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Post by kds on Apr 18, 2022 12:12:38 GMT
Happy Easter to anyone who celebrates.
Frankly, I'm hoppy that it's over. Due to running around this past weekend, I didn't get a chance to tend to my lawn, and it's a godawful mess. So, this coming Saturday will start with the first mow of 2022.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 18, 2022 14:32:35 GMT
...and another word on peeps - the real ones. When I was a little kid, the week before Easter, my Dad would take my sisters and I to the local five and dime store to buy four peeps (we each got one). They were the cutest things, even though you couldn't do much with them. When we got them home, we put them in a large carton with newspaper on the bottom. We played with them by taking them out of the box and letting them run around the kitchen floor. Other than holding them, that's about all you could do with them. My Mom made it clear that they had to stay on the vinyl kitchen floor and not in the living room because they...pooped...which we quickly found out. I don't remember what we fed them, but we put a little dish of water in the carton which shortly ended up splattered all over the newspaper. But, they were fun to just watch/look at and to listen to chirping. It wasn't long before they started to grow, especially their beaks, and all of a sudden they weren't so cute anymore. It was then no fun trying to hold them because it hurt when they pecked at your hands or fingers. Then, after about a week or so, my Dad took them out to a farm(er) he knew, and we said goodbye to out Easter friends. I heard that peeps were eventually outlawed because they spread some kind of disease, some people let them get too big to be living in a house, and some kids were cruel to them.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 18, 2022 14:38:03 GMT
I had no idea this ever existed! All I've ever known as Peeps were the marshmallow Easter treats! Thanks for that story, Sheriff John Stone. Do you know whether this was a widespread thing, or just local/regional in your area? If I'd heard this earlier, I'd have asked my parents about it this weekend.
You learn something new every day.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 18, 2022 14:46:49 GMT
I had no idea this ever existed! All I've ever known as Peeps were the marshmallow Easter treats! Thanks for that story, Sheriff John Stone . Do you know whether this was a widespread thing, or just local/regional in your area? If I'd heard this earlier, I'd have asked my parents about it this weekend.
You learn something new every day. It was widespread, how much I don't know. This article lists another reason for the tradition going away - the dyeing was considered cruelty to animals:
and another:
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Post by kds on Apr 18, 2022 14:50:31 GMT
I had a friend in elementary school who got little "peeps" for Easter. I think that was when I was in fifth grade, so that would've been Easter 1991. I've never known anyone to get them before, or since.
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Post by kds on Apr 21, 2022 15:09:33 GMT
So, I just got an email from my sister, which seems to assume that I knew we were planning on doing Easter with my father with her family this Sunday, and wanted to see if my family was available this Saturday instead.
I was made aware of no such plans, and after running around to three places last weekend, I'd slated this weekend for much, much needed yardwork on Saturday, so that my son can play outside on Sunday before he had to return to school on Monday.
Have I mentioned I dislike Easter?
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Post by kds on Apr 21, 2022 16:29:16 GMT
So, I managed to kick the can down the road. We'll now do a late Easter on May 22. Ugh, the Holiday that won't end.
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Post by kds on Apr 22, 2022 14:45:15 GMT
So, I managed to kick the can down the road. We'll now do a late Easter on May 22. Ugh, the Holiday that won't end. After some overthinking, I've relented and surrendered half of my Saturday to Easter Part IV. I figured my father probably doesn't want to have my son's basket on his dining room table for another month. At least it'll be over.
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Post by carllove on Apr 22, 2022 15:21:04 GMT
So, I managed to kick the can down the road. We'll now do a late Easter on May 22. Ugh, the Holiday that won't end. After some overthinking, I've relented and surrendered half of my Saturday to Easter Part IV. I figured my father probably doesn't want to have my son's basket on his dining room table for another month. At least it'll be over. I feel for you kds. I got through the Easter holiday with a 30 minute Family Zoom call, and it was perfect. I have to go to a family wedding this weekend, so my four day weekend of me time is going to get interrupted. Unlike my husband, I think if I never left my house ever again (except for concerts and the occasional trip to Hawaii) my life would be bliss.
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Post by kds on Apr 22, 2022 17:02:47 GMT
After some overthinking, I've relented and surrendered half of my Saturday to Easter Part IV. I figured my father probably doesn't want to have my son's basket on his dining room table for another month. At least it'll be over. I feel for you kds. I got through the Easter holiday with a 30 minute Family Zoom call, and it was perfect. I have to go to a family wedding this weekend, so my four day weekend of me time is going to get interrupted. Unlike my husband, I think if I never left my house ever again (except for concerts and the occasional trip to Hawaii) my life would be bliss. I honestly think I got too used to staying home on weekends during the spring of 2020. Now, I find myself more annoyed than ever if there any plans beyond our control. If it's something we want to do like a concert, ballgame, beach trip, I'm good. But, spring holidays, weddings, etc, blah. I was very happy to learn that a wedding on my wife's side of the family next month is kid free. That means I get to stay home with my son. Also, the wedding's on a Friday in PA. If I had to go, I'd have probably have to burn a vacation day.
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Post by kds on Mar 29, 2023 16:22:43 GMT
Figured I'd bump this old thread from last year since Easter is only a week and a half away.
To me honest, I care more about the BB Grammy Salute on April 9 than Easter. As I said in my original post, even having a young son, Easter is near the bottom for me when it comes to holidays. There's no time off with it. There's no exciting food items. There really aren't any set traditions for me and my family (seems to change quite often from year to year actually).
At least this year, we're going to try to get Easter done in one day so as not to railroad an entire weekend.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 29, 2023 16:43:28 GMT
(I love the KDS "get off my lawn" threads. Nothing like some good-spirited grumbling!)
Totally agree on Easter. It just never felt especially special to me, even as a kid, when I would enjoy making and/or hunting for Easter eggs and eating candy. Sure, we always had to go to church (sometimes extra-early services...grrr), we'd usually go to one or both grandparents' houses, possibly see some cousins, have a big holiday meal. But it still never felt like a holiday, just kind of a "Sunday-plus."
Another thing is, you never knew exactly what you'd be getting. Christmas is going to be cold and likely snowy. Independence Day is going to be hot. Halloween has some variation--we could get snow, though we usually don't--but generally we're talking a cool fall day. Easter? Between its variation on its date and Minnesota springs, it can be anywhere from weather like we've got now (currently 15 degrees with a lot of snow on the ground) and 70-plus degrees. So you couldn't even count on traditions like an outdoor Easter egg hunt. You just wake up (too often too early) on Easter morning and see the hand you're dealt.
I think the food traditions could be more interesting than they are, or at least than they were in my family. Aside from chocolate bunnies or Easter eggs, the closest thing to traditional food was something like a ham and maybe scalloped potatoes. Which is fine, but not exactly thrilling: again, that's something we may well have had on any given Sunday, especially with the grandparents. I know traditionally lamb was an Easter dish. I wish we'd had that! But as far as I remember, my family never had lamb, ever. It just wasn't commonly available, much less popular.
This year, like most years, I'll go to my parents' house with the immediate family and spouses/kids (who are now all too old for the childrens' aspects), visit, have whatever we're having to eat, and drive home again. It ends up more hassle than celebration, to be honest.
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Post by kds on Mar 29, 2023 17:18:35 GMT
I say we're going to try to do Easter in one day and just get it over with.
But, apparently, my sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces have an obligation with my brother-in-law's family on Easter Sunday. Luckily, my father shares my thoughts on Easter, so we might just wind up doing Easter Sunday without them, which would leave Saturday open. Which is good because I hate when Easter bleeds into two days. At least when Christmas does that, I have some time off around the day to still decompress a little.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 29, 2023 19:34:59 GMT
For years, Easter was firmly but respectfully entrenched behind Christmas and Thanksgiving as favorite holidays. Memorial Day and even the 4th Of July are gaining on it, but don't tell my pastor. To a large extent, the things I enjoyed about Easter as a child are still present. The Easter Bunny, Easter baskets, and Easter candy are still a big part. I enjoy the various Easter flowers, whether purchased or hopefully blooming in the garden. And, yes, Easter Sunday mass is essential. There's nothing like the morning sun shining through the stained-glass windows at church on Easter Sunday and singing "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today".
We still have fairly large family gatherings on Easter. The menu is usually ham (with pineapple on the side), sweet potatoes, filling, corn, lima beans, and rolls. And that's fine. I like the tradition of it as well as the taste! And that's what Easter should be. Tradition. We no longer paint Easter eggs (is that becoming a lost art?), but we still have Easter egg hunts in the back yard and it's nice to see the excited faces on the children. Sometimes a Phillies' baseball game will be playing on a fairly silent TV. If The Masters golf tournament happens to fall over the Easter weekend...that will be required viewing, even on Sunday. Unlike most of the other holidays, the next day is a work day. However, the last few years my employer has given us Good Friday as a paid holiday, so I can't complain.
Right now, I'm playing this Beach Boys' tribute concert by ear. Usually, our Easter festivities are wrapping up around 8:00 PM, though sometimes it'll go til around 9:00 PM. This is the problem. If I want to get/be home by 8:00 PM, I have to say goodbye and cut out early, maybe as early as 7:00 PM. I don't want to do that. If I want to attempt to watch the whole concert where I'm at, I have to seriously run it by the host(s), not impose on them or the other guests, and literally hang around there until 10:00 PM. It's never easy with The Beach Boys, is it...
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 29, 2023 19:40:04 GMT
There's nothing like the morning sun shining through the stained-glass windows at church on Easter Sunday and singing "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today". Unless you've got an organist who drags! I can remember a few years with that very hymn being quite plodding, which makes it just agony! It's supposed to be a happy morning (early wakeup notwithstanding). A too-slow tempo on the best known tune of the occasion isn't exactly helping!
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