Okay, I am going to really date myself with what I am about to say .....
After reading some Easter basket memories at Peg's blog, I started thinking about my own Easter basket memories.
There was always that giant solid chocolate Easter rabbit that you started nibbling off the ears of, but could never actually finish.
There were the jelly beans(of which I picked out the black licorice flavored ones to give to my sister--I prefered the red and pink ones),
the peanut butter chocolate eggs(my favorite),
and the the marshmallow filled chocolate eggs.
I don't remember ever seeing any Peeps candies when I was a kid, but that's okay because when I tried them a few years ago for the first time, I could barely stand the sugary sweet taste and texture. Why are these things so popular?
Cadbury's Creme eggs didn't happen on the U.S. Easter scene until long after my Easter basket days, and that's okay, too. The gooey filling makes me think too much of a real egg's insides(I'm not a fan of eggs, soft boiled or hard boiled--especially the yolk) and it tastes too rich for me. Like the marshmallow Peeps,I know these eggs have their legions of fans, though.
Of course, there was always the requisite egg hunt. We always hunted for small chocolate eggs and jelly beans and for the most part, it was usually indoors, rather than outdoors. (growing up in New England--especially when we were in Maine--, it was never quite comfortably warm enough for outdoor anything on Easter Sundays--this just past one a real anomaly with temps soaring in the 70's*F!). My mother hid some so well, I can recall finding some unexpectedly in places like the living room's magazine basket months and months later(and of course, eating them, no matter how stale. It was always a serendipitous discovery).
Then, as a mother with my own child, I loved getting a basket together for my own daughter(and would get up early to be sure that the "Easter Bunny" hid those eggs well outside in the back yard for the hunt). But, last year, with R almost 14 years old, I decided that it was time to stop the Easter Basket tradition. But then, R actually seemed sad last year, without a basket on Easter morning, and I remember wishing that I had given her one after all.
Well, a few weeks ago, when I was in the supermarket, I spotted a bottle of bubble liquid, and I wanted so badly to buy it--for both my daughter and my own memories. After I put it in my cart, I also looked around for some candy for R's basket--Lindt chocolate eggs and a Lindt chocolate bunny (only the best chocolate for my kid--I have raised her as a chocolate snob), and the hunt was on for little goodies for her basket. It made me feel all was right with the world that I could still give my (now almost 15 years old) daughter an Easter Basket. I did throw in some things like nail polish and and shower gel, too.
And..it was so rewarding to realise that my kid was very happy to have her own basket (with bubbles!)on Easter Sunday. Twice, she thanked me(and the husband) for her basket!
Looking around for things to put in her basket, I roamed the drug store's aisles, looking at the temporary Easter aisle. It made me feel a little old when I couldn't find things like jacks and jump ropes--these were always put out for sale for Easter baskets back in my day(w-a-a-y back when). I guess kids don't play with these things anymore.
This got me thinking of other "things you just don't see anymore" (like Charo, phone booths, nuns in habits--I blogged about these things in parts 1 and 2 here and here).
* Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Books These, I think, have completely disappeared from the scene. I used to love these books full of clothes to cut out (there might have been some books later with perforated clothes, but I remember actually enjoying cutting around the tabs--no matter how long it took), and these used to be on a rack in the dime store right next to the......
.....Coloring Books .I guess these might still be around. But I haven't seen any lately.
I guess it's a good thing these aren't so popular anymore. They certainly didn't encourage too much creativity, I suppose. But, I would spend hours coloring in my coloring books--it was a satifying, soothing activity, as I remember it.(and it was that much better if you had a brand new box of pointy tipped crayons to color in the blank pages with). One of my earliest memories is of sitting at the Formica and metal kitchen table in our kitchen when I was about 5 years old, coloring in my Disney Jungle Book coloring book, the smell of mingled Crayola wax crayons and and the stale cigarette in the ashtray next to me(a friend of our mother's was visiting)--a good 60's scented memory.
* Jump Ropes I suppose these are still around, if you really look for them. But, when I searched for Google images for 'jump rope', it was mostly jump ropes intended for adult exercise that came up, when what I was searching for was the plastic handled kind with the striped cord(see above!)
When I was a child, jump ropes were mandatory almost, if you were a girl. We jumped rope in our yards, on the street and on the school playground.
Which brings me to.... * Jacks This was another big thing, and I remember a huge jacks craze in particular in the 5th grade. Would 5th graders even condescend to play jacks, now? I don't think so...but we had tournaments at recess and even before school. Marbles, too, were big when I was in my early elementary school years, but it was more a 'boys only' thing then. Still, we always got new marbles in spring, and I just liked having them to hold and to look at, and to separate into piles of prettiest and next-prettiest.
And lastly......* Dusting Powder ! I have been thinking of powder lately--remembering there was always a yellow container of Jean Nate dusting powder in our bathroom cabinet. And I got it into my head that I think I might want to get some for myself for this summer--a nostalgia-type thing(yes, I know talc isn't good to breathe in, so maybe that is part of the reason dusting powder isn't around much anymore).
So, on a break from work the other week, I walked over to the nearest drugstore to find some. The selection of powders was so dismal. Just some Shower-to-Showers(I used to wear Shower-to-Shower powder every day in high school, actually), Johnson's baby powders and Gold Bond. Not even a pink Cashmere Bouquet! And certainly not any powders with puffs. :-(
I am going to keep looking for scented dusting powders, though, and just might look into making my own (I think you can make it using rice or corn starch which is better for you than talc).
