Easter, y'all :)

   I think of Easter…when I was a child. The baskets, the hard boiled eggs we would hide all day, until the shells were cracked and peeling…then we would sit outside and eat them. After hiding them ALL DAY. I doubt we even washed them, I don’t remember doing so, but perhaps we DID. But I doubt it. It is probably one of the reasons I have a strong, hale, hearty immune system. Only the REALLY bad things get thru. I rarely fall to colds or 24 hour tummy bugs. I instead get viral meningitis. See? Only the most nefarious, terrible bugs get through, the bugs that have been sifted and weeded out by weaker immune systems.

    We rarely got gifts or chocolate at Easter…just baskets and eggs and sometimes a new dress, either store bought or homemade. Mom would dress Bobbie and I just alike, like twins. We were the same size even though I was 2 years older. Bobbie was rounder than me..all those years ago…but now she’s not. She’s tall and lean up next to my curvy roundness. Bobbie is 5’11” and we probably weigh the same. I’m 5’3” but my hair makes me taller. I tease it til it takes offense, then laquer it good with hair spray.

  But one Easter when I was 6,  mom gave Bobbie and me necklaces from Avon. It was a tiny, cartoonish rabbit on a strangely linked chain. The ears on the rabbit were a separate piece and would move back and forth. I became obsessed with this, betraying my tomboyish ways and paving my future sparkly fascination.

  I wore it to school, carefully touching it through out the day to make sure it was still there. I didn’t go down the slide, or swing upside down on the monkey bars for fear of losing  or breaking it.

  I have no idea what became of our bunny necklaces, it just seemed as though one day they were gone and forgotten. Sometimes Bobbie and I would talk about the necklaces with fondness and think of how sweet the bunny was and how excited we were to wear them to Easter with our mom and grandparents that chilly, beautiful Easter morning. We sang “Christ Arose” a song I still love to hear at Easter. Sometimes, we would have “dinner on the ground” and there’d be potato salad and meatloaf and casseroles. There is nothing like Baptist food, it will fatten you up and make you happy. Several years ago, I read about a study that said people who carb loaded after a stressful event had less depression. Well, DUH!!  says this southern gal. I know something about sadness and I know something about eating chicken and dumplings and green beans and coconut pie and feeling that sadness just wash away. Southern gals have known this for years. It’s in our rich, butter laden blood. After a loved one dies, immediately….the good, church going southern gal knows to bake bread! Bake a cake! Make those chocolate chip cookies you make by HEART and by DOG make them gooey and soft and chewy! A slice of nice pie will sooth some of the pain  of losing a loved one and sadness  is best sopped up with a biscuit.

  So Bobbie and I ate our potato salad and chicken and dumplings in our matching dresses, sitting on the front steps of Union Hope Baptist church, reaching up occasionally to touch the base of our necks for the little bunny with the moving ears.

     That was so long ago. Today is Easter and I think on these things. Jesus, rising. He is risen, indeed. I think of potato salad and peach pie, still warm, the ooze of peach juice and sugar on the crust, the wonderful crust, the hint of whipped cream. I think of bunny necklaces and matching dresses.

  Then I think about, how…back when the kids were small…4 and 6… close to Easter time, Clint stopped at a yard sale as he does sometimes to kill a little time. He saw something that made him think of me. He bought it, paying almost nothing for it and bringing it home and handing it to me. 

  I’m looking at it right now.. the strange chain. The moveable ears. The tiny, cartoonish bunny.  I had never told Clint about my necklace from my childhood. He said he wasn’t sure why he got it, as it was obviously a child’s necklace. He said it had just jumped out at him. Yes, he made a funny and yes, I laughed.

  I think of Easter, when I was a child. I think of my own children and “Christ Arose”. Trevor, in the suit I made him. Tara, in the dress I made her, with her hat and lacy gloves and white shoes and a brand new band aid under her eye to cover the stitches from a recent jumping off the bed and hitting the tv face first.  I think of Clint, buying that necklace for me and not even knowing why. I think of dinner on the ground at  the church of my childhood  with homemade rolls and did you try her green beans? they’ve got BACON in them  and did you make this pie crust HOMEMADE? it’s divine and I do believe I’ll have some more okra and a dab more of that fruit salad. Vivian, how do you get your pie to set so well? Could you hand me a biscuit? I do believe this is the best meringue I’ve ever tasted. Meringue can be just a BOOGER, sometimes mine turns out rubbery. But not this one! Oh my! That is SO good!  I can still hear the ladies chatter, standing over the food, swishing at flies, doling out slivers of pie and spoonfuls of dressing. Y’all want some sweet tea?

  I thought of these things in church this morning, as we sang. We didn’t sing “Christ Arose” so I came home today and sang it while I spooned out chicken enchiladas to Clint. He shushed me a teeny bit when I got to the loud, high part, so I sang it quieter.

  “Low, in the grave He lay

    Jesus, my Savior

    Waiting the coming day

     Jesus, my Lord-

        Up from the grave He AROSE!

      With a mighty triumph o’er His foes

       He arose the victor of the dark domain

       and He lives forever with His saints to reign!

                       He AROSE!!!

                       He AROSE!!!

          Hallelujah, Christ Arose.”

   Have a happy Easter, y’all. I do believe I’ll go get some more chicken enchiladas and just one more of those WONDERFUL chocolate chip cookies and rest a bit before I go back to church, to sing loudly in our Easter program, where my sweet, gentle son plays a vicious Roman  guard, screaming at Jesus and abusing Him …Clint plays one of the disciples, that follow Jesus and love Him implicitly ..…Tara and I sing, soloing on some parts, dueting on others, our voices both  blending and competing, singing “Blessed Redeemer”  during the time Trevor and Clint play opposing parts, one putting Jesus on the cross, one taking His limp body down. They solo and duet, too, but not with music…with acting, each taking his part and playing it to the fullest. Woven and weaving, my family this Easter, singing and acting on this Easter Sunday.

                                            He arose.

                                            He AROSE!

                                            Hallelujah, Christ AROSE!