Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Remembering Past Easters


Remember how much fun Easter was when we were kids?


The shopping trip to buy the outfit; choosing the just right basket; selecting the chocolate bunnies, rabbits and eggs; dying the eggs. It was quite an occasion.

As kids, we always want what we don't have, and I always wanted a "ready-made" dress. But since mother was an excellent seamstress, she sewed our clothes. Fancy little taffeta, organza or dotted Swiss numbers with bows and lace.

And on Easter morning my sister and I always looked something like this, decked out and ready for church:

Since it always seemed to be cold on Easter, mother made us spring dusters, like the one below:


Now I believe dusters are back in style.

We were outfitted with little hats, gloves, purses, socks and of course, the black patent leather shoes, which became our "Sunday shoes" only.

Once year, my little hat fell off my head during church services when I stretched and leaned my head back. I was so embarrassed!


There usually was much discussion, and whining on my part, about Easter baskets. Mother was adamant that we would reuse baskets from previous years, but I always wanted to buy a new one that was already packed full of chocolate bunnies, foil wrapped eggs and a fuzzy stuffed bunny; one that was wrapped in cellophane and tied with a big bow.

A few years she relented and let me have my way.


Saturday night Easter egg coloring was a special time as my sister and I had selected the dyes that would give us the perfect color. It didn't always turn out that way. And remember those little cut-out transfers that were supposed to make the perfect image on your egg? They never seemed to work just right.


I once had a chalk bunny that looked a lot like this one. In fact I still have it but parts of it have crumbled over time.



The big egg hunt occurred at my grandmother's house, where the family gathered for a huge feast. I remember the kids having to stay inside and promise not to peek while a few lucky adults hid the dozens of eggs each of us had brought in our baskets.


It seemed all the eggs were never found and I recall some of us returning to our grandmother's house several days after Easter to search the high grass for unfound eggs. If we found them we ate them! Can you imagine doing that, or allowing children to do that, today?


Ah, the Easter cake. I don't recall ever having a lamb cake; ours were always white cakes with the coconut frosting dyed green and jelly beans placed on top.


Are Easter Seals still around? Haven't heard of them in years.

What do you remember about Easter when you were a child?

15 comments:

  1. What a pretty and nostalgic post, Sanda. You two little girls are so special in your hats, gloves and purses. I suppose I wore something the same, but alas don't have a photo to prove it. I remember at Easter we received hard, pastel coloured, sugar eggs, possibly because we nearly always went camping and chocolate would have melted in our heat. Back in those simple times we had no refrigeration when camped at the beach in a hot canvas tent. I still remember the smell of that tent! YUK... Simple times, bought fish and chips for dinner, and fun in sea and sand. One big trip to church on Easter Sunday. Thanks for the memories, Sanda.

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    1. It's fun to remember the way things used to be. Such fond memories. With your seasons being opposite from ours in the Northern Hemisphere, I can see why your Easter holiday activities were different. Camping at the beach sounds like such fun. Happy Easter to you and your family!

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  2. What a wonderful wander through the past. Much like you, Mom made my Easter outfit and I loved dotted swiss. We didn't pick our baskets, they were a surprise delivered by the Easter Bunny. I know we colored eggs but I really don't remember hunting for them. We must have. I don't care for hard boiled eggs so maybe I didn't hunt very hard. I do remember getting one of those hard sugar eggs with a diorama inside. Remember those? I saved mine for ages.

    Darla

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    1. I don't know why our tradition wasn't for the Easter Bunny to deliver our baskets! Oh, I do remember getting one of those sugar egg with a diorama inside. I saved mine, too, but would occasionally give it a "quick lick" for a sugar fix!

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  3. What cuties you both look,your mother is a brilliant seamstress.Same here Easter always equals cold in my mind.I remember wearing a mossy green tweed coat with a dark green velvet collar matching velvet dress underneath +patent leather shoes.

    We always had a Simnel cake for Sunday Easter tea,hot cross buns on the Good Friday for breakfast.....best though was the chocolate Easter eggs.
    Enjoyed your trip down memory lane.Judith/Ida

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    1. That picture isn't us!; it's one I found on the Web. I have many of us in our Easter outfits but it was just too much trouble to go searching photo albums to find one! I have never had Simnel cake. Looks as if we are going to have and cold and rainy Easter here this year. Hope your weather has improved.

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  4. I love Easter rituals such as collecting the first spring flowers, colouring eggs, fussing over table linens and all that food... like all holidays, I relish in the tradition, the passing on of rituals and just having a great time with my family.

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    1. I was hoping that Easter would announce the arrival of Spring but I don't think it will. Hoping you have a special Easter holiday with your loved ones.

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  5. i remember a lot of the same things you do: coconut cake, handmade dresses, white gloves, patent leather shoes and sweet little purses... we kept the same basket year after year, and they were filled with chocolate. we dyed eggs but used them as decorations. we hunted the plastic ones because they wouldn't smell bad if we lost them. i remember some years it was so cold we had to wear winter coats over our dresses. that was always sad. we carried over the traditions to my kids, except that i don't sew; shopping for the easter clothes became a fun task. some of the wonderful suits/ties/dresses we found! fond memories

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    1. Those eggs really did get to smelling bad so you were smart to use plastic. I helped our kids dye real eggs, but they hunted plastic ones, too. So much easier. I know you're a great movie fan, and one of my favorite Easter scenes is in the movie Steel Magnolias. Wasn't that great?

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    2. confession time: i have never seen steel magnolias. lol there are a lot of modern popular movies i've never seen. i've seen bits and pieces of it on tv, but i should look for it and watch it. people say it'a a wonderful film.

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  6. What fond memories! All the bunny pictures, colorful eggs and flowers that we colored at school made it such a special day - remember coloring the eggs so well and how they hardly, if ever, came out like we had hoped they would. Those little dresses were beautiful but SO scratchy and cold on Easter morning.
    Maybe those smelly eggs we found several days after Easter is the reason I don't like eggs today!

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    1. HAHA. Good point about the eggs! I wish we still saw little girls in those kind of dresses on Easter.

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  7. Over here, Easter time, starting from Thursday, used to be a quiet time until Easter Sunday.
    No visiting, no movies, all stores were closed.
    Avery long time for children.
    But, on Easter Sunday, there was a chocolate- egg hunt. Chocolate eggs, which usually held a ring inside them. The more, the better.
    Finnish Easter is a mix of Eastern and Western traditions. Nowadays, people socialize more. Traveling up north for skiing and after-skiing is popular among families and young adults.

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    1. A chocolate egg hunt! What a marvelous idea. I'm sure children were more excited about finding a chocolate egg than a hen egg!

      Seems a great many families here go to the beach or Disney World during Easter Week. We were never so lucky.

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