Saturday, April 19, 2014

Growing up with Dan on Easter

Lauch Cousins at the Coll House, Easter 1989


Easter Basket made with the Cub Scouts

When I think back to Easter as we were growing up, a few things come to mind.  Dying eggs while listening to Jesus Christ Superstar, my Dad yodelling about the bitter herbs in the Ten Commandments, buying ride tickets on the Boardwalk, and the morning Easter Egg Hunt.  Dan won the Easter Egg Hunt more than Pat and I did, combined.  I wish I could say that he was a gracious winner... but of course, he couldn't help dancing, cheering, and driving Pat crazy. More often than not, he would also find the "bonus" egg.  In our house, the Easter Bunny hid small Nestle chocolate crunch eggs.  The bonus egg would be wrapped in silver foil. The Easter Bunny must have had a lot of fun coming up with places to hide that egg over the years!







Another Easter tradition was to purchase flowers.  Dan and I walked to the store with the boys' wagon and Mom's leather change purse to purchase the Easter flowers at Cumberland Farms.  I can still smell the aroma of the hyacinths, lilies, and tulips in that little garage on 2nd Street. After the Egg Hunt and a tasty breakfast, we would dress up in new outfits and deliver the flowers to our grandmothers and aunts. There was always a purple hyacinth for Mom's cousin Jennie as well.

This year, I bought the Easter flowers with another little helper, who bears a striking resemblance to his Uncle Dan.  This will also be the first year that I bought Easter flowers FOR Dan. I will be visiting the cemetery on Saturday morning, and delivering flowers to my family and my friend, Gus. I found a little something to take with Dan's yellow tulips: a plastic gold egg. Perfect for our Egg Hunt Champion.

Dan has won more than the Easter Egg Hunt this Easter.


Added a little something to Dan's Flowers

Easter Flowers 2014

4 comments:

  1. I'm still trying to recall who dislikes the traditional playing of the Peter Cottontail album the most

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  2. Some people may think our traditions are quite strange. They are the threads that hold us together. I remember walking down 5th Street with my Pop-Pop to buy the Easter flowers every Good Friday. It was a looong walk home carrying all of those plants but I loved presenting them to my Mom-Mom, Mom and aunts. Now I am a Mom-Mom and my beloved David enjoys picking out the flowers just like Uncle Dan did. Steve and I actually would buy a new decoration in Ocean City each year at Penland Place to hide the prize egg in. Some years it took hours for it to be discovered and we would watch and laugh as the kids would take inventory and search for the new thing. We got some really dirty looks when the egg was finally found. Dan and Pat's cub scout bunnies are on the table yet again. I just wish I could hear the argument one more time over who got the most Cadbury eggs. It is now time to start new traditions but I will keep the old ones in my heart and weave them into our family story. I love all of you and I am truly grateful for all you have done to make our family story so special.

    Regards,
    Judy

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  3. My favorite time that he won the egg hunt was when Dan found a (plastic) egg about 2 weeks after Kevin and Carol hid it in the toucan puppet.

    The time my parents gave him a blue malty ball egg and he ended up looking like a smurf was special, too.

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  4. More shenanigans afoot. I stopped by the cemetery today because I thought I heard Laura say she wished she had the chance to retrieve the gold egg. Many of the Easter plants were either blown over by last week's strong winds or gathered by the staff because they had rolled away.However one plant was still standing in the same spot his loving sister had placed it. Tucked inside was the gold egg!!!! Perhaps a challenge message from Dan, "I'll find that egg no matter what. Bring it on!"

    Regards,
    Judy

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