Well, as someone who came from a Jewish background, not a Christian background,
with both Easter and Christmas, I felt that I was just sort of illicitly
pretending to celebrate some aspects of them. My family didn't celebrate
Hanukah at all and as for Passover, which comes along at roughly the same time
as Easter, they did have dinner on the first night of the holiday and they
began doing the first half of the Ssedar when I was about 13, but that was only
because that was when my aunt and uncle moved to the Long Island suburbs and
Jews in the suburbs began attending Synagogue and pretending to be more
religious than they actually were. It's an interesting phenomenon that all the
Jewish people I knew, were secular Jews until the 1950's when they moved away
from New York City and assumed a new kind of Jewish identity They began
attending either Conservative or Reformed synagogues and supporting Israel. No
more Christmas gifts. Now they were Hanukah gifts, although the real religious
tradition didn't require gifts like Christmas did. It was a totally different
thing. But my parents never moved to the suburbs and usually, Christmas and
Easter were spent with my aunt and uncle in Washington who had a close friend
who was Protestant. So with all of my uncle's holiday exhibits from his beauty
salon, along with gifts from his customers, their friend's enormous Christmas
tree, and Christmas gifts and Easter baskets and stuffed bunnnies for me, I
was disloyal to the Jewish heritage in which I hadn't been raised, and enjoyed
all of the decorative bits and pieces of Christianity.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2021 11:05 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Easter Parade
Dear All,
Easter, like all "special days" serves a valuable place in our lives.
Most of us mark special memories(both good and not so good)on holidays. For
example, how many remember what we did the day before the holiday, or the day
after? While Easter was no big deal in our family, I remember special family
gatherings, and early picnics on Easter Sunday. My first attempt at fishing
was on Easter Sunday, 1940. My first kiss...other than from my
mother...following church on Easter Sunday, 1945, when Nancy Landen startled
me by turning quickly around as we rounded the corner outside the church and
said, "Look at my nose!" And she grabbed my head and smacked me squarely on
the lips.
And I recall an Easter Sunday many years later, 1959, when my cousin Ron and I
attended Sunrise Service at Volunteer Park, after having stayed up all night
drinking. We must have stunk because people around us got up and moved.
Ah yes, sweet, sweet memories...mostly.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/5/21, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Easter isn't that exciting around here. We ordered Mcdonalds forDear All,
lunch. Nina got a fillet of fish and I got a quarter pounder with
cheese. The fries were good.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Penny Reeder
Sent: Sunday, April 4, 2021 6:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Easter Parade
I remember too! My Mom always made my 2 sisters and me new outfits
for Easter. Yes, there were new white gloves and shiney patent leather
shoes and ruffley socks until we were teenagers, when Easter might
become the occasion for our first pair of nylon stockings. I remember
mine when i also wore a beautiful pale blue suit, every stitch sewed
by our mother, and my first pair of tiny heels. We probably came
home from church to feast on the very same Easter dinner we feasted on
today — ham and deviled eggs, potato salad and asparagus! It was our
first holiday dinner with 3 of our 6 children and their spouces at the
table — in more than a year, and the newest member of our family,
6-week old baby Brooks, who is our sixth grandchild. No church or
Easter bonnets for any of us, but lots of Springtime hope! Happy Easter!!
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 4, 2021, at 4:12 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Carl,
You and I are probably the only 2 people on this list who know those
lyrics.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 4, 2021 3:25 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Easter Parade
When I was a boy, I longed for the day when I could do all the "fun stuff"
that wwent on in the big city. Along with dining in the fine
restaurants and attending live theater, I would imagine myself
marching in the Easter Parade in all my finery. And of course, on my
arm would b Elizabeth Taylor.
And we'd be singing, "In your easter bonnet, with all the frills upon
it, You'll be the grandest lady in the easter parade.
I'll be all in clover and when they look you over, I'll be the
proudest fellow in the easter parade..."
Carl Jarvis
On 4/4/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wonder if anyone remembers the song, Easter Parade by Irving Berlin?
The Easter Parade was a real event which took place on Fifth Avenue
each year.
Perhaps it still did, until Covid. People dressed up in their new
spring finery and traveled into Manhattan from whatever borough in
which they lived, and strolled along, looking at the other people in
their new spring clothes and at the windows of fancy department
stores. The important thing was people's hats. Celebrities and
wealthy people wore extravagantly fashioned hats with colorful
feathers and sometimes, unusual constructions.
My father worked in a millinery factory so my mother and I always
had new hats, but they were not extravagantly fashioned, just new
hats in good taste. You young people may not realize it, but well
dressed women always wore hats and gloves when they went out.
Because my aunt and uncle lived in Washington D.C. and my mother and
I often spent the Easter holidays there, we attended their Easter
Parade which took place on connecticut Avenue, which was
Washington's equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue. As a child, I
was always given a chocolate Easter egg and sometimes a little toy rabbit
or fluffy baby chicken.
I spent summers on my grandmother's chicken farm. Baby chickens are
kept in a very warm room when they first hatch and they're adorable.
Miriam
