Aunt Dorothy's Eggs

The best Easter on record happened when I was about eight years old. I guess that would mean it was B.D. (before David) He arrived just after my ninth birthday. Mom, Dad, Grandma Lenihan, Kate, Jerry, and I all piled into the Volare wagon at o'dark thirty on Good Friday morning. The trip was uneventful. I remember stopping in Spooner to eat breakfast, and then in Black River Falls for lunch. We always stopped in Black River falls at the Perkins. Kind of our family tradition I guess. My Mom was big on traditions, and I definitely got that gene!

We arrived sometime in the afternoon, and of course were pleasantly surprised at the change in temperature in Madison (Oregon) WI. Jackets were tossed aside, not to be worn again until we drove closer to home on Monday afternoon. We piled out of the family roadster, to hugs (Aunt Dorothy) and tormenting (Uncle Joe), and then dragged our luggage up the "stairs of death" to the spare room upstairs that we would use. Kate and I slept on the bed and Jerry on the floor. Mom and Dad had a room up there too, and Grandma slept downstairs. I never understood why people build houses with narrow steep stairs to the second floor. You can never just zoom down the stairs, and I would think moving any furniture up them would be awful!

So many memories are flooding back from our Madison trips that it's hard to stay on track. I'll try to keep the rest of the description to just this Easter. We headed out to play, and our cousins came over for dinner. I remember playing games outside well after dark. The next day Johnny, and Mary Lee came over to color Easter eggs with us. Aunt Dorothy had boiled them that morning. How to describe my Aunt..... Five feet tall (if even) with a foot tall beehive hairdo, beer drinker, and her laugh is something else. There is no way you could hear it and not join in. I can still hear her, "Oh Joe, leave those kids alone." Actually, my Aunt is still with us and is back living in the Madison area amongst some of her boys. My Uncle sadly passed away several years ago while they were living in Utah.

Anyway, the egg coloring went as egg colorings do. Everyone had a certain amount of eggs to color so there was no fighting, and all went well. Until the end that is, and thank God it did happen. Johnny knocked one of the eggs off of the table onto the floor, and it broke, and it was NOT cooked. Apparently my Aunt didn't have a clue how to boil that many eggs. My Mom took over, tossing them all back into boiling water. The egg color came off every one of the eggs, and we got to color them again!!

I remember frilly dresses with cute bonnets, and no snow suits! I also remember hunting for plastic eggs on Easter morning, with all the grown ups watching over us. Then a big family dinner later in the day to round out the festivities. Simpler times, with people who are dearly missed. Within a few years my cousins Johnny, Mary Lee, and a younger sibling, Dehlia were taken away from their parents and adopted by others. We never saw them again. At the same time my Aunt and Uncle moved to Utah, and I saw them probably ten times over the next 20 years. That Easter though, and the uncooked eggs, is a story we tell every year.

Times change, and traditions have to change with them. It was a hard thing for me to accept when the first of my Grandma's passed on. I had no idea then how much our family would change and grow. The old makes room for the new, and while it can be difficult and at time's even heartbreaking, in the end it's all good.

Happy Easter!