My Easter Story

Easter in Poplar, CA
I remember as a child growing up in Poplar, CA that Easter involved coloring eggs, getting a new dress (usually made by my Mother), and an empty Easter basket with fake grass to go in it.

 We always celebrated at my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house.  Their house at that time consisted of two rooms.  The front room which was used for their bedroom, living room, entertaining and dining.  Then there was the kitchen which was used for cooking, as a bedroom and for dining. 

Grandma and Grandpa had six children and ultimately had 30 grandchildren.  In the photo below, from left to right, is me (Helen), my Mother (Rosie Mae), and a bunch of my Clay cousins (Roseann, John Wesley, Monty Ray, and Gerald Lee).

We were standing in front of Uncle Don and Aunt Betty's trailer which was parked on Grandma and Grandpa's property.  Aunt Betty and Uncle Don had 3 girls for most of the time the grand kids were growing up, and then they had an oops, which was number 4.

Another thing I remember about Easter is that there was always a lot of cousins around.  One Easter, I guess we couldn't afford to buy the egg coloring kit.  Grandma had some purple food coloring, so all of our Easter eggs were colored purple.  We had the eggs because my Grandma had chickens.  Grandma used to sell some of the eggs that she got from her chickens, but at Easter time, she

would save some for us.

My Mom used to tell a story about how I came home from Kindergarten and asked if we had any eggs I could have to take to school for the poor kids.  My Mom laughed, and said, "Helen, you are one of the poor kids".  I guess I didn't realize how poor we were because we had eggs.

We were poor, but we had plenty of food even if sometimes it might have been mostly beans and potatoes.  Pinto beans and potatoes....two of my favorite foods to this day. 

I always looked forward to a new Easter dress, a new empty Easter basket, coloring eggs, going to church, waiting for the Easter Bunny to hide the eggs, hunting the eggs with all of my cousins, and having a big dinner.

We would usually have ham, mashed potatoes, pea salad, banana pudding, pies, and cakes for dinner.  Sometimes, we might have fried chicken and other vegetable dishes too.  Much of the food would have been raised by us and would have been considered "organic" by today's standards.  We were eating organic before organic was cool, out of necessity.  Lol

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Christ will come again.


Happy Easter Everyone!