This is me, Easter 1960, when little girls still wore Easter bonnets. Looks like the dog wants some of my candy.

I have fond Easter memories from my childhood.  I was raised a Catholic so the day started with a trip to church for Easter mass dressed in a new dress and wearing an Easter bonnet.  Back at home my brothers and I would have to search for our Easter baskets as my parents went one better than just hiding eggs for us to search for, we had to hunt for the whole basket. What a joy to find our baskets all full of Easter candy; chocolate eggs, jelly beans, marshmallow chicks, and a big chocolate bunny from Gorant’s Candies of Youngstown, Ohio.  Not a hollow chocolate bunny mind you but a solid chocolate one.  We also had colored eggs in our baskets that my parents had colored the night before while we slept and each of us got one with our name written on it.  It was always a mystery to me how they did that until years later when I was old enough to help color eggs and found out they wrote the name on with a wax crayon before it was dyed.

Along with the candy there was usually a small stuffed animal for me as well; being the youngest and the only girl had its benefits.  One time I got a stuffed white lamb that I dearly loved.  They hid it on the floor in a closet and someone, most likely my Dad, thought it would be funny to sprinkle Kix cereal around it like it had pooped on the floor.  It’s those kinds of memories that stick with you.

Me, my Dad and brothers on Easter 1960.

Easter dinner was prepared by my mom and my grandmother.  We were lucky to have my grandmother living with us when I was young.  She was my dad’s mother and she was originally from Germany and what a great cook she was.  I wish I would have been old enough while she was alive to have learned some of her kitchen skills.  I also wish I would have learned to speak German from her.  In today’s world where children often only have one parent I feel blessed to have had two loving parents and a Grandma in the home to look after me and my brothers.

As a Christian it’s important to remember the real reason for Easter; the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ.  Easter is not about the crucifixion of Christ, it’s not about the death, it is about the resurrection.  The triumph of life over death and the promise of everlasting life.  As the Pagans used to celebrate the renewing of life with the coming of spring so we Christians celebrate the renewing of life with Easter for our Savior has risen!

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed Easter.

Jeanne

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

John 11: 25-26