My mom loved holidays. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, they all held a special meaning for her. She came a from a large family with 13 kids. Almost every holiday was celebrated at someone’s home. When all the kids, grandkids, aunts, uncles, cousins, and spouses showed up, it was a big crowd.
Easter was spent at Aunt Edra Mae and Uncle Herman’s house. They had a big farmhouse west of Jasper and their yard was the perfect place to have an Easter egg hunt.
Everyone would arrive after church, dressed in their Easter best. When we were all in the yard, we were more colorful than a jar full of jellybeans.
Aunt Edra Mae and Uncle Herman had a Spinning Ginny in their yard, a homemade merry-go-round. Uncle Herman had cut down a hickory tree and left a stump about three feet high. He attached a board around 8 inches wide and about 12 feet long to the stump with a huge metal spike. It looked like a big propeller sticking out of the ground.
Kids would get on each end of the board and other kids would spin them around. We would all stagger around as if we had drunk moonshine when we got off the Ginny.
Like all family gatherings in the south, we had a feast. Each of the aunts tried to outdo the others with their cooking. The cakes were the best; you couldn’t have bought a better cake for any price, anywhere.
After lunch, the men would gather up all the eggs, which seemed to number in the hundreds. They would go outside and hide eggs in easy places and really hard places, and I bet there are still egg remains on that farm to this day.
The kids would try to look out the windows but all the aunts stood around as egg police.
After all eggs were hidden, Uncle Herman would gather the kids around and explain boundaries and rules. He took his sweet time.
Finally he would say, “ let ‘em go!” and then it was God help anyone who stood between those kids and the eggs.
All the adults passed the hat before the hunt and there was a cash prize for the one who found the most eggs.
There was a cousin who was a ruthless hunter. His strategy was seeking and destroy. If you both looked at the same egg, there could be a brawl.
Mom loved those egg hunts but she didn’t hunt the eggs, she helped the little kids fill their baskets. She would give hints; do a little blocking to sidetrack bigger kids so the younger ones always found some eggs.
After mom passed, I tried to take her place, helping the young ones on their hunt. They might not win the prize, but just to see them smile when they find an egg and put it in their basket, well somehow I know mom is smiling too.
