El and I went to visit and have lunch with my mom, Joyce Koelker, on Good Friday. At 92, she is OK. As always she enjoyed hearing about our Colorado mountain men Ben and Mark and their best friends Christine and Jen.
I helped Mom with her lunch, slowly feeding her most likely how she fed me a few decades ago. I am glad to do it as there isn’t much else I can do for her. (We used to help by mowing her lawn or washing her windows, for example.) When a nurse asked who this was—meaning me and Ellen, she replied, “Why this is my oldest and his wife.” Nailed it, Mom! Anyway, after I asked about Easter services, it got me to remembering (like so many other triggers) back in the day.
I asked Mom if she recalled the Easter shopping trip to Dubuque back in the day when I lobbied for a new Easter fedora with a feather on the side. When Mom and Dad acquiesced, little brother Del wanted one too. She didn’t recollect it I guess. Anyway, I have a picture of the three of us dressed up in our Easter finery. Diane in a flouncy dress with gloves, a hat, and an Easter basket. Both Del and I had on dress jackets and ties and those mini-fedoras. Oops baby, Carolyn was not in that photo.
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We’d get up in the morning to Easter baskets filled with colored eggs, jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies. One year, (Note: if you can’t handle non-politically correct stuff skip this.) I got what I thought was a beautifully tooled Western-style gun belt and a silver six-gun cap firing pistols, so I could better play cowboys and whomever the other guys were on whatever day with my friends—depending on who we were into like Roy Rogers, Range Rider, Gene Autrey, Matt Dillon, Wyatt Earp, the Lone Ranger, Cheyenne, Gil Favor, the Rifleman, Paladin, and even Daniel Boone.
After most Easter Sunday services, my family went out on Irish Ridge down Far Nuf Road to Grandma Potter’s for Easter dinner. I was not the foodie then as I am now, but I do remember roast beef, mashed taters with Grandma’s beef gravy, and homemade bread for sure. Ham and garden veggies from the freezer and chocolate cake with raisins and chocolate chips and still my favorite, sour cream raisin pie were probably on the menu, too. Most were probably prepared on Grandma’s wood fired kitchen stove. The guest list most likely included many Minks and a lot of Leesers. I remember, my mom’s cousin Keith Mink used to tease me by calling me “the preacher,” as we often came for Sunday dinner straight from church. Regardless, there was most likely an after dinner euchre game accompanied by a glass of malt beverages and/or some of Grandma’s special sacramental wine for the adults. Depending on the weather, the Milwaukee Braves might have been on the radio, too.
Until next time, get out — hope you all have got your fill of Peeps, Cadbury eggs, robins eggs, Whoppers, and jelly beans and hard boiled eggs. Enjoy.
