Thursday, April 9, 2009


EASTER


My friend, Terri Sweatman, sent this clever poem:

THE JELLY BEAN PRAYER

Red is for the blood He gave
Green is for the grass He made
Yellow is for the sun so bright
Orange is for the edge of night
Black is for the sins we made
White is for the grace He gave
Purple is for His hour of sorrow
Pink is for our new tomorrow
A Bag full of jelly beans colorful and sweet
Is a prayer, is a promise
Is a special treat!

Have a blessed Easter. God bless everyone and God bless our country.
Carole
I wrote this letter to the children last Easter, 2008 ... but it is appropriate for all Easters our family shares.



Happy Easter Everyone,

I cannot let the day go by without wishing each of you a lovely family day. We are alone here, Larry and I as Tom is at Bingo. It is fine as we have had a busy week with Skip, Leah and Matt here, then Elizabeth came with Natalie and Jacob. Even the Modraks came to see us [Erin is Elizabeth's good friend from PSU who she traveled Europe with backpacking]. They came to our villa first for shrimp, wine and cheese,etc., them we all had dinner together at the Ocean Club Sea Oats Room ... outside, beneath the stars, near the beautiful lighted pools. It was a very pleasant evening.

We were busy ... the children were very well behaved however they are a couple of busy little bees ... very energetic and want to be doing something fun every waking moment. They kept Elizabeth stepping ... but we had rented an Island Hopper while Skip and Leah were here and kept it all week. The kids loved riding all over the Plantation.

Skip, Leah and Matt and Tom and Larry and I had a very delicious meal at The Verandah ... our favorite restaurant and The Verandah lived up to its reputation ... in spades! Everyone enjoyed their very fine meal, including the delectable desserts.

It was especially nice having Leah here as we got to know her better and she has won us over big time. Matt is a very intelligent, well-mannered young man. I have never seen Skip so happy. That makes us happy.

Easter brings back so many memories. Our Easters at home, when we were kids, were always fun ... with generous Easter baskets, always lots of jellybeans and family around. I remember Uncle Gene and Audrey and their daughter, Geraldine, coming many times and sometimes Sonny and Arbutus. Uncle Art and Aunt Effie and Frankie came visiting most holidays ... always Father Paul and Mom would make his favorite neck bones and saurkraut dish, with boiled potatoes with the pants on, as he always called them ... she even took time, with all she had to do, to barbeque some for him. She always had a big baked ham, covered with a delicious pineapple/brown sugar coating ... studded with cloves. It was delicious ... it is hard to get hams like those today ... it seems. Hams are too 'neutered or something' ... the reduced fat takes much of the flavor out. But I doctor those babies up good and give them some flavor. Didn't have ham this year.

We are just grazing on leftovers from the week ... which is just fine for us. We have lots of good soups from Harris Teeters, Boars Head meats ... popcorn ... and fruit.

Larry is more than content watching The Masters Tournament. I'm catching up on my reading and emails. The Sopranos are starting their last season tonight, which I will watch and tomorrow is another day ... Therapy, etc. So today is a relaxing day ... only I have to take a full dose of diuretics as I have not been good about taking them consistently while everyone was here, as we were on the go a lot. Yah ... I know ... that is more than you wanted to know ... but it is my life ... what I do with my time ... just thought you'd like to know that I just don't sit and do just anything ... I have jobs to do. Tsk! Yah ... I know ... that's more than you wanted to know, too. Sorry! One good thing about it is that it sure gives me my exercise, getting up and down ... up and down ... etc. At the end of the day, I feel I have had a good workout ... believe me ... and a very sore arm.

Easter, when we were kids was always special, Mom made it so. Seems she always had new outfits that she made for us ... remember the beautiful pleated, plaid skirts and little red blazers? We'd have matching red hats and purses ... and little white gloves. God! How I loved those new purses. Then we would pin on our carnations ... red ones for those whose mothers were alive [that was us] and white for those who were dead [Mom]. And Dad always bought Mom a beautiful Easter Lily that she would later plant outside by her kitchen door, hoping to see it bloom again.

Lots of Easters relatives came ... Aunt Ginny and Uncle Martin and Bob ... Grandma La Flamme ... Aunt June and Uncle Dal and Susan, sometimes their older son, Dutchie. Aunt June always made a beautiful Angel Food Cake with Whipped Cream frosting and decorated with Marchiano [sp] cherries. Yummy! Aunt Ginny and Grandma brought baked goods from Awreys in Detroit and some Sanders fudge topping. Remember? And in the evening, Aunt Pete and Uncle Dick and Suzanne would come and we'd put on a 'show' ... skits and singing ... and Suzanne would sing beautifully and play lovely Chopin, that would bring tears to Dad's eyes, on our old upright piano. Then, maybe we'd have a sing-along. Ohhhh ... those were good times!

Mom would sit on Dad's lap and they would harmonize to 'Smile A While' and other romantic songs ... Mom and Dad would play the uke ... and so would Aunt Ginny. Dad would get out his harmonica and Nana would play her spoons on her knees and of course Bob played his boogie woogie on the piano, giving Mom a headache ... giving all of us a headache. Rich would sing his camp songs and tell camp stories. Uncle Dal would do his comical 'ABC' speach number. And when Mom and Aunt Ginny got loosened up enough, they'd do Alouette ... Mom did it best ... tucking up her skirt ... kicking up those beautiful legs! It was her song!

And one Easter Aunt Pete got mad at Uncle Dick and threw one of Mom's homemade lemon meringue pies in his face ... making a terrible mess and destroying Mom's delicious pie. Ohhh ... what a night that was! I think that was the night Uncle Dick paid Nancy $5.00 to sing'I Don't Want Her, You Can Have Her, She's Too Fat For Me' on the ukulele, while kneeling at Aunt Pete's feet. Remember that, Nan? That is probably why Aunt Pete threw the pie in Uncle Dick's face! And while they were cleaning up the mess, you pocketed the $5 with a grin and marched off, big as you please.

We had our own Easter parade down Linwood's sidewalks, showing off our new Easter outfits and carrying our beautiful Easter baskets. We were so proud ... and we'd look back, and there would be Mom and Dad, watching us, proud as two peacocks.

When hunting for our Easter baskets, we often found those darling little dyed chicks peeping in a box. I remember an aqua one for me, one was yellow, one peach colored, one green, anyway ... only one survived, and that was Richard's. It grew big. He kept it in the fish shanty on the side of the store and everyday , the chicken laid one egg. Dad let it run around the yard. I don't know what happened to it, all I know is that we didn't eat it like Dad kept threatening to do. [At least I don't think we did.] Someone probably stole it and ate it. Times were tough.

Jumping ahead, didn't we have good Easters at our house ... had lots of visits from the Randalls, Nancy and Rich. Even Melanie Laine came one Easter ... we had such fun singing old songs and drinking wine ... and Melanie brave enough to return all my silver so I could buy it elsewhere for a better price. [I was too embarrassed to return it after the nice clerks at Rich's called and ran all over Atlanta getting all the pieces together so I could have it for Easter ... only for me to return all of it.]

Remember, when Jonny was only about 2 years old, Randalls came to Dunwoody for Easter. The Easter bunny hid one of the baskets in one of my big pots hanging on my pot rack over the kitchen range. We finally had to give very good hints for them to find it. I can't remember whose basket it was ... all I remember is the tears when they couldn't find it and everyone else had their baskets ... and they were great baskets ... stuffed with lots of chocolate, goodies and toys, etc. We'd have egg hunts in the big back yard, giving Jonny a good head start.

One year, when we had an egg hunt in our home on Mt. Vista, it was too cold and rainy to hunt for eggs outside so we had a hunt in our big den room. When the hunt was over, we counted the eggs and we were missing one egg. We forgot about it. A few weeks later, there was a terrible smell in the den that we couldn't find the cause of. Larry even took off the heat run covers thinking we had a dead mouse or etc. Nothing! Later, when I was doing a thorough cleaning of the den, I found the cause of all that smell ... hidden in my incense burner on the shelf above my desk. What a relief to find that. I spent a small fortune in aromatic candles and sprays to try to temper that gross odor!

Remember you kids going berry picking with your little buckets and wild enthusiasm?
Uncle Rich would take you on nature hikes in the woods. He loved it up there on Mt. Vista.

I remember, during Easter break, when The Randalls and Nancy and Rich came to Dunwoody, spring was started and the wild dogwoods were in bloom behind our house ... [I miss seeing them each spring] and our azaleas were blooming. The weather was so unseasonably warm our pool was warm enough to swim in ... and the kids had a ball!

Yes ... we enjoyed many wonderful Easters with family and have beautiful memories to share. So it is kind of nice to have one of these quiet Easters that we can think back, without interruption, and just remember all the good times. I'm sure Larry thinks of the many Easters we spent at our house with his Mom, Bill, Kris and Susie Mc Neil. Lots and lots of good times with them ... almost every Sunday and many times in between. Lovely family times! Kris, Terry and Meghan and Martha came often at that time of year also and Kris and Terry loved the Malls and shopping. We'd get our hair done and manicures and pedicures.

Lots of cooking! Food! Games! Today, I have a break ... no cooking. Just grazing, which is fine with us. Tom will eat out after or before Bingo. They have a cafe there. I have nibbled on cheese and crackers and will have one of my containers of delicious tomato bisque from Harris Teeters ... later. Then probably a nice, big, plump, delicious grapefruit.

We miss everyone. I think back to many good times on holidays, especially. I remember the folks, and I miss them. I miss Rich and all our aunts and uncles and cousins that have gone ... our grandparents. Life is so short. I think remembering back makes us realize how very short life really is. One doesn't think it is that short, when young, but as the years fly by ... yes, I mean fly by ...faster and faster each year ... it reminds us that we must make the most of what time we have here on earth. No one knows how long it will be ... so enjoy each day ... and each day of your life, whether sunny or cloudy, whatever the weather, embrace it and know that you are very fortunate to be living here in the good old USA ... in a free world ... with a comfortable life ... and family who love and support you always.

I love you all and think of you often. Please know how proud I am of each of you ... and the special news we have of a new grandchild coming this winter ... truly a blessing that Anne and Jeff can bring Connor a brother or sister. What a lucky little boy he is ... what lucky children all of our grandchildren are to have wonderful, loving parents, live in fine homes, have all they want to eat or need. Most of the world is not so fortunate. Remember to thank God each day for your blessings.

Love, hugs and kisses. Have a wonderful Easter!

Mom - Carole