holiday message). :o)

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