***Here’s an oldie but a goodie in the holiday spirit.***
Easter is my least-favorite holiday. At Christmas you get good chocolate and lots of presents. At Easter you get Peeps. No comparison.
As a kid growing up in Eureka, I was subjected to all kinds of barbaric treatment by well-meaning family members. I HAD to have a new coat, made from scratch by a lady on “A” Street, Audrey Hansen and her mother. Anyone remember them? Every coat involved two or three fittings all of which involved repeatedly being stuck with pins. These days we’d call it child abuse. The ladies were still in business when I was in sixth grade and had to have a Tiger Lily costume for the Christmas Pageant. More pins.
My normal hair wouldn’t do for Easter, either. My grandmother would march me down to Daly’s to have my hair permed. Remember that salon on the mezzanine level? The sulphurous fumes from the frying hair filled the whole store. Ah, the good old days.
Like it or not, Easter is a big holiday for retail spending. The National Retail Federation tells us each of us will spend $140 on Easter this year. I’m not even close. I bought some Reese’s and a Paas egg coloring kit. Don’t ask. Our Easter Dinner will be a pork roast rescued from the freezer. I like to slow-cook them so that the house smells good for hours.
That NRF article includes some fascinating data on how people plan to spend the holiday. almost half of you will be in church. Which is good. I don’t go myself, but I definitely approve of church. Almost a third of you will be surfing the web on Easter, maybe doing some online buying. I asked the friendly staff at Partrick’s the other day about their holiday sales and they reported that while their big days are Christmas and Valentine’s, Easter comes in a close third, representing maybe 15% of yearly revenues. That’s pretty much the same as on the national level.
So Happy Easter, everyone. Support your local candy store and don’t make your kids get their hair fried. And go to the Zoo. It’ll make you feel good.
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