The Great Easter Egg Hunt
When my sister and I were younger and my grandparents were
still around we would all gather at their house and have a gigantic Easter egg
hunt with all of our cousins. The whole
family would be watching as we would shove and grab and try to get as many eggs
as possible, all filled with candy or prizes.
After we would gorge on Easter lunch with deviled eggs, ham, and of
course my Nanny's famous Bunny Cake.
After my grandparents passed, and how it often goes in many families
when the Matriarch and Patriarch pass on---the family started to separate off
and do their own thing---which is too bad really and we all do think fondly
back on those days.
However out of this the greatest holiday tradition was born
from my Dad.
He started an Easter Egg scavenger hunt for my sister and
I. In each egg there is a clue to the
next egg until the very end where you get a prize (it use to be candy, now its
$ and scratch tickets). When we were
younger---say early teens he would hide them just around our house. But in the last 4 or 5 years he has really gotten crazy and we now find
ourselves driving all over the town of Friendship.
There is always the normal stops along the way: a visit to
our grandparents graves where we leave two eggs, a trip down to THE KAPPS on
Martin Point road to fetch an egg off their property. I have to say my favorite ones are always
down at the Wharf, or at an old family spot that only our family would know
about. Sometimes he gets people
involved and we have to go talk to Ernie down at Wallace's Market and ask for
the egg, or go say hello to our Aunt. We
always bring our cellphones and end up giving a call if we don't understand a
clue---like I have no idea where North west is in relation to a tree on our
property, or which cooler in the bait shed down at the wharf the egg might be
hiding in.
We get some very strange looks because we are 25 and 28 year
old girls searching for eggs in Friendship, but we are def. Not ashamed, in
fact I think we are the luckiest daughters alive. And my dad really gets a kick out of getting
us out of our comfort zone and having to go fetch an egg from someone's chicken
coop for example, at the same time I find myself rediscovering how beautiful
the town I grew up in is, and how connected I am to so many places in it. I feel so happy after this easter hunt for
having all these happy memories associated with my childhood.
I hope this tradition never ends---someday I picture Ash and
my kid's searching for eggs down at my parents house—and thinking how
incredibly lucky they are to have such cool grandparents to spoil them.
