Growing up Easter was a big holiday in our family, although not as big as Christmas or Thanksgiving. It really started earlier in the week with the decoration of the eggs. My mother would buy a dozen eggs and we would dip them in dye. Trying to dip them perfectly into various colors, usually ending up with eggs of undefined colors. One year my mother decided to try to make Ukrainian eggs which worked out fine, except she used hard boiled eggs. Once they were done they were too pretty eat or throw away, so we had these eggs for years that everyone was afraid to move in fear we would break them and release rotten egg smell. On Easter morning my mom would get us up so we could get ready for church. There would be a dress laid out for each of us. My mom would make the dresses either from a Butterick or Simplicity pattern on a Singer sewing machine. There were very few clothes that we had that were store brought other then sweaters, sweatshirts and jeans until we reached late junior high. She would use the same pattern and make three different color dresses. Occasionally there would be an alteration in the pattern like one dress would have a collar, while the other be scoop neck or v neck. I have a vague memory of one year when she made dresses for us that were baby blue, peach and a light green. I am pretty sure the material was chiffon. With the dress there was a new pair of tights and new shoes for spring. If Easter was early we might also put on a spring coat and hat.
Once we got back from church it was time for the Easter baskets. Which we first had to find. My mother was very good at hiding things and no one could touch their Easter basket until all Easter baskets were found. My two older sisters Easter basket were both old and large. I remember them as being black with greenish hue. If I remember the story correctly they were inherited from a great aunt, My Easter basket brown and slightly smaller. My brother’s basket was more modern and multicolored. Usually in each Easter basket were some colored hard boiled eggs, some jelly beans, peeps, a solid chocolate Easter bunny and one gift.
Once the gift was opened it was about time for our cousins, my paternal grandmother and Jake to arrive. Jake was no relationship to me at all, but I always remember him with my grandmother. I never met my maternal grandfather he left my mother and grandmother sometime during the depression. My paternal grandparents were divorced before I was born and I only met my paternal grandfather about four times in my life. So Jake was the closes thing to a grandfather I had. We would have either roast leg of lamb with garlic and oregano or much to my horror a ham. Although I did love the crackling which is the coating of fat on top of the ham which would get really crispy. There were always two table at dinner, the adult table in the dinning room and the kids table in the kitchen. Once you reached the age of 14 if I remember correctly you got to eat with the adults, that was a big deal for all the kids. Through the afternoon we would play games like penny ante poker or Pig (also known as Spoons). In Pig each person gets four cards and you pass a card to your right until someone gets four of a kind and then they yell pig and our family you all grab for a spoon. There is always one less spoon then there are people playing, so the person who doesn’t get a spoon gets a P once a person spells pig they are out. Our family is quite competitive so almost anything went including the occasional use of finger nails. One year a game got so competitive that we broke my aunt;s coffee table. Usually either during or after a game of Pig, we would be told to go outside and play until super was ready. For super we would have sandwiches made up of the left overs from lunch and a piece of home made pie. Both my Uncle Joe and Jake liked their beer and usually by early evening they had had one too many and my aunt and grandmother would collect them for the trip home. Occasionally we would get calls later about the antics going home including trying to put up an umbrella in the car. My parents would send us to bed and soon we would drift off to sleep with dreams of candy dancing in our heads
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