Easter

  Easter was a pretty big deal when I was a kid. Being raised a catholic, there were the church events, like Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Lent, and the Big Day itself.
   Lent was always tricky, because you had to make certain you "gave up" something that would pass as a sacrifice, but really wasn't so bad to be without. After the first time, you learned not to give up TV again.... or sweets.  Giving up talking on the phone was always a good bet, because your friends would agree to do the same thing, and we could always talk at school.
  Ash Wednesday was such a trip. All the catholics in town were branded with a black smudge right between the eyes. It was a small town we lived in, and I just assumed everyone was catholic until I was old enough to get smudged. That's when I noticed all the kids and grownups who weren't. Ah, the questions that we must have posed to our parents... what? who? where? and , of course, why?
  I loved dying easter eggs. My brothers and I would get to make a righteous mess on the newspaper covered kitchen table, one of us always creating the brown "dipped-in- every- color" eggie. Mom would be there to help us stand each egg on end in the little decorated cardboard holder that came with the egg dying set. You would use this little wire spoon thing to dip and lift the eggs.
  Good times, Good times...
  Now, decades later, having left behind all that, Easter is something entirely different. Glorified day off, drive in the countryside or down the coast, gardening opportunity... maybe a picnic. Or like today...I'm actually at work. I don't have kids, don't attend church, so it's a bit of a non-event. Except for one thing.
  Every year, without fail, I get the Phone Call from Mom.
  "Oh, honey... do you remember that lavender and white plaid dress with the pinafore I made you that year. You were so cute in your little patent leather shoes... and the black velvet jumper I made you from an old Lanz dress I had....I miss making little outfits for you!"
  It kills me every time. She does not disappoint, I'll tell you that. Every year.
  So for me, Easter isn't about the Greatest Story Ever Told, or going to church, or roasted meat of some sort, or even about dying eggs...
  For me, Easter is all about that phone call.