I was thinking about Easter traditions..those old style baskets...( so much nicer than today's " plastic buckets " the chocolate bunnies and crosses..the trip to the chocolate shop ( ours in Queens was called " Davies" and was there a century.. ) the chocolate covered white cream eggs..the bright yellow marshmallow lumpy Peeps nothing like the sharp edged stylized Peeps of today. .
Frilly hats and white gloves..church services...new patent leather shoes....hot cross buns...baked Easter "tombs"
I decided to start a tradition this year of hanging a cross in my prayer/ memorial garden and so I gathered the crosses I had been saving for the garden and decided to post those in Art in the Garden. And, I included a story about one of the crosses..
I thought I would post it here and invite you all to share your Easter memories and traditions old and new.
here it is --
Well, the warmer weather is here ( mostly ) and I am so excited to see what everyone will add to their gardens.
In honor of Easter, I am adding these crosses to our prayer/ memorial garden..I will use the tiniest nails I can find to mount them on a tree. My idea was to put them on a fence in the garden, but our hemlock rail fence is not flat enough ..the rails are rough cut and diamond shaped...and so I will use a tree and hope I do no damage. Let me tell you about the mostly blue and silver cross...
My husband's dad passed a few years back. He was an interesting man. He left home during the depression when he was just 14.. When he became of age, he joined the navy. Later, he was a union organizer ( lots of fights to organize mob- controlled factories in NYC and the boroughs ). A lot of drinking; a lot of womanizing. He had no formal education, but he was very well-informed and could talk about most anything -- especially government and politics.
He owned several homes and he would rent rooms one by one to recovering alcoholics.
Pop decided he wanted to learn to sail in his sixties and bought a mostly broke down boat and restored it. He had no experience in restoration ( nor sailing ...but he WAS in the navy ) ...(he took me sailing ONCE and almost tossed the boat!) Pop sailed that boat to SOUTH AMERICA on one of his first voyages. Got caught in a hurricane.. met his 5th wife there (well ..maybe 4th..one wife he married twice ) (DH mother was number 1..she would want me to tell you that.) Pop was STILL married to his 4th wife when he met his fifth. Found her in a marina in S. America.. He put that young woman on that rickety boat and sailed home. Well, customs caught him and said he could not bring her in that way and SO HE MARRIED HER --but, he was still married to number 4!!
Pop was an alcoholic until his mid- late 50's.. he missed his alcohol... but he was going to lose his family. He had a decision to make.. and he made it! He attended AA meetings every single day he was at home and even in different towns when he traveled, until he passed in his 80's. He had a child with that 5th wife - Paul - who is now 20 and a poet. He attended to that child like he should have with his other children --Paul's upbringing, his private education, his value system ...in a way I know he wished he did with his other 4 (whose mothers did all of the hard work.)
To honor him and the changes he made, I wanted an unusual cross..but as many as I found that were very nice..none suited him ( by the way he was an atheist ) ...then it hit me! I contacted a crafts person and had this silver and blue cross made. It is made from tiny squares of aluminum cut and nailed onto a form...the aluminum came exclusively from beer cans!!! He loved the ocean and the sky and the sun and grass and birds and nature-- and food... ...and so the colors are primarily blue and silver..with some hot colors and greens....and there are some fruit squares in there...(fermented fruit = spirits ) I think it looks like the ocean and the sky primarily.
Addendum...
Pop was cremated.. we had his ashes made into a sphere ( a big one..4 feet around) with many cutouts and dropped it into the ocean. I bought a very good piece of chocolate ( he like "GOOD" chocolate "no junk" ) and we added it and some coins to the vat. "a man should always have a few coins in his pocket" to the mix of acrylics and ashes ...I believe one of the kids slipped in some alcohol shhhh. The eternal sphere bears his name ..he is now ( we hope ) happily providing a mini reef for sea creatures.. I hope he is pleased. 😊 We remember him well. He lived a full life.
PS ..he decided in his late 60's early 70s when ocean traveling became impossible with a young child that he wanted to paint. He had never picked up a brush. He gave us one of his paintings. It is of my DH mother..he met her in a coat factory he was organizing when both in their 20s. She was a sewing machine operator.
