Eastertime Reflections # 4

This is one of those stories that I don't personally remember.  Rather, it is one that my mother shared with me when I was young and continues to share with everyone who will listen 'round-about this time of year!

I was a toddler - maybe two or three years old.  It was my first community Easter Egg Hunt.  Now it must be noted that apparently even at that young age I aimed to please and to be the obedient daughter.

The annual egg hunt was held at the community playground/football field.  This was the same place where I would in later years go to summer day camps and then in middle school, attend football games.  But on the day before Easter, the sidelines of the football field became the place to line up for the great egg hunt. 

Parents would help their children find "the best spot" from which to start as anxious children of all ages squirmed and wiggled all while holding onto their empty baskets.  As we stood along the sidelines, Mom apparently bent down and whispered in my ear "Now, when the whistle blows, you run as fast as you can.  Go all the way across to the other side and back.  There are lots of eggs out there on the field."

And so, I ran as fast as my little legs would carry me... all the way across the field and back to where Mom was waiting for me....  All without ever stopping to pick up any eggs or candy! After all, she didn't tell me to pick up the eggs; she just told me to run as fast as I could and when I got to the other side, run back! - I did exactly what she told me.

She says that she laughed when she realized what had happened... and that I cried when I realized that all the other kids had goodies in their baskets and mine was empty.  But the tears soon disappeared when one of the neighbor boys gave me an egg from his basket and talked a few of his friends into doing the same.

So, more than 55 years later, I'd like to say "thank you" to that neighbor and his friends for not letting me go home with an empty Easter basket!