“Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring.”
The sun is bright with a dark blue sky as its backdrop. It is in the high 40’s but feels chillier. Everything is still. Everything is quiet. I have no plans for today. I’ll have my dinner in the early afternoon. It screams tradition, salad, ham, mashed potatoes and green beans, rolls and a chocolate cupcake decorated for Easter.
When I think of Easter, I think of color. After the drab winter, I love the first stirrings of color my garden. The brightest color is always the yellow forsythia. The one in my front garden was a housewarming present over 45 years ago from my brother and his then girlfriend. It has buds. The croci are always the first flowers. Mine, on the side of the front yard, are purple. I think of them as harbingers of spring. My dafs and hyacinths are in bloom. I seem to like purple as all the hyacinths are shades of purple. The dafs are both yellow and white. The garden brings surprises every day.
When I was a kid, I knew what Easter celebrated. The nuns made sure of that. On Good Friday, a day off from school, we had to take turns spending some vigil time, usually about a half hour, in the downstairs of the church during the hours Christ was on the cross. I remember all the statues were covered with purple wraps. It was a time of mourning. Besides the few of us kids forced to be there, only old people were also in the church. They were walking the stations of the cross or sitting in pews praying and saying the rosary. I was far less attentive. It wasn’t easy to sit there. I was a kid who wanted to be anywhere else. That time stretched forever.
We used to leave out carrots for the Easter Bunny. When I was young, I never question a rabbit who carried baskets everywhere and delivered colored eggs. Santa had his reindeer. As far as I knew, the rabbit only had a wheel barrel filled with eggs. I just figured it was magic.
I remember looking through my basket and eating the rabbit’s ears and maybe a jelly bean or two. We had eggs for breakfast. I was too young for the irony. After breakfast, it was time to dress in my new Easter outfit for church. I felt fancy.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
March 31, 2024 at 3:04 pm
Hi Kat,
The sky is cloudy with a high temperature predicted at 81°. Later tonight thunderstorms are expected. After all it’s April in Texas. We are within the path of totality for next Monday’s solar eclipse. Sadly, the long range forecast is for cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms.
Our World Championship Texas Rangers won their first two games against the Chicago Cubs. Thursday evening they unveiled the championship banner which hangs from the rafters at Globe Life Field. Yesterday they presented the team with their humongous World Series rings. The Rangers won both games and I’m awaiting the first pitch of the final game of the opening home stand.
I realize that you Red Sox fans understand what it’s like waiting over 52 years for a World Series championship. When the Rangers arrived here in 1972 they played in a refurbished minor league ballpark. I attended all the home games because I had a press pass. A friend worked at a daytime AM radio station as the sports and news director. I would go to the home games after working a minimum wage job in a jewelry store. My original goal was to get the free dinner that they provide the press corps nightly in the press club. Every night I would get interviews on a portable cassette tape recorder, send them to the station, and then eat the usual meal of barbecue brisket.
After watching two seasons of terrible Ranger baseball my friend moved on in his radio career to Detroit and I went back to being a fan. During the first season opener, me and all of the other electronic media were personally thrown out of Manager Ted Willams’ office because he didn’t like being tape recorded. His comment was, “I don’t want to be recorded because I can’t claim I was misquoted”. The Boston press really did a number on him. I did interview a lot of ball players. My favorite interview was with Phil Rizzuto, who was the Yankee broadcaster. He started the interview by telling me he was not Mr. Rizzuto, “But call me scooter”. He was a very nice man. His radio partner even autographed his rookie baseball card I had since I was a kid. He signed it, Don Drysdale. He added, “I don’t remember being that young”. Unfortunately, I have long since misplaced that card.
March 31, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Hi Bob,
It is a chilly early evening, in the low 40’s. I am happy for these two rainless days. Tomorrow should be the same, but not the rest of the week. It will start raining on Tuesday and continue through Friday. It will be a nor’easter one of those days. and we are predicted to get 2” of rain during that storm.
We waited 86 years to win the World Series. At some point we lost all hope. The Sox of late have not been good, actually have been awful. They remind me of the Sox of my youth. I don’t even recognize most of the starters. I watched two of the 3 games. They won the first but lost the last two, both, though, were excellent games, low scoring and close.
The Sox have been playing at Fenway since 1912. It is one of the smallest ballparks. 37, 755 is the capacity. They have made wonderful improvements without destroying the wonder and charm of Fenway. My name is in the concourse! They sold bricks for the concourse. My friends bought one for me for Christmas. I found it in the Malzone section under the stands. I feel immortalized.
I envy you your stint as a member of the press. You would have convinced me. The press here was never fond of Ted Williams. He rarely got along with reporters and had a mixed relationship with fans. He once spat at them when they booed him.
March 31, 2024 at 7:40 pm
After that first day, I had little respect for him as a manager. He always wore his warmup jacket whenever he was in the dugout regardless how hot it was. He was hiding his gut from the fans. While a young player he was known as, “The splendid splinter”. I saw him in the clubhouse wearing only his underwear and his gut was huge.
I recently discovered that he really had a heart of gold. When the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers, Ted didn’t want to move here. However, he did move to allow his coaches to get another year of major league experience so that they became eligible for their entire baseball pensions.
March 31, 2024 at 11:08 pm
https://www.npr.org/2013/12/03/248246844/ted-williams-a-perfectionist-ballplayer-with-many-demons
He is a great article about Ted Williams.
March 31, 2024 at 3:10 pm
Blessings of Easter to you Kat and the KTCC family
March 31, 2024 at 6:49 pm
Thank you, My Dear Hedley!
I wish you the same blessings and a wonderful time with your granddaughter!
March 31, 2024 at 3:27 pm
Happy Easter!
I’m with my relatives in the southern part of this country again.
Easter Sunday, traditions, we’ve had hard boiled colored eggs (check), a walk to the nearby park (check), cake (check), talked to relatives and friends (check), no fancy new clothes (not a tradition here) and now, it’s late by now, I’ll have a local beer (not a tradion here either, who cares, Cheers!). Deliberately missed traditions: no church and we didn’t listen to the pope on TV at noon, no one was interested.
Another public Easter holiday tomorrow, no old-fashioned traditions I think (my aunt will know better), just a lazy day.
Traditions or not, have a great day!
March 31, 2024 at 6:48 pm
Birgit,
You must be psychic. As you hadn’t dropped by lately, I was going to send you a line. Good to know you are still traveling and enjoying life.
My Easter has very few traditions left. I did call my sisters and wish them a happy Easter. I enjoyed a delicious ham dinner with enough left over for another meal. I ate hardened Peeps, purple Peeps. Not only did I not buy new clothes, but I also didn’t get dressed. I stayed in my cozies all day. I watched movies.
I went out front and organized and added books to my little library. I also took down the colored lights on the fence. I left the white lights still on the timer. I dusted a few tables in the living room. That is the busiest I have been in a while.
Our Easter ends today, no Monday holiday. Sometimes spring vacations for the schools are during Easter week, but this year Easter is too early.
I’m happy you had a fine Easter Sunday!
Happy Easter, for what is left of the day!