The Lenten Season brings to mind Easter at the Farm. I have many memories of the Saturday before Easter Sunday when we would be so excited about the egg coloring process. Early in the morning mama would get out one of her largest pots and fill it with several dozen eggs to be boiled. It seemed it took forever for the pot to begin boiling and then boil long enough to cook the eggs. Mama would get the special Easter Egg Coloring Packet that had little "tablets" of different colors. Cups were set out for each color and the little tablets were dissolved in hot water with a little vinegar added if my memory serves me right. In the packet was little transparent papers with different designs on them. After putting the eggs in the color cup and turning them until they acquired the shade you wanted, you then applied the design and let it dry. If you could "hold your mouth right" the design usually turned out as you expected. After we were finished dying the eggs mama would place them in a large basket or bowl and I thought that was such a beautiful sight.
After coloring the eggs, the next chore on the list was to make a "rabbit's nest" for the Easter Bunny to put your Easter surprise in. This required finding just the perfect spot on the lawn, or yard, as it was called then. Next you had to dig a hole and then fill it with grass clippings to make the nest. You had to refrain from looking out the window to see if the Easter Bunny had come because just like Santa, the bunny would not come if you were looking. You always hoped for one of those large chocolate bunnies or a bag of jelly beans.
One of the things I enjoyed on Easter was watching the men participate in their Egg Fights. The object was to take the pointed end of the egg and tap it against your opponent's egg hoping your egg would not crack, if so, you were the loser. The winner was the one that wound up with the most uncracked eggs. One good thing about the cracked eggs was that you could eat those or mama could make Deviled Eggs out of them. It seems there was always a "gentleman" in the game that would use an egg other than a hen egg to try to be the winner and I did not think that was fair.
I always looked forward to Easter Dinner (it was not lunch back then). Mama, my sisters and sisters-in-laws always put a lot of effort into making sure there was plenty to eat. Mama usually fixed fried chicken, some of the best you have ever eaten fried in her woodstove oven and then made gravy in the pan from the drippings.
She would also cook a hen and either make dumplings or white gravy to go with that because it could be stretched to go a long way to feed the large family that would come home for Easter. In fact, most of the family that lived near the homeplace came each Sunday for dinner and mama had a way of making sure she had enough to feed everyone, even if they brought guests with them. It still amazes me how she was able to do that.
Easter usually meant you would get something new for Spring, for me it was a new dress or a new pair of Sunday shoes. I loved going to church on Easter, not only to hear the Easter Story but to see everyone dressed up in their new clothes, the ladies would be wearing the Easter hats, white gloves and corsages. Sometimes the men had a new suit or tie, and they too wore hats. I remember the first Easter after I finished school and started working I bought my brothers, Ken and Jerry, a pink shirt and blue pants for Easter and I thought they looked so good in them. We have pictures of them in that outfit. Easter Sunday was usually the time when the Youth would join the church and that was a very special time.
One special memory of Easter that comes to my mind is when my sister, Ethel, loaded up the children on the back of daddy's farm truck and took us up in country to Macedonia Church for an Easter Egg Hunt. Other adults followed behind in their cars.
The church was special to the family because that was where my mama's mother was buried and we got to visit her gravesite. Ethel would often load up the children and take us on a special trip to buy a "dope" (usually Orange Crush) or a Popsicle and we looked forward to those.
I hope by sharing my memories it will bring many fond memories to you. I am looking forward to going to visit the homeplace to see what the new owners have done in the way of restoring it, I have heard it is looking great and they plan to have an Open House upon completion and invite the Houser Family. I look forward to seeing the upgrades but also hope my memory will allow me to go back in time to see and feel the warmth and love of family that I did growing up there.
