Easters Past & Present

What a difference half a century makes! During the early years of marriage and with having our four children all during my twenties, mainly because the middle two were only fourteen months apart (for which I joked with my OB/GYN about his creating business by distributing defective diaphragms)(this was long before birth-control pills became the norm-in fact it was circa late forties through fifties) - a number of weeks in spring were jammed with the additional project of seeing that all had spiffy new Easter outfits.

With our income limitations, this was a huge challenge for the budget and the only way to solve it was to apply my sewing skills to creating as much of the clothing as possible. During those years, I made many of our wardrobe items, tailored corduroy jackets for my husband even. I was self-taught mainly, because I opted out of home-ec sewing class out of boredom! This may have been because my only paternal aunt who was a registered nurse but also a skilled seamstress with marvelous taste and had made many items of clothing for me over my schoolyears. Especially poignant in my memories are the dresses she made for my piano recitals, the only positive aspect in relation to that agony. I was shy and sure that every one had much more talent than I, the music teacher included all students regardless of ability or experience, in those tortures. But back to Easter outfitting.

Dictates of the budget propelled these projects forward into years when my daughters thought I was Marquesa de Sade when I still created Easter outfits and school wardrobes for them long after their willingness to wear them . It is doubtful that their memories are positive. In retrospect, I wish I had photo'd all my creations for a scrap book.(My skills eventually included slip-covering and lined pleated draperies too.)

Time, too much of it, would be consumed looking through the pattern books (these were the size of major urban yellow page directories and found in the yardage/fabrics departments) of McCall's and Simplicity for just the right style then the hunt for the perfect material and colors. Hours spent laying out the pattern, cutting, pinning, basting, sewing, fitting, trimming etc. - this at least on the outfits for the two girls and myself. The boys fared better, maybe I would include a jacket for them but they always had store-bought trousers. I am sure the girls thought this was quite unfair. In spite of the additional time added to the the usual domestic housekeeping and parenting duties for a family of six, I, recall the experience as a creative outlet for me. And as a result of the penny-squeezing aspect, I could usually purchase Easter bonnets for the girls. One year I even remember making dresses and a co-ordinated duster-type coat for them.We were living in Los Angeles at the time so no heavy coats were needed.

And what is going to be memorable about this year? Packaging torture of a very different kind!! Wardrobe considerations have long since been discarded, but I did decide to get part of a ham - which is somewhat traditional for the season. I have a particular brand that I like and the favored supermarket was having a good promotional price so I found one but just bought on past experience because it was shrouded in black nylon netting (is that supposed to be sexy for a ham?)-then under that was a gold foil-like heavy wrapping. Nothing visible to confirm there was meat under there but I am not that paranoid so tossed it in the basket, brought it home, heaved it in the frig. Then the other night I decided since I will have a problem using this six and a half pounds of meat - I would start early and make myself a ham sandwich. (it is one of those "fully-cooked" types). (One of my bridge buddies was lamenting the fact that she had trouble finding any that weren't - and she preferred yet to cook her own.)

So I pulled the ham from the frig and started the derobing process. First sturdy scissors were needed to cut the nylon netting, okay - then apply them again to cutting through the industrial strength gold foil.Even then the ham resisted birthing from this placenta like cover. I am not sure just which household tool is best for the next challenge. Perhaps a scalpel and a surgeons skill. The ham - visible at last- was encased in a skin of air-tight plastic that seemed strong enough to stop a bullet. Why is packaging going to these extremes.[ I have been having recurrent skirmishes with various purchases - armored in protective films that give no edge to the purchaser in opening these defiant objects, a small index-finger sized pc thumb drive took several efforts to release it from its bondage. Same with replacement batteries, when did they stop using paper/cardboard for packaging?] After exhaustive effort the spiral-cut ham was finally revealed. Good thing about the pre-slicing, I had no energy left for that!

My recollection is that these packaging materials are petroleum sourced - no wonder the world is running short, but after we exhaust this resource just what are we going to face? No basis for road rage or packaging rage. Peace at last.

And there must be an answer there too for the port security concerns. Cocoon those containers this way.

Ham Sandwich anyone?