SCHS
CLASS OF 1958
EASTER MEMORIES
March 21, 2005
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Classmates:
Recently Lyn Bailey Gumowski and I
had fun trading memories about Easter and it brought on a discussion about
traditions. She wondered if the young people of today were
carrying on Easter traditions?
I thought you might enjoy reading about some of our thoughts.
Maybe you have special memories you'd like to share with us.
NO. 1:
From Lyn to me:
Is buying separately bags of marshmallow chickies, pastel
candy eggs, grass, colored plastic wrap, stuffed animals and
chocolate bunnies etc. a thing of the past? I myself know
that up until 10 years ago, churches & non profits were still
selling chocolate coated peanut butter eggs with individual names piped
on them.
Lyn remembers as a child her grandmother Bailey while sitting
in the pew on Sunday morning - turning her hankie into a bunny for
her. She could also make a swinging hammock for twins, two in a
boat, etc. A very old fashioned craft.
Wonder if anyone does this today?
One of Lyn's favorite stories she heard was an
Appalachian tradition around St. Mary's told by a contemporary's
father -- so we're talking maybe 1919 or so. From a farming
family with seven children, no cash to speak of - They went to
the hollow outside of their WV home and gathered new green moss to
line their baskets.
Isn't this dear?
Do you think parents now buy store bought Easter baskets? Do
they still wear hats, gloves, new shoes, dresses and suits for little
boys? Have those peanut butter chocolate eggs with individual names
on them bit the bullet? Are there still chenille chicks and flocked
bunnies? What are your Easter memories and what do you think has
changed?
Lyn
Lyn:
OH NO - STORE BOUGHT BASKETS!!!
I can't imagine the parents of today
missing out on all the fun we had putting the baskets together.
I always included small toys, books, jacks, little cars, cards, etc
in their baskets. It was such a special treat for me to sit
back and see the excitement on our children's faces when they saw
what the "Easter Bunny" had hidden for them!
I'm not sure about others, but the
traditional things have been carried on by my daughter. She
continues to make Easter baskets for their boys.
We also dyed eggs and decorated
them. The kids would have Easter egg hunts while
dinner was beginning prepared. All the neighborhood children
would come for those "hunts" too. As the grandsons got
older we used the plastic eggs for outdoor "hunts" and put a
little change in them. What fun and more good memories!
We always made our own peanut butter
Easter eggs and Scarlett still carries on that tradition.
We put roses on them with everyone's name. I put them
in individual coffee filters which had fake green grass - this was
convenient for taking to neighbors and friends. I'd be
happy to share this recipe with anyone who wants it.
OK guys & gals - bring on the
memories.
Jake
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NO 2 Huff has Easter memories to share.
Jake
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: NO 1 Lyn & Jackie trade Easter memories
Yes, Easter has many memories, to me as well. Making colored,
hard boiled eggs, was so much fun, as a child. I can remember the
fragrance of vinegar, the little dye tablets and the metal wire lifter.
Mom, always colored the eggs in her Fiesta coffee cups and we would write
names on the eggs first, with a white wax crayon.
Our Easter egg hunts in the neighborhood, on Central Avenue, consisted
of hiding real colored hard boiled eggs. Finding them, was like finding
jewels in the grass.
Every year, Mom took me shopping for Easter clothes...and yes, a hat
and gloves. Since Iife didn't bless me with children, I would always
make an Easter basket for my husband, at that time. It was so much fun
to surprise him with the goodies.
Holidays, will always be dear to me.....In thought, I can always look
back to the past ones, and smile. As I do, I think of the verse that
follows: "Memory, is the power to gather roses, in winter."
Happy Easter, my brothers and sisters of '58.
Becky Agnew Huffman
Huff - my children and the neighborhood children
hid the real eggs until they would become limp and then they'd switch over to
the plastic ones. :-)
Ahhhhhhh the little white gloves to go with our
black patent leather shoes. This carried on to my Scarlett.
When I think of the white gloves I think of a quite elderly lady (Mrs. Inghram)
who lived across the street from us and she always gave the little girls
quarters for church offering...she loved their gloves and then her daughter
(Helen Ott) also elderly would give quarters to my Scott and the other little
boys for the same reason. They always stood at their window and
waved to them each Sunday.
Happy Easter to you too. Love ya
Jake
Date: 03/21/05 19:18:23
Subject: NO 3 - Barbara Litteral's Easter memories
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NO 3 Barbara has many memories of those
Homemade Easter Egg.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: NO 1 Lyn & Jackie trade Easter memories
HAPPY MEMORIES OF EASTER!!!! THEY SOUND SO DEAR.
IN THE 1950's MY AUNT MARIE THAT LIVED AT ST. ALBANS WAS DEN
MOTHER FOR MY COUSIN RALPH'S CUB SCOUT PACK. SHE WOULD TAKE ORDERS
FOR HOMEMADE EASTER EGGS (CANDY). THE TROOP WOULD HAVE THAT AS ONE
OF THEIR PROJECTS - TO MAKE AND SELL THE EASTER EGGS. PEANUT
BUTTER, FRUIT AND NUTS, AND COCONUT - ALL HAND DIPED. THEY WERE
ALWAYS A HIT.
YOU CAN'T FIND ANYTHING LIKE THAT NOW. HAPPY EASTER BARBARA
BARB: I BET A LOT OF THOSE CUB SCOUTS
WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOME OF THOSE HOMEMADE EASTER EGGS RIGHT NOW. JAKE
Date: 03/21/05 19:28:04
Subject: NO 4 JOHN SLIMICK REMEMBERS EASTER
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NO 4 JOHN HAS A LITTLE MORE
INFORMATION ON THOSE HANDKERCHIEFS:
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: NO 1 Lyn & Jackie trade Easter
memories
Jackie:
The art of handkerchief tying that Lyn refers to probably
included making church babies, that is a large handkerchief
that is folded to represent a baby. These were made for little
girls to play with in church, since, as the feeling was
then, little boys had the strength to sit still, but
little girls were too weak to. I actually found a place
that sold these and sent one to my granddaughter, but
I don't think she uses it.
One of the things about Easter candy was that the leftovers
were part of the Halloween goodies. The marshmallow bunnies
were tough, but still edible. The nougat eggs were
impossible. It was a good way of knowing when you had
rung enough doorbells that you were receiving Easter candy.
john slimick
slimick@pitt.edu
JOHN: CAN YOU IMAGINE PEOPLE THINKING THAT
LITTLE GIRLS COULDN'T SIT STILL? ALWAYS SEEMED THAT THE BOYS WERE SO
FULL OF ENERGY - I'M SURPRISED THEY COULD SIT STILL. :-)
AS FOR THE HALLOWEEN CANDY - YUCK AND THEY
THOUGHT WE WOULDN'T KNOW. HA HA
JAKE
Date: 03/23/05 19:19:38
Subject: No 5 Janet and her Easter memories
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PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NUMBERING HAS CHANGED AS TWO OF
THE STORIES I POSTED PREVIOUSLY WERE ABOUT THE PICTURE NOT ABOUT EASTER.
THANKS JAKE
NO 5
This Easter memory is from Janet Buckner George.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:38 PM
Subject: Easter
In reading everyone's memories of their Easter, it
brought some of my own to mind.
My Aunt Wilma most always made my Easter hat for me and
my cousin Becky, she was a milliner for many years at a hat shop on Quarrier
Street in Charleston.
Anyway, like most of you my mom always made our
baskets. We would color eggs the night before, and on Easter
morning they would magically appear in our basket. I just could not
figure out how the Easter Bunny put our eggs in the basket. Mom
would sneak out of the window, while daddy kept my brother and I occupied and
she would place the baskets on the front porch and make a slight noise so we
would think that the bunnie had came. It was so thrilling to go to
the door and find that basket with all the treats she put in. My brother
and I just knew that we had seen the bunnie go around the corner of the house.
How innocent those days were.
Janet
Janet: I agree those days sure were innocent and
it took so little to make us happy. I bought lots of hats from the hat
shop on Quarrier St. I always loved hats so this brought
back a memory for me. Jake
>
>
Date: 03/24/05 08:30:52
Subject: NO 6 Judy Bowen Romano's memories of Easter
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NO 6 Judy
has some memories of her childhood Easters:
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 9:28 PM
Subject: Easter
Easter memories of my Mom-she always bought or made
Luana, Eddie, Lindell and myself a new outfit for Easter. She also
worked at a restaurant in Spring Hill beside a motel - I believe it was called
Nancy Allen's-they made Easter baskets and homemade Easter eggs.
Mom also worked for Jim Duncan on Capitol Street in
Charleston at Easter and made Easter baskets. They were beautiful; his
business was called Anchor Tobacco and he sold candy.
We would always attend church with my Granma Bowen and
she also made things with her hankerchiefs. After church we would
have a big dinner at Granma's and have an Easter egg hunt with real hard
boiled eggs. Those were the good old days.
Judy
Judy: I bet those baskets from Anchor Tobacco
were something else....they always had all those good candies. Jake
Date: 03/24/05 10:36:59
Subject: NO 7 Huff's memories of Easter
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NO 7 Huff
shares her childhood memories. Jake
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: NO 6 Judy Bowen Romano's memories of Easter
Handkerchiefs, for women, almost forgotten with the age of Kleenex
tissues. Until someone mentioning those little folded handkerchief
critters, made by our mothers, I had forgotten all about them.
Thanks for bringing up a forgotten art. I still have all of my
little handkerchiefs, stored away with my childhood items. When I
went through Mother's belongings, after her death, I brought home all of
her old handkerchiefs and placed them with mine.
At Zogg O'Dell, we little girls were required to have a handkerchief,
safety pinned to our dress, each day. Our teacher taught us a little
verse to say, to always remember. "A hanky in my pocket, to off
to school I go, to use for coughs and sneezes, as well as for my
nose." Amazing that I can remember that verse, yet something
important, "fat chance." <smile>
At school, each spring, our teachers would give us art paper, crayons, and
an assignment to draw and color, our perspective of spring time. I
would always draw fields of colorful tulips and Dutch windmills.
Spring, the awakening of life.....fields of pastels, the fragrance of
a spring rain on freshly plowed soil, the bright light green leaves,
emerging from the newly shed bud scales and the caressing of warmed soft
breezes, brings comfort to one's soul.
Becky Agnew Huffman
Huff:
Well there you go again - just like a
"real" writer :-) sharing those memories
with such wonderful descriptions making me feel I am right there in the
fields. How wonderful that you have that ability.
Do you all remember when the art teacher would come
to our rooms and put on records and have us close our eyes and draw
pictures on paper while listening to the music? Then you'd see
what you had created.
By the way, I too have saved all of my little
hankies and my mothers too. Jake
Date: 03/28/05 09:20:47
Subject: NO 8 Pelfrey remembers Easter
NO 8
Pelfrey remembers one particular Easter - 1956. Now I
wonder who the gal in this story is - hmmmm???
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:11 AM
Subject: Esater - 1956
I'll
bet you weren't expecting a story like this.
I
remember back to Easter, 1956. I was dating a classmate. We were
together the Saturday night before Easter. As I was getting ready to
walk out the door at the end of the evening, she handed me an Easter basket.
I was so completely surprised that probably the best I could come up with
was, “Duh, uh, thanks.”
As
I looked back on that night many years later, I recognized that situation
for what it was – a sweet, emotional gesture AND it was my first lesson on
the emotional differences between men and women. However, I was oblivious
and I remained oblivious for years.
Each
of us learn to deal with the differences between the sexes in our own way.
I would bet women put forth more of an effort dealing with that difference
than men do. I hope I have advanced slightly ahead of “Duh, uh,
thanks.”
Pelfrey
Hey
Pelf:
Great
story - happy you sent it to share.
For
all the sweet things you do now for Ruth Ann - I'd say you've
learned the difference and can respond with something other than your famous
"Duh, uh, thanks."
Bet
you practiced another line for years and years in order to "get it
right." :-)
Jake