Easter Memories

For many young children, waking up to find a big colored Easter egg basket on the kitchen table (or hidden somewhere) was a delight beyond words! The first thing you did was look for the basket with your name on it. In a large family there were several baskets, designed with a different color for each child. When you found your own personal basket, it was a thing of beauty. The wicker basket came in all different colors and sizes. There was usually a colorful cellophane wrapping that covered all the candy and goodies inside the basket. When the colorful wrapping was torn free from the basket, it exposed the contents inside the basket to praying hands and hungry mouths. The Easter egg basket always reminded me of a giant bird’s nest. The inside of the basket was covered with bright green cellophane that made it look like grass. Inside this green nest was a variety of objects of various sizes; they were hidden underneath and on top of the grass.

On the surface of the basket was usually found a large milk chocolate rabbit, like it was guarding the nest. Next to the rabbit was a smaller yellow marshmallow chicken. Throughout the nest there could be found chocolate Easter eggs wrapped in colorful foil. Surrounding all of these hidden objects throughout the grass were multiple layers of colorful jellybeans that matched every color of the rainbow. Candy corn, gumdrops, orange peanuts, and other delightful treats were discovered wrapped in various colors like a box of chocolates. Multiple colors of hard boiled Easter eggs were also found throughout the basket. All of the contents of the basket were for the child whose name was written on the tag. It usually took about a week for the owner of the basket to consume most of the contents and maybe share some of it with friends.

From a child's point of view, it must be a nightmare to wake up on Easter morning and find no trace of an Easter basket in the house or throughout the community! If you had grown up with this fun tradition, can you imagine your thoughts as a young child if it had failed to happen one year? Imagine your fears and disappointments! How on earth could anyone even think of the idea of stealing an Easter basket from a little child? Well it happened in one neighborhood! And guess who is going to solve the mystery!

(To read the mystery story by George, order A Big Surprise for Easter, a novella published for Kindle e-readers and paperback, available on Amazon.com.

Search: Holiday Favorites by George F. Kohn)