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When Children were Children
Just real people
By Sharon Hopper
“Put on your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it” Those are the
opening words to the Irving Berlin song Easter Parade. When I was a
child it was a seasonal thing to get the J.C. Penny catalog and search
for the perfect outfit for Easter. My mom and I would go to town not
once, but several times to shop for that perfect outfit and after
trying on many outfits we would decide on one and then go shoe shopping
and if I had grown to much a new coat. My little brother always got a
new suit with new shirt and tie. He looked so cute. It was a ritual in
our house that Easter was time for all to get new clothes that would
serve as “good” or “church clothes” for the foreseeable future. So it
was important to get it right. Oh I did wear other outfits at times,
but the special one was the Easter Outfit. I remember that my mother
always wore a hat to church on Easter Sunday. My that was a few years
ago.
We don’t put too much stock in dressing up to go to church anymore.
Even on Easter. Possibly we were a bit vain, but I think that we put
more emphasis on cleaning up for the special occasion that Easter is.
After all on that day all things were new and full of promise according
to the Bible. The promise of the day has not changed but we have
changed our way of celebrating Easter. Easter is not even considered as
important as Christmas where everything closes. It is simply a
religious event. To me it is amazing to call the Birth of Jesus a
holiday, the resurrection of Jesus a just Holy Day. No wonder children
today are so confused about the significance of either event.
Christmas-presents-----Easter-candy.
In our house we always made of big deal out of coloring and decorating
the Easter eggs. We did that every year on Saturday night It was so
much fun to see who made the most colorful eggs. After Sunday church we
always had a huge ham dinner with as many of the family as could be
brought together. It was just as important as Christmas or
Thanksgiving. After dinner we would change into play clothes and go on
a big Easter egg hunt. We had to hunt really hard for those eggs. My
grandfather always did the hiding and the traditional “hot and cold”
method would be used to find the eggs most hidden. The kid who found
the most eggs would get a piece of grandpa’s Juicy Fruit gum. He always
had that gum and I grew up to hate the stuff. Never have bought a pack
of that gum. After the eggs were gathered and the candy from the Easter
Baskets put away it was time for a family game.
I really miss those days of simple fun and family togetherness. Somehow
when we were children we really enjoyed family and simple celebrations.
In a way the electronic world we live in today has foiled many an
opportunity to just be family. We had to discover amusement, because
“we” were all we had. No TV, no video games, no cell phones, ------just
real people.
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