Childhood memory of Easter posted 3/22/2008 10:46:40 PM | 8 kudos what's this?     report abuse tagged: short story, easter, memories

ceecee1952

Grandpa was a little rough around the edges and Grandma was a bit of the opposite. Love set her like a time piece, with a lovely pink night gown and a spotless kitchen.
It was Easter and I had stayed the night so I was privileged to be involved in the setup of the day. I was so lucky to be the one grandchild that had arrived early and got to witness the planning for Easter.
In walks Grandpa with a dozen baby chicks chirping in a box with air holes poked in it. He was grinning a bit as Grandma let out a sigh.
Grandpa had great woods along the river.
The jelly beans had been put into plastic eggs and hidden around the property. With 8 grandchildren to participate there were a hundred plastic eggs hidden throughout the riverbank, the woods and the gardens .
...but back to the chickies....squeeking and squacking in the box.
Grandpa started to mix the egg dye in large bowls, as Grandma said ” Oh Henry No, you are not going to do that in my clean kitchen.”

But Grandpa kept going and I giggled with glee as these little chickies turned pink, and blue and green and purple. Fluttering all over their little wings speckled the walls and cupboards and floor with the rainbow of colors Grandpa had used.
Oh Oh oh , I was only 8 and I wanted the pink one !
Grandpa smiled at my enthusiasm as Grandma went into the other room and refused to watch.
When the rest of the cousins arrived, the kitchen had been cleaned up and the secret of the chickies was in the back barn. I grinned knowing the secret....
but first it was time for the egg hunt.
Grandpa had his stop watch ready. He allowed the younger cousins a head start with timings of 30 seconds per year , so he made us do the math as we stood at the back door in line by ages.
Slam went the screen door as another one leaped out to the yard to scoop u p the plastic eggs filled with multicolored jelly beans.
Little Annie got to go first as she was the youngest. She found the obvious eggs that were low to the ground and in plain sight. The older kids knew grandpa had planned it that way so no one would feel left out.

Grandpa told us not to eat the jelly beans. Some of us remembered the rule from the previous year--but my sister couldn't resist the black liquorish ones and you could see the evidence on her lips and teeth.

When all the eggs were counted-( minus a few taken away by the squirrels) ;we then separated out jelly beans.by color and then calculated their values.( red were worth 1 cent blue 5, green 10 …)l. We got our payout in bunny dollars.... silly dollars that Grandma had cutout and colored for the Bunny Store that was now setup in the kitchen. We could get great surprises from the store and we shook the wrapped small gifts of kites and bubbles and coloring books; trading with our cousins before opening our surprises.
And then it was off to the shed for the colored chickies that we took home to the chagrin of my mother and aunts.

The next year Grandpa got rabbits. Grandma convinced him not to dye them and only have one per family, but my mother and aunts were still a little upset by the unrequested pets.

The next year Grandma convinced Grandpa that he should rent the pets just for the day. Grandpa got three goats and tied them to the tree in the front yard.
As we drove up the drive my mother began shreaking when she saw the goats.



No we didn’t have Easter baskets we had this whole crazy experience.

Happy Easter All.

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