Talk to the Goat
When I was a child, (many moons ago), we would have an egg decorating competition and yes we also had easter bonnets. Crazy confections that my mother would labour over for hours on end. On Easter Monday we would go to my Aunts house which was by the sea, my cousins and I would sit on the back step and eat huge slabs of freshly baked bread with jam for breakfast, before heading down to the beach to hunt in the rock pools for crabs. We'd take them home, and they would be our supper.
The easter bonnets have disappeared here too, and the crabs are probably radioactive now. That's progress for you.
I would have loved to have hunted for Easter Watermelon. That right there sounds like a fun new tradition to start in North America.
Somehow, though, "Hide The Watermelon" takes on insidiously sexual double meanings that I'm not sure society is prepared for just yet.
Aaawww, those Easter bonnets are so sweet! (and so are you both). And I LOVE the beaded purse.
I didn't know anyone actually wore Easter bonnets! The only childhood clothes i really remember are matching crimplene suits my sister and I had (this was in the 60's!) with little pleated skirts, and little straw hats and white gloves. I remember wearing this outfit to family weddings. I loved it. But then, I was very little.
At Easter, we always had chocolate rabbits, and soft-boiled (or "dippy") eggs for breakfast, with faces drawn onto them (and with soldiers for dipping). Do you have soft-boiled eggs in Canada? apparently they don't in the USA, and hence have no such things as eggcups. Bizarre to a Brit!
Crabs for dinner! How I envy you that!
MS, you have a knack for getting to the root of an issue. 
We do have soft-boiled eggs and eggcups here in Canada, though not in my house. I've never dipped an egg but apparently we're feeling brave this year!
i love those purses!!!
i used to get dolled up too, but i've never bought a bonnet for either of my girls, i can't even get them to wear cute little dresses anymore. i still hide the eggs, even though the kids are now aged 21, 14 and 11 and i still buy them some sort of toy, now replaced by video games and dvd's.
I just remember being dragged off to church Easter Sunday morning... Then suppering through a three-hour Latin mass...
Our family never really had any Easter traditions. My parents would sometimes buy us each one of those large hollow eggs, more out of pity than anything else.
My brother and I would try to out do each other in making our eggs 'last' by eating as little as possible of it. Why? Simply so that once one of us had finished their egg, the other could gloat and eat chocolate in front of the other.
My 13th year of Easter I was going through my black stage. I wore nothing but black, so my mother tried to get me to wear a really bright neon yellow hat and dress. I was so apalled that she would do this, that I wore that damn dress and hat for 3 days straight.
She never bought me another hat or dress again.
Just huge ass earrings I always begged for.
By 15 I was in to the gaudy shit and it has stuck with me ever since then.
And she still buys me gaudy huge earrings.
Ah, nostalgic. I very much enjoy the beaded bag. Goes great with the neon sunglasses, which I'm somehow sure you have.
We'd get holla hoops.
good lord woman you have a crapload of blogs...
and i was considering buying an easter bonnet before i read this post... and now it seems i really ought to.
Awwwwwwww....
Every year I got my kids each a new outfit for Easter
I miss when they were kids now egg hunts mean nothing still memories that will last as long as that chocolate 
_
btw thnks for visiting my blog
Me and sis don't have easter egg hunting memories....
poor us. But now we are mothers and enjoy celebrating this tradition with our own children. IT IS FUN!!!!
Decorating the eggs is my son's most fav. part.
Last year we didn't find a couple of them...and they are lost somewhere in a dark hole???
Looking forward to Sat. when we come here at my job, there will be a majic show, petting zoo, face painting!!! I CAN relive it with him at least!!! I am a big kid myself so I will def. get my face painted. HAHAH...
Such precious Easter purses Jay. Thanks for sharing your childhood memories. They had me smiling and remembering a few of my own.
I buy the plastic eggs for my kids, and stuff some with candy, and others with money, and then hide them through the backyard. The kids also get an Easter basket of goodies. Which reminds me I need to get off my butt and get this together.
3T
One of the biggest adjustments we had to make in our Easter Egg hunts as we got older was not because of age, but because of a new guest. Living in the No.East. our hunts were always indoor affairs. Though one year it was not just my brother I competed against, but also the family Standard Poodle, who enjoyed the crunch of the dyed hardboiled eggs. Needless to say the next year, Beau had his morning run at about the same time as our hunt!
I don my easter bonnet every year although now that I am bald it doesn't look as cute. I too am the hider of the eggs and the preper of the eggs and the painter of the eggs and I'm the only one who will put on the bunny ears and litteraly hop about the yard while hiding the eggs.
Ah yes, the bonnet and poncho days... you have done them justice simply by mentioning them! We had easter dresses as well, and with my daughter I always think she needs an easter dress... but I never get her one- I am always nursing mamosas with my best friends family- not going to church!
Cool pictures. Of course, my family proved to be entirely dysfunctional at Easter. I begged them for an easter egg hunt, but all they did was put our baskets under our beds. They just didn't get it.
I was born on Easter and they damn near called me Bunny. How much would THAT suck? It used t be that my B-day fell on Easter every 11 years. That stopped happening quite some time ago. The Earth must have moved off it's axis or something. But my B-day, always being near Easter, meant that there would always be candy around AND cake. And then there were zits. The holiday means nothing at all to me now, 'cause I'm a heathen.
I remember when the neon sunglasses were the rage. I had a neon windbreaker that year. It was lime green and pink--so delightful. Perhaps the glasses were neon because every one started wearing their 'sun glasses as night' along with Corey Hart, thus putting our very lives and our bonnets in danger.
oh, the joy of finding frozen easter eggs in the snow, and hoping dad didnt get drunk before dinner...
the wonder of childhood.
btw: I still love you, but then again, you knew that, I am cute that way.
all my best,
JQP
Every single year of my life I had a bonnet. To the point where when I got to college, I bought one for the hell of it. Now that I have a daughter, I want to get her one...but we don't go to church or even OUT on Easter...so I'm just not sure. Thoughts?
Great Easter memories. I remember hunting eggs at home and going to my aunt's "haunted" old house to see relatives that I only saw once a year. The dread of having to interact with cousins I didn't know and didn't like was only broken when we went outdoors to search for Easter baskets filled with candy, etc.
My parents always got us presents to go along with our candy. When we were old enough to like listening to music in our rooms we got records. I remember ABBA and Bee Gees Greatest Hits being given to us on different Easters.
Every year that we've had our daughter we've dyed eggs. She is 13...almost 14...and we have a busy weekend planned so we left it up to her if she wanted to dye eggs and she said 'no'. I hadn't realized how profoundly sad that would make me. Our little baby is all grown up.
okay so my butterfly nets almost always caught butterflies.
the monarchs used to stop in a forest near my house every autumn (key words: "used to") and my brother and I would always catch a couple. keep them for a few days and feed them orange juice, then let them go again.
I do wonder if keeping them in our rooms for a while screwed up their internal clocks and/or maps. I hope not!
I am consumed with jealousy that your mother gave you pink hair dye for Easter.
That is all.
Jason and I are a couple of big kids too. We tend to keep around all the fun traditions, invent new fun traditions, and throw out all the other crap.
We never had real (hard boiled, painted) eggs, or the plastic ones. I guess mymother just did what her mother did. Funny how traditions come without reasons.
Our dog stayed in the basement while we hunted, but he just knew something was up!
I AM glad you aren't called bunny, Bud. For your sake.
I had a neon windbreaker too, the super cool kind that was always wrinkled because you were supposed to roll it back up into a convenient and cool fanny pack when you weren't needing the coat and wear it around your waist.
JQP, you know I adore you too. Kisses.
We don't got out for Easter either, QoS, but it's not Easter without the bonnet.
Carl - one year I got the Vanilla Ice tape. Does that count?
Well I had been searching everywhere for that particular dye because it was to match my prom dress, you see.
Thanks so much to everyone for sharing such great memories. I am so glad to see the bonnet is not completely a thing of the past.
We so must have grown up together. I HAD THAT SAME BEADED purse!!! I did. I know surprise surprise. I loved that purse. *sigh*
Whatever happened to neon clothes? I think there was a point in the early 90s where a significant portion of my clothing was that bright green.
I wore an Easter bonnet as a baby - that might have been the last time. but my sisters & I (3 of us) did have to wear MATCHING Easter dresses... did you 4 have to do that?
We did not dye eggs, as none of us liked to eat the hard boiled ones, and my mom said if we dyed them we had to eat them. We also did not do an egg hunt, but I've no idea why. but the Easter bunny still visits me! I am expecting lots of chocolate on Sunday. and maybe a new CD. (but the bunny, apparently, doesn't know where I live and will leave the basket at my dad's for me)
I too was overjoyed w getting to wear my poncho...putting it on your head so you looked like a nun..that was the best! Mine was powder blue.
If I ever give birth and have a girl child, she will wear frilly underware and an Easter Bonnet.
Happy Easter Miss Jay!
Oh how I do envy your neon glasses and matching sandals yet! My favourite springtime/easter footwear was undoubltedly the neon jelly shoe, with it's inch and a half of heel i felt totally grown up and sophisticated. I'm especially loving the Jem nightshirt. Jem rocked. I was an only child until I was eight and was therefore beyond spoiled by oodles of reletives often having to foist half of my treasure on to my parents (which I suspect may have been there plan). Egg painting was fun we'd always do designs in wax on them first and then dye them and then peel the wax off to reveal cool designs. Happy Easter!
The hair dye did indeed match your prom dress... And you became our Queen!
I still see little girls wearing bonnets around here. Very cute.
As far as the Easter poncho...I've never seen that at all. Here in the MidWest, it's usually quite warm by Easter.
Nice memories. I was very thrifty as a child for some reason. I have outgrown it for sure but when I was young I would hoard things. Well at Easter we would get a basket full of candy and I would hardly touch the stuff. I would hide it in my closet for future use. So I would have a piece of candy every now and then but eventually I forget about the basket after a few weeks and my Mom would find it about 6 months later. Let's just say the Easter candy did not hold up too well.
I love the white beaded purse! I had a beaded purse or six myself, growing up.
Watermelon! *snort*
It's true, you don't see many Easter bonnets these days. My first taste of marzipan was on an Easter. My mom or dad hid a chocolate covered marzipan egg behinded the flipped up keyboard cover of the piano. I had no idea it would lead to a lifelong love of marzipan.
OMG, there is a use for Peeps, afterall! :D
We too did the bonnets, the dresses, the shoes, the purses thing, though yours are much cooler. Although, thinking back--I'm not sure why as we never went to church. Maybe it was just an old country thing, I wondered, then recall Greek Orthodox easter is on a different day, too. Anyhow--great post! Love the bonnet pic and the waltz down memory lane.
PS What the heck is it with the ponchos--we had them for all-purpose, formal, play-time--geez. My family is Ukrainian FFS! lol
Great post, Jay. I always had to wear a hat, a scratchy, fake straw hat, with the elastic band to keep it on my head, which would always pinch the skin under my chin. Ahh memories. Since you and your hubby have no kids, you are welcome to come to our house to hide eggs, we have 80 so far, (eggs, not kids) to hide, and I'm thinking of buying more. Last year we found ones from two years ago - oops. Maybe I should make a diagram or something this year so we don't lose any.
My easters were much like yours with the poncho and bonnet ensemble. We would hunt for chocolate easter eggs around our Canadian home as well, but I (being the eldest child) would lead the search to ensure that I got more eggs than my unfortunate siblings. Poor kids.
That orange chair is awesome. You get your easter and halloween moods all rolled up into one?
hmmmm.... there was the Easter my uncle used hailstones in his drink (my parents saving them to show the insurance guy: roof damage) or the one where he took it upon himself to boil the eggs and they were NOT boiled (we didn't hide those). Mostly we got together with my grandma and one of my dad's brothers families - sometimes others would show up. When we were kids we hunted the eggs and as we got older we hid them for the younger kids. Now the younger kids are nearing adulthood and there's only one egg hunter (E). I wonder if he'll even actually try to find eggs this year, or if we will even have them. I don't think we had but half a dozen of them last year...
Aww, that photo is adorable! And it brings back the adorable Easter memories of yore. Back when my mother cared enough about me to MAKE me an Easter basket and buy me little dresses.
Then one year I woke up Sunday morning and found? Nothing. She so loves me!
We all got Easter outfits complete with the frilly white bonnets. Dang, I can't find a picture anywhere. Thanks for the inspiration for my own Easter post!
(Sigh) I suppose it is Politically Incorrect to wear Easter bonnets? In my latest post, I touched on the subject of the Easter Bunny being banned in St. Paul, Minnesota City Hall.
...Thank you for the visit and comments at my site re: the Pope of the Bomb.
...Our daughter loved Easter - the bonnets and ponchos ... the Easter basket - the candy and eggs and of course a stuffed bunny. She's grown up and married now, but she still looks for a basket every Easter. I suspect she will carry on the tradition when she has kids of her own.
My parents banned Easter the year I melted peeps and stuck them under the covers of my brothers' beds. In my defense, it was simply revenge for melting my barbies (I had 3) in the deep fryer until they were one plastic fried head.
It kind of looked like that guy from the Goonies.
We were horrible kids.
Boy I was deprived!! No Easter get ups at all!! Once I dyed eggs and I sat on them!
Hi I like the sunglasses. You look ultra cool. my little one is still small she doesnt understand about the easter bunny yet so next year will be great fun. Sounds like you and your sister had great fun.
You had me laughing straight from the post title... right down to that excellent last line.
Thanks...
Yikes, I think if my parents had tried to hide anything around the house we would have found them, several days later, sozzled in a dark corner.
Happy Easter Bonnets to you!
I wore one once that I'd made, stuck bits of tissue all over it with false flowers at an old people's home and ended up in a photo with other kiddies for the local paper - sweet memories. Think I had a purse like your pink beady bag must've been the in thing then.
Loved your student photos, you look like a funky, hip happenin chick!
I wasn't exactly hip but I had good mates and we downed the cheep booze and clubbed alot in some dodgy dives.
WOW memories!!! we hunted for real eggs indoors until we were teens also
I remeber those purses, we had them but not in that color! all the pictures of us in bonnets with little purses and gloves.....
In the small town I grew up in there was a movie theatre that would offer free admission for a dozen eggs the night before Easter. They sponsored a big Easter egg hunt in the park. We'd always decorate uncooked eggs and then go to the park and watch the little kids splatter raw eggs everywhere. Ah, good times.
Nice blog by the way.
my daughter caught the chicken pox the day after easter when she was 3, and still insists the bunny brought it with him. my son is 3 this year and last night daugther exclaimed, maybe the easter bunny will bring HIM the chicken pox this year!
I can only hope. I awnt to get it out of the way!
So many thoughts flood my mind as I read your Easter Blog:
1. Bonnets are underrated! I'm gonna bust one out at my next conference. Nothing says power player like a finely tailored suit paired with daffodil print headgear.
2. Unbeknownst to me, my friend Susie assures me that you CAN indeed successfully hide a watermelon. Her life's mantra: "Nothing Is Impossible with the Right Amount of Lubricant!" Crochet that one a pillow!
3. My newest favourite Easter tradition: Gingerbread Crucifixes. Baking and Blasphemy never worked so well together before!
Mrs Mogul: I have to ask, did you sit on them deliberately?
The Orange chair came with a sister - a very ugly green one. And guess what? When my grandparents decided they were too old and ugly, they donated them to our house, where they sat in the basement and probably still would today if we hadn't decided to reenact the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Oof.
One memorable Easter memory involved a trip to Sevilla. Two friends and I sat on a ledge drinking wine and watching the endless parades of worshippers. They dress like KKK members in sheets with pointy hats, only they have festive Easter colors. Some of them walk on their knees or beat themselves with leather straps while they walk so there is plenty of blood and torment. It is quite interesting. Fortunately, I don't belong to that Church.
My sister and I used to just fill up on candy all day. All I remember was fighting over the Cadbury Eggs. We never really hunted for eggs, but once I did it somewhere and I wasn't very good.
Oh well! LOL
Christine
Sorry to inform you, but real men just eat the damned eggs (wrappers and all), and show up looking like they went swimming in a poo factory.
I'm giving away blogher tuition. Come enter.
I am the most excited that now I can wear white again, (Easter's the "official" day right?) At least among Southerners hehe.
Hi Sweet One,
Your fave handbag rocks!!!!!
I'm fine, but I have to admit I almost emailed you after reading that caring comment of yours. Only reason, I didn't, is I was crying so hard. You've gotten under my skin, my unique blog writer friend.
xxoo
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