Here comes Peter Cottontail...

..Hopping down the bunny trail, Hippety hoppity, Easter's on its way... For me Easter is definitely about the celebration of Jesus' resurrection, but for this post, I want to remember some Easters from my memory. For me, the best part of any new outfit was always the shoes...earliest memories are of the black patent leather ones...oh, the sole was shiny and black and I liked that just as much as the top that was seriously shiny! I'd get a new pair every year (at least in my mind) and they were from Standard Shoe Company on Main St. in Bangor. We'd have to go upstairs, and it was such a fun store. Seem's like there was a sort of tiny merry-go-round that we played on. Later on in tenth grade I had a pair of candy apple red patent leather heels that matched my delight from the days of black patent leather little girl shoes.
Mamma would make my dresses but I don't have any memories of a particular dress except the year when I was in junior high and she made my sister and me matching balloon dresses. I think they were light blue on the bottom and dark blue on top. Of course I'd wear a hat each year, too. The ones I remember are from junior high on...a brown feathered one that was on a headband and the feathers came down lower on one side of my face. There was a yucky beige straw pillbox with a dark brown veil. One was just a veil and perhaps a flower on top of my head. I'm laughing over that one...but I did like it at the time. I'd have big hats some years and small hats others...can't recall when I stopped wearing them.
In high school our church had an Easter sunrise service (which meant standing in snow some years!) and then we'd go back to the church for blueberry pancakes and then home to shower and get ready for "real" church and back we'd go in our finery. Daddy would buy us corsages each year and that made me feel very special. Other people wore flowers but it still was very special for me. I think Nanna Farrington had provided them when we were little and Daddy picked up the tradition once we moved away.
Nanna also gave us a wrapped gift to find for our Easter treat. One year I opened a dress. Aunt Shirley gave us chocolate Easter bunnies...THE best gift of all!!!! The year she got married I was almost ten and that next Easter the bunnies were no longer there. What?? My brother, David, and I assumed it was Uncle Charlie's fault. Of course we didn't tell anyone our idea (or of our dissapointment) until years later and poor Uncle Charlie had had NO idea about the bunnies before his arrival into our family. My aunt said she had just figured we were too old and didn't want them anymore. What's not to want??? A big bunny of chocolate?? Yes, we wanted them!! We had a good laugh.
My first pair of heels were for Easter in seventh grade. Black patent leather, of course! Our church had the sanctuary upstairs and I was SO proud of those shoes. I probably tried to float down the stairs after church, but I caught a heel and fell. Harold Wheeler, a local radio personality, came over and helped me up. All that was hurt was my pride.
That year I got to wear lipstick for the first time, too. Nylons were worn for 6th grade Easter for the first time. I had no idea till today how many things were allowed that first time on an Easter Sunday. Spring and new beginnings, I guess.
Well, thank you for walking down my memory lane. Hope you have a blessed Easter and that God's love for you will warm your heart and home.