My Easter Parade!

With the traditional celebration of Easter about to dawn this coming Sunday, I have been thinking of many of the Easter Sunday's from the past. As a child in Alliance, Nebraska; I remember that my family was always together for that special day. Our gatherings always included Grandma and Grandpa and often my aunt and uncle with their children. The day always started with an early morning Easter egg hunt. I usually got to do that in the house as the weather was often cold or rainy. To this day, over fifty years later, I can still taste the candies and hollow chocolate eggs. I always got lots of those colored hard shell eggs with a soft center that were wrapped in cellophane- pure sugar but they were really good! It was great fun and because my brothers were gone from the house by then, the Easter bunny was always very generous to me. I could even go so far as to say I was spoiled! Candy and goodies were plentiful. The city always had a big egg hunt in the city park later in the day which was great fun too. We lived right across the street so I had the added advantage of seeing all the "bunnies" hide the elusive eggs ahead of time. My cousins would come and we scoured the park with our bags in hand. That was during the 1950's and the park was full of children and parents.

Attending Easter Sunday church services was always on the agenda. After the big egg hunts, we all got dressed up in our finest to go to church and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on that special day. My Dad was a railroad conductor and we got free passes to ride the passenger trains. Mom and Dad and I usually made a trip on the train to Denver in the weeks before Easter, as it was a fun tradition for all of us to shop for our new Easter outfits there. We always went to the big Montgomery Ward store, riding the bus was out to the south side of Denver. Next stop was downtown to the May D & F, and to the Three Sisters Store where Mom and I liked to shop(I also got my wedding dress at that store many years later). All of us would come home with new outfits for the upcoming Easter Holiday but I think most of mine were worn out by the time Easter Sunday came as I spent days just dressing up and modeling before hand! The memories of those trips and spending time with my Mom and Dad will always be associated with Easter time for me. If the weather happened to be nice we would walk to church and back, about the only time I remember doing that rather than driving.

Our family always had the traditional Easter Sunday feast with family. Most of the time there were lots of family gathered, usually at our home but I do remember at least once at Grandma and Grandpa's house and one Easter at the home of my cousins, but it seems like we were usually at our house. We had a large extended family and my Mom was always a great host for meals of any kind. She knew how to cook for a crowd and loved doing so, Easter was a special gathering for her and she loved all the family around. All the kids could play in the park and go to the egg hunts from our home after church and the big feast.

My Easter parade photos which are all over fifty years old now, include several from my childhood, all with special memories attached to them. We never missed taking new pictures as each Holiday rolled around. One of the special Easter scrapbook pages is of our twin granddaughters which was taken in 2006 while they visited Grandpa and I. That too was a special day and was added to my album of Easter Memories! I was so lucky to have had a wonderful family to celebrate with and cherish the memories with them. Looking to the future generations for new memories and being thankful for them is part of what Easter means to me. I hope you enjoy my short Easter Parade of photo memories.