In Your Easter Bonnet...

As Easter approaches, I like to remember the Easter Sundays of my childhood. Not so much the Easter basket goodies (I have always disliked those chocolate rabbits!), but getting ready for church.

Really, except for the fact that Mother made sure we were dressed to the nines on Easter Sunday, there wasn't much different on that day than any other Sunday. Church? If it was Sunday, the Kelseys were there. Now that my kids are almost grown, I can empathize with all of the work that went into getting a family of seven ready to leave for church -- clean and on time.

On Saturday night the single bathroom in our house was kept busy as Mother and Daddy made sure everyone had a bath.

Then off to the kitchen sink for a shampoo with bright green Prell shampoo. Since either "no tears" shampoo didn't exist, or we just didn't have it, we had this plastic thing with a hole in the middle. Mother put it on our heads, pulled it down on our forehead, and then pulled our hair through the hole. The plan was that our hair could be washed without getting that harsh Prell in our eyes. If we stood still, it worked pretty well.

After the shampoo, Joellyn and I took turns getting our hair combed through with Wave Net and then done up in pin curls, with the hope that in the morning, our hair would have dried into beautiful waves. It was a futile hope. Joellyn's auburn hair was naturally curly. If Mom had left it alone it would have been fine. But with the help of the pin curls, she had the effect of a very TIGHT curl. My hair did the opposite. Once the bobby pins were out, we could comb it gently once. Any more than that and all curl was gone before we got in the car.

Let's see...everyone is bathed, shampooed, girls hair is curled. Then all nails were clipped, all Sunday shoes rounded up, cleaned and polished. They would be waiting on the kitchen counter in the morning, along with a quarter and either a pack of gum or a roll of lifesavers. The quarter for the offering, and I guess the gum or candy with the hope that if our mouths were full, we might be quiet.

In the morning, we would sit down to a breakfast of bacon and eggs and then put on our new church clothes (Joellyn and I often were dressed alike) and then pile into the car and drive to church.

When I was very little, Mother took a cottage cheese carton (it had rabbits on it), cut a hole in the top and told us that whenever we got money, we must put 1/10th of our money into the carton, to be taken to church for the offering. We loved to drop our coins into that container.

I've said all that to say this. My parents taught us what was important by their example. Church was a priority, not a last minute, rush to get ready thing. They prepared and planned ahead of time to go. They taught us to get ready and to get there. I remember very few Sundays when we weren't sitting in a row at Perkins Church of the Nazarene, singing "Do Lord" and reciting "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'"

They were good times. Unforgettably good.