on this Easter Sunday

On this Easter Sunday 2019, I give you Easter Sunday 1966. Or thereabouts.

Sorry friends, I didn’t write a Sunday Letter this week. But I found this picture taken on Easter morning just before we headed off to Brinkley Chapel (which is Boon Chapel to all you Gracie fans). And I thought I’d talk a little about it. 

Easter Bonnet Days

Although the picture has started to fade, my memory of this moment is vivid. My dress is pink (hard to tell in this washed out snapshot). And I love(d) everything about it. Then and now. The pink cotton dress, slick pink patent shoes and purse.

I wonder what I carried in that purse? A stick of gum, a few crayons, one of those Fisher Price Little People? Something to entertain myself during preaching, no doubt.

Check out the white socks with ruffles and stark white gloves. Wonder how long they stayed stark white?

And of course, the Easter bonnet!

I bet if I had to guess, Momma made me sleep all night in brush curlers so my hair would have that one curl hanging down my shoulder. Oh, Saturday nights were uncomfortable before blow dryers and hot rollers made their way to the farm (about ten years later).

Notice the room. (Gracie and Abby’s room.) Our big fat piggy bank was stolen later when our house was robbed. That upset us greatly. We’d saved quarters for a long time only to have it stolen. My Easter basket is filled with eggs, a sign that the Easter Bunny had visited before breakfast. That basket is probably stuck back in a closet at home.

Mercurochrome Days

My favorite thing about this Easter picture may be the bruises up and down my shins. Haha. Bruises from playing outside all day long, climbing trees, running around in the fields, swinging and teeter-tottering. We lived during that magical time when childhood came with skinned knees and scratches and bug bites and sunburn and germs and lots of Mercurochrome. And no one thought anything of it.

Yes, just before this picture was taken, Momma wrangled us inside, scrubbed us down, and dressed us up for Easter. But I’m sure we were itching to get back into play clothes.

Happy Easter, friends.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.