I'm still here. Still waiting on a kidney. Still working. I've just found someone that keeps me occupied. We talk about everything or we talk about nothing. I think when I was writing regularly, it was from a place of need or anger. *shrug* I'm happy. People evolve.
As the Easter holiday approaches, I was rehashing the memories of my childhood.
If I close my eyes, I can almost smell the vinegar water. Cups all lined up with drops of food coloring. No fancy egg dippers, just a spoon to lift them out of the dye.
There was always a spot at the bottom of the eggs that was slightly discolored either because that's where it rested on the paper towel as it dried or it was put directly in the carton for later.
While we dyed eggs, The Ten Commandments was always on. I never noticed until I was older that the casting for that movie is all wrong. Still a classic though. Charlton Heston vs. Yul Brynner - Moses vs. Pharoah Ramses II
We'd stay up late to finish the movie and then be up early for 6 am sunrise service. I don't remember being really young and going, but I do remember that the men of the church would fix breakfast afterward. Pancakes, bacon and juice.
We'd go home and next would be the egg hunt. It was much more fun to do this when I was the only grandchild, LOL. I would collect all the eggs and then there was this huge basket, just for me.
After that, I'd get dressed in my Easter best and we'd head to church. Fluffy dresses, a slip, stockings instead of socks and patent leather shoes that would pinch the top of your foot if you slid your feet into them without unbuckling them. Since Easter was so special, I sometimes got to wear my hair down, with a lot of curls (that I would shake out, trying to whip my hair to and fro). I would get to church and be instantly nervous because although I had practiced and practiced my Easter speech or piece, I didn't like speaking in front of all those people.
I would be so nervous! My face would get flushed and my stomach would flip-flop and when I finally said it, it would be so rushed and then it was over. The congregation would chuckle or clap and that would be it. All that anxiety for about 30 seconds.
After service, dinner was always at my maternal grandparent's house. There was always ham, candied yams, string beans, rolls, a relish tray and my favorite, my grandma's scalloped potatoes. Always in her Corningware cornflower design dutch oven casserole dish. Sweet potato pie and cherry pie for dessert, always with Prairie Farms vanilla ice cream.
Now at my grandparents house there were no eggs to hunt for, just the ginormous "basket" she would put together each year. There was this huge yellow wooden bowl that she had. It would be filled with green easter grass and in it would be the good candy! Not just a bunch of Tootsie rolls. Jelly beans, Snicker's, Reese's, chocolate eggs, Peeps (yuck) and huge chocolate bunny, chocolate crisp rice candies and it would be accented by the creepiest thing ever. I'm sure it was cute at one time, but the little yellow fuzzy chick she would put in the basket looked like a real baby chick that had just died and never disintegrated. The legs and feet felt eerily real. I would study that thing, toss it aside and start in on the candy.
Basically jelly beans were a waste. I only liked the red ones and the black ones. I only like black now, unless they are Jelly Belly's. Oh and I liked the Snicker's.
My aunt got a basket every year too. She was well into adulthood, but still collected, lol.
I know that Easter is about Jesus rising again, but this stuff right here, is what my childhood was made of.
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