Happy Easter!

Today is a beautiful day. It is even a warm day and will hit the 60’s so no jackets over Easter clothes. It is a perfect day for egg hunts.

When I was a kid, we went Easter clothes shopping with my mother. We got to choose what we wanted to wear. My sisters were always into pouffy dresses in pastels. I have a hat for my collection my sister Moe wore one Easter. The hat is white with a blue band and a bow in the back with two strands of blue ribbon flowing from that bow. My sisters wore white gloves. When I was young, I wore a dress and patent leather shoes. I have a picture of me from one Easter. I was wearing a blue coat with white buttons and those patent leathers. I was around three or four. My brother used to wear nice pants and a jacket with a design on the front. He wore a tie. 

I remember Easter morning and running to find my basket. Sometimes it was on my bureau. Other times it was downstairs on the kitchen table. I remember seeing a tall chocolate rabbit towering over the rest of the goodies and jelly beans on the fake grass. We’d get a coloring book and crayons and one of those wooden paddles with an elastic in the middle and a red rubber ball at the end of the elastic. Sometimes there was a stuffed animal. I remember half eaten chocolate would stick to the grass. It didn’t bother us. We’d get dressed in our new clothes for church. After dinner, we’d go visit my grandparents in East Boston. My grandmother had Easter goodies for all of us, for all the cousins and we were many.

I have a Nala story. Every morning the dogs run out to the yard. When they come inside, they get a dog biscuit and a small treat. The dog biscuits are peanut butter, and they look bit like gingerbread men. They are Buddy Biscuits. Yesterday I pulled out two biscuits. One was complete while the other was missing his left leg. Henry got the com-late one, and I offered Nala the missing leg biscuit. She refused it. I reached into the big and got a complete one. Nala took it and ate it.

Today will be a quiet day for me. 

The morning is cloudy and windy but light and warm. It is already 58° and could actually hit 60°. That sounds almost tropical. I think I might just sit on the deck for a while and take in the day. I’ll watch the goldfinches at the thistle feeders.

When I was a kid, my bicycle was the best Christmas present I ever received. It was blue. It had a wire basket in front. It was my chariot. I rode it until the first snow. It was kept in the cellar. Putting it in and taking it out was difficult. The cellar was at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and a tall concrete wall was in front of the cellar door. I had to lift the bicycle so it was on one wheel outside the door in order to turn it to the stairs. That always took a bit of maneuvering. Pulling it up the stairs was the last obstacle to riding, to hitting the road. Despite everything, though, I always thought my bike was worth the effort. 

I remember in the fifth grade we were bussed to the next town over. They had empty classrooms. We didn’t have enough room so for half a year we were bussed while a new school building was being built catty corner to the old school. We used to line up on the driveway beside the church to wait for the busses. Each bus had a nun monitor. Our monitor was my fifth grade nun. She sat on the back seat as she was a hefty nun who needed room. It wasn’t a long bus ride. I remember  reading Little Women on the ride. I don’t remember much else.

We always ate white bread, Wonder Bread. I didn’t even knew other breads existed. I remember lunches and how the middle of the bread in my peanut butter and jelly sandwich sometimes got a bit soggy and sank. Jelly seeped through, purple Welch’s grape jelly. It was the only jelly my mother bought. We had a lot of jelly glasses.

My father was a coffee drinker, an instant coffee drinker by choice. My mother didn’t drink coffee or tea. She used to drink Coke in the morning. We called my mother the seagull. She used to eat cold hot dog sandwiches, sometimes with cucumbers. She’d slice the hot dog so it would fit into a sandwich. I remember seeing her stand by the counter to eat. She didn’t like coffee but she loved biscotti dipped in coffee. A tuna melt was one of her favorite sandwiches. She loved the lunch counter at Woolworth’s. 

Yesterday I overreached. I went to my uke concert. Last night I was exhausted and went to bed early for me. My chest is a bit sore today. I’m going to take it easy.