Hello Family,
Blessings, love, and peace to you and your family.
Blessings, love, and peace to you and your family.
Once upon a time when I was a child, we were poor. I don’t know if I understood at the time our level of poverty, but I knew we didn’t always have things that other children in the neighborhood had.
One of those things were Easter baskets. We saw our neighbor’s Easter baskets that seemed huge, (at least that’s the way it seemed to me). The huge baskets had super long handles, and were jam packed with a boat load of toys and candy. At the time I didn’t know the big chocolate bunnies were hollow and that the bottom of the basket was filled with cardboard and paper and that the candy and toys were taped to the cardboard to help make the huge basket look better, bigger and fuller. When I was in the store, I would look at the different size baskets and wish I could get one of those filled to the brim Easter baskets, even if it was a small one. Since we couldn’t afford the huge baskets, that seemed like every other child in the world was getting except my siblings and I, we had homemade baskets. When I say homemade baskets, you may think that we were able to purchase the empty baskets at the store and fill them with candy, boiled eggs (that we dyed), and the annoying green grass that was put in the basket. Nope, that’s not the case. We had Easter bowls. Each child would get one of the mix-match bowls out of the kitchen cabinet, because we didn’t have a set. I’m not sure if we had a set at some point and they broke or if we never had one. Not really sure about that one. I think it worked out well because every bowl was different so each child could make claim to a specific bowl that couldn’t be claimed by someone else. I specifically remember a hard-yellow bowl that had a burn mark on. I think one day it got too close to the flames on top of the stove. That’s the bowl that nobody wanted. Easter was different each year. One Easter (or maybe more than one) we had boiled and dyed eggs with jellybeans in our bowls and that was it, not even the annoying grass in which you would find some strands months later. Sometimes, just boiled eggs and jellybeans. I, also, remember having the dyed eggs, jellybeans and a few strands of the grass. We only had one bag of grass and that had to be divided between all of the children. There was nine of us, but I’m not sure if the oldest two were still getting basket/bowls so maybe that one bag was divided seven ways. Over time we were blessed to have dyed eggs, jellybeans and a few of the solid chocolate eggs with some grass. I don’t recall in my childhood ever getting a purchased basket that was filled at home, just the bowls. Years later I remember my younger siblings having them and being filled pretty full with lots of goodies, eggs and grass. After I got married and had children, I wanted them to have one of those huge pre-made baskets filled with toys and candy. I made it my mission to purchase each of them a huge, filled to the brim pre-made Easter basket. I only bought those pre-made baskets once, because I found out after I bought them that it wasn’t money well spent. I thought they were a rip off. That’s when I actually found out, after all of those years that the baskets were filled with cardboard, paper, a few toys and a little bit of candy. After that I always made baskets for our children. Growing up in a Christian home, every Easter we all had to go to church. While, it seemed like, every other child showed up in church with everything new: dress, shoes, Easter bonnets, ribbons, barrettes, and sometimes with a matching purse, that wasn’t the case for my siblings and me. The same thing with the boys at church; new shoes, pants and shirt or a new suit. Although, the parents could easily get away with putting their sons in old socks and an old belt. Dressing for Easter wasn’t like that in our house. One person may get new shoes and socks, one person may get a new dress (new from the Salvation Army) or a belt or whatever you needed to look nice, neat, clean and presentable for Easter. I remember one year I hit the jackpot; I got a pair of brand-new black patten leather shoes, some white ankle socks and a beautiful royal blue coat. I loved that coat. It had a nice rounded collar and a little flare on the bottom. I felt bad for my sister, because her dress was from the Salvation Army, but I think she got a new white sweater to wear over her dress, because it was sleeveless. The dress was pretty and colorful, but it wasn’t new, so I felt bad for her. Another thing about Easter; we always had to participate in those Easter programs at church. The church Mother in charge of the Easter program, gave us a recitation that we had to memorize. We would spend weeks learning those pieces. We had to go to rehearsals and we got feedback on our delivery: you need to go home and learn your speech, stand up straight, speak up, don’t mumble, say it with some feelings, (you get the point). However, there was one thing that I didn’t understand. When we were children, we were never invited to participate in the big Easter play at church. I never knew how to get invited to participate in that big play. Furthermore, if I had been invited would I have frozen in front of everybody, since I was so shy. Maybe, the adults in charge knew that I would not be a good fit. That’s something I’ll never know. The performers were so good that I just wanted to be a part of it. Easter dinner. We didn’t have baskets filled with stuff, but mom always made a nice Easter dinner. We didn’t eat pork, so if memory serves me right, we had roast or turkey for dinner. Not sure on this one. I’ll have to check with one of my sisters on that. We always had plenty of dessert. I think baking was mom’s specialty. I’m pretty sure her homemade dinner rolls were always on the menu. After dinner we had to go back to church that evening for the Easter program. The mistress of ceremony would call each child to the stage to recite their speech. Some children remembered and did exceptionally well, some forgot and stumbled through, some were so frightened that they didn’t say a word and the audience just clapped anyway, then someone had to go up and walk the child down off the stage, some talked so low you couldn’t hear anything that they said. It was always entertaining. After the program each child received a nice sized bag filled with Easter candy. If any bags were left, they would give them to the adults. We took our bags home and filled our Easter bowls. It was a very full and beautiful Easter day every year. I don’t know what your plans are for Easter or for Resurrection Sunday, (depending on what you call it), but I hope that you enjoy the day. You and your family be safe and enjoy and love each other. Nothing is promised; bowls, huge baskets, grass, new shoes, old belts, a part in the big play, roast, turkey or dessert, so appreciate and love the people and the blessings that come to you on Easter and every day. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 KJV
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