On the street

Easter

My favorite Easter candy is hands-down the Cadbury Egg. It's the only Easter candy I eat. In fact, it's the only candy I ever eat. Oh sure I've been known to pop an ocassional Hershey Kiss or Reese's peanut butter cup. But, my weakness isn't usually for sweets. I'm more of a potato chip and french fry kind of girl.

So, that perhaps makes it even more odd that I am obsessed with Cadbury Eggs. I LOVE love LOVE them. There's something about the outside chocolate shell filled with that thick sugary goodness. I can't explain it. They're just wonderful, so wonderful that it's a good thing that they're only sold a few weeks out of the year. I'd be in trouble if I could buy one year-round. Or, maybe not. Maybe part of the appeal is the fact that they're only available for such a short period of time. Perhaps that last one of the season is extra tasty because I know I won't be able to have another for 12 more months.

I blame my father's mother for my obsession. At the risk of making my home state of Alaska sound even more backward than people already think it is, I have to admit that growing up we didn't have the widest selection of products. Twenty years ago you were hard pressed to find the same variety that's available today. So, my grandmother in Pennsylvania kept us well stocked with products that my parents missed from their own childhoods. Several times a year, usually around holidays, she'd send us big boxes of goodies.  Around Easter the package always included boxes of Cadbury eggs, bags of mini cadbury eggs and trays of butter cream and coconut eggs. Limited to one a day, my brother and sisters and I would relish these treats, making them last through May. The last few would always be portioned out so everyone got their fair share.

The packages weren't always sweets either. Sometimes it would be pork roll and scrapple ("delicacies" anyone from Pennsylvania would know) or prosciutto, capicola ham and thinly sliced provalone cheese. There were always books and toys for us kids and items my nature-loving grandmother had collected like pressed flowers, pussywillows, leaves, seed pods and so on. Without fail she also always send newspaper and magazine clippings with little sticky notes attached explaining why she'd found it interesting enough to pass along.

Now, I'm the one living 4,000 miles away from my own mother. And, this week I got a package in the mail that made me smile. There weren't any Cadbury eggs inside. But there was a most random assortment of items: a kitchen knife and cheese grater, my favorite childhood board game - Candyland - and book - "Tiki Tiki Tembo" - for our son, a parenting book my mother had told me about and on top two newspaper clippings with Post-Its covered in my mother's handwriting telling me what she'd found striking about the passages. As I unpacked the box my husband sat watching incredulously at the grab bag of items. "What's the occassion?" he asked. "Nothing," I told him, laughing. "It's just my family."

Next week Molly will catch up with Eastern Iowa families as they enjoy what may well become a new tradition for them: geocaching for Easter Eggs at the Indian Creek Nature Center.

  |    Login or Join to Post Comments