Sunday, April 20, 2025

Easter Sunday

It's Easter! And you know what that means. Well, probably a "Twilight Zone" marathon on TV, but it also means Easter baskets, Easter egg hunts, perhaps a trip to church, and ham for dinner. 

GDB superstar Sue B. found some vintage slides from a vintage Easter - date unknown (maybe 1970s?). First up, two lucky kids have found baskets full of treats waiting for them in the den. They are wrapped in purple cellophane (the baskets, not the kids) to lock in freshness! I always enjoyed biting the ears off of the chocolate bunnies, though even as a child I was mildly outraged that those were hollow and not solid chocolate. The plastic eggs that contained jelly beans? Meh. It took me a moment to realize that the thing on the table is an ashtray. Meanwhile, I love details like the many magazines stored beneath the television. 


I'm not sure if this is from an entirely different home/family/day, but somebody went all out and made a special Easter cake, or should I say CAKES. A mama bunny and a baby bunny. Covered in shredded coconut, as per the instructions in "Good Housekeeping" magazine. The pink eyes and noses are jelly beans, I believe. You can have mine. The paper ears are artfully done. I guess lots of kids would be coming over later, look at all the fun stuff on the table. Favorite item: that furry red whatever-it-is in the upper left. 


I have my own vintage photo to add. If it wasn't for a hand-written note, this could be from any day, but I know that those three adorable girls are wearing their Easter finest. Two of them wear ribboned hats, one has an actual bonnet. I wonder if Mom made the dresses (perhaps from a pattern in McCall's)? The baby boy is unconcerned with holidays at this stage of his life.


AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST! Here is a photo contributed by our dear friend MELISSA! She sent this to Sue B. and gave permission to share it here. I can't believe we're going into chocolate egg season already! My mother scanned this picture for me and I thought I'd share it with you. Gwen and Judd lived next door to Grandma when she moved into town while Granpa was away during WWII, with the two kids she had at the time, my oldest uncles. She always had a knack for collecting extra kids. I love their little outfits (hello sailor) and the big, square baskets. I met Judd once as an older man, and maybe it's my terrible eyesight but I think he looked pretty much the same except for the sailor suit. Anyway, take care and have a great weekend! - Melissa


SO GREAT to hear from Melissa! Have a Happy Easter, everyone!



16 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

That astray in the first pic looks like it has a built in lighter. I'm assuming that it was removable.

Melissa, it is so good to hear from you. I hope your eyesight is getting better. We miss you!

Thanks for sharing the vintage Easter pics, Major, Sue, and Melissa! And happy Easter, to all!

Nanook said...

Major-
Yes, that ashtray (and lighter) is quite the stand-out. ANd, BTW - there's a really good reason why most chocolate bunnies are hollow... biting into a solid piece of chocolate that thick is no fun. (Okay - and ALL the chocolate needed for a solid mold would be very costly - even using crappy chocolate - which describes most of them).

The double bunnies in the 2nd image are a standout.
Love the matching dresses and hats on the three sisters.

HELLO Melissa-! SO great to hear from you... this is definitely a special Easter now. The 'gal' in the image appears to be wearing 'orthopedic socks'...

Thanks to Sue and The Major. Happy Easter, all-!

JB said...

1) Nothing says "Easter" like cigarette-smoke flavored Peeps and cigarette-smoke flavored chocolate bunnies! Mm-Mmm! The little girl's hair reminds me of pulled taffy; it has that texture and glossiness. In the background, there is a movie/slide screen in its crouching position, ready to pounce and make people watch 3 1/2 hours of the family's trip to Oxnard. There's also a piano (or organ) next to it. My mom had one of those glass brandy snifter things with the candle and flowers inside... never been lit of course.

2) Remove the inedible ears from those two bunny cakes and they would look like a mama 'possum and her baby. There are jelly beans surrounding the cakes. Are they meant to be eggs or... Easter Bunny 'droppings'? :-p Yeah, what the heck IS that red furry/fluffy thing? We have one of those 9x13 inch Pyrex cake/casserole pans that we still use from time to time.

3) We can see the reflection of a woman, also wearing Easter attire, in the window, next to the ceramic chicken.

4) It's wonderful to see a comment from Melissa! Just like old times! We even get a "hello sailor". :-)
I think we had similar square Easter baskets back in the late '50s. Looks like there are some real Easter eggs in their baskets. Families with kids still dye eggs for Easter, right? So I suppose there would be real eggs in baskets even now. Although it seems like the Easter Bunny only leaves candy, and plastic eggs nowadays.

Melissa, I hope you can start posting again soon! Thank you (as always), Sue and Major.

Chuck said...

Happy Easter, everyone! And it’s a special Easter treat to hear from Melissa! We’ve missed you so much!

Well, everyone else has pointed out all the cool details, so I’ll just share some memories instead. I’d usually get a chocolate bunny for Easter, but I was too tenderhearted to eat it. My mom would usually find it under my bed around the Fourth of July, stale and worm-eaten and throw it out. Not a jellybean fan, so those always went to my mom or my sister.

One of the wonderful things about holidays is the traditions that go with them. My mother used to make a special coffee cake for breakfast on holidays. She mailed a handwritten copy of the recipe to Mrs. Chuck soon after we got married, and that yellowed index card with my mother’s handwriting comes out every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter. In fact, I’m eating a slice right now (of coffee cake, not the index card).

JB, with the cost of eggs this year, a lot of families are dyeing marshmallows instead. I painted the laundry room instead. It was cheaper.

Thanks Major and Melissa and Sue!

zach said...

Happy Easter, Melissa and all. We always got chocolate bunnies and jelly beans in an Easter basket.

Chuck, is the laundry room half and half pastel colors or stripes?

Thanks Major and Sue.

zach

JG said...

Wow, quite an ashtray! That thing deserves a post all on its own. I don’t recall ever having a plastic-wrapped basket. Mine resembled the one in the second photo, with the foil wrapped chocolate eggs. Good idea to wrap the kids in plastic, saves the couch and the carpet. I used to run around hiding eggs for our kids, Mrs. G and our daughter were still coloring eggs up till recently. Chuck has a good idea, color the walls, not the eggs.

Bunny, Bubbles, and Beulah are going to be late for choir practice. That is a seriously cute picture.

And Melissa! Great to hear from you! And such a perfect picture. Judd looks like he has just heard bad news… “…the bunny’s ears are hollow, Judd…”.

Thank you Sue, Major and Melissa!

JG

Dean Finder said...

Great to hear from you Melissa! Hope you're soon back with us regularly.

Chuck, I'm with you on those things we only eat on holidays. I'm off to my mother-in-law's for Easter brunch. She and my wife have been great about incorporating some of my family's traditional Polish foods since my parents passed away.
I am going to eat my one Cadbury Creme Egg of the year, which sadly are not nearly as good as they were before Mondelez bought Cadbury. TRE even in candy I guess.

Dean Finder said...

I just noticed the boy in the first picture has pants printed with what look like wanted posters or old-time classified ads. I remember having furniture where the pressboard interior of the drawers had a similar printing.

Nanook said...

@ Chuck-
"... with the cost of eggs this year, a lot of families are dyeing marshmallows instead".
It's POTATOES... yes, really - potatoes.

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter to all!
Thanks Major, Sue & Melissa for the pictures.

-DW

Nanook said...

@ JB-
"... what the heck IS that red furry/fluffy thing?"

I was thinking it was a troll, but the face seemed so odd. Well, why not... It appears to be a Royalty Designs, Guru The Meditator, from 1967. LOOK HERE.

Major Pepperidge said...

TokyoMagic!, I would appreciate anything that would allow me to light up faster and more efficiently. Ahhhh, that soothing smoke, recommended by doctors!

Nanook, you need to learn the graceful art of nibbling on a solid chocolate bunny! At least they could fill a hollow bunny with marshmallow or something. Bourbon! “Double Bunnies”, I thought that was a mild epithet, like when you stub your toe. Let’s hope that Melissa chimes in more often!

JB, I’ve never cared for Peeps, even when I was a kid; that weird grainy texture, and… well, there’s nothing I liked. I’m sure Shakespeare compared a woman’s hair to pulled taffy in one of his sonnets. My mom STILL has something very much like that brandy snifter, only hers is supposed to hold a big candle. Instead we filled it with teeny tiny Christmas lights, it actually looks pretty neat when lit. Possum cake, my favorite, after possum pot pie. I didn’t notice the lady in the reflection, but am kind of surprised that she didn’t take the picture. I think my mom used the same woven plastic Easter baskets year after year, and why not? We didn’t really care about the baskets, just the stuff inside. Remember how that plastic “grass” seemed to get everywhere? I have no idea if families still dye eggs for Easter, I hope so. It was sort of a pain, but sort of fun too.

Chuck, funny that you could not bring yourself to eat your chocolate bunny. At some point I hope your mom just left you a pile of little foil-wrapped chocolate eggs! I don’t like jelly beans either, especially the old-school kind. Jelly Belly beans are better, though I am still not a big fan. Yum, coffee cake! My mom made a coffee cake ONCE, and it was great. I guess it was too much of a pain and she never did it again. Dying marshmallows?? Crazy!!

zach, if we were lucky enough to have our grandparents visiting for Easter, my grandma would actually buy Sees chocolate eggs and bunnies, which were far superior to the usual variety.

JG, my granparents smoked (unfortunately) and had some rather amazing ashtrays (big heavy glass things) and cool silver and crystal lighters. I have a few of them in boxes after they both passed, though maybe it’s time to sell them on eBay. There used to be a kind of Paas decorating kit in which you wrapped the eggs in some sort of colorful “tissue” that would transfer color to the egg, but, like most of those gimmicks, the results were not satisfying.

Dean Finder, yes, let’s hope Melissa will be back with us soon. A friend gave me a small bag of Cadbury eggs with a candy shell, but they are already gone. That’s the extent of my wild and crazy celebrating!

Nanook, potatoes? Why even bother?

DW, I hope Melissa tunes in today!

Nanook, yikes, I think you are right. I kind of like that toy, and kind of *don’t* like it at the same time!

Kathy! said...

Happy Easter, Major, Sue, Melissa, and Jr. Gorillas! I always like seeing fun holiday pics. The little girl in the first one has her Easter pjs, with ducklings or chickies on them. My favorite hat is the baby bonnet-like one on the far right sister. I don’t see people decorating much for Easter anymore but there still is a lot of candy at the grocery store. Thanks, Major.

JB said...

Nanook (thanks for the link!), Yes, that is exactly what that red furry thing is but... I'd never seen or heard of one of those before. I guess it was part of the Troll doll line of toys?

Major, I've never been a Peep fan either. I don't think I mind the gritty texture (well, maybe a little). It's just they're so unvaryingly sweet! No chocolate to contrast with the marshmallow. And frankly, the newer flavors they've been coming out with the last several years don't sound appealing to me at all.
I remember when the 'grass' was made of waxy green tissue paper. It looked more real, but the plastic grass looks prettier.

"Lou and Sue" said...

In the second picture, I see that the bunny, on that blue egg 'box,' is tethered to that egg with a yellow ribbon. Poor bunny.

"Chuck, is the laundry room half and half pastel colors or stripes?"

Zach, I'm picturing that writing you see on PAAS-dyed eggs -- when you use that wax stick. Chuck probably has his name written all over the walls.

"Major, I've never been a Peep fan either. I don't think I mind the gritty texture (well, maybe a little). It's just they're so unvaryingly sweet! No chocolate to contrast with the marshmallow. "

JG, they do have Peeps that are partially dipped in chocolate. Those are my favorite Peeps.

Black jelly beans, or NO jelly beans!

I agree with everyone - this is a wonderful Easter, with Melissa back!

Thanks, Major and everyone, for today's fun celebration.

HAPPY EASTER!

Lou and Sue said...

^ That “Peeps” comment was for JB, not JG. My bad.