Wednesday, March 4, 2015

EASTER COMES WITH UNWELCOME NEW SHOES


We girls always got new dresses and new shoes for Easter. New dresses are new dresses; some are nice; others are iffy.   New shoes, on the other hand, are instruments of torture. Old shoes have grown accustomed to the feet;  new shoes are an unwelcome intrusion of comfort.
On this particular Easter Sunday church was – the word that comes to mind  is OKAY.  The Easter egg hunt following the service was more rewarding for those of us younger than seventeen.  Then came the dinner at the Moore’s house, just down from the church.  Potato salad (made with mustard), ham (saved from the last hog killing) sweet potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, creamed corn, coconut cake.  A spread worthy of royalty.

For us who qualified as youngens the dresses got stained with pickled beet juice; the shoes pinched and cramped feet used to shoes a year old. While grown-ups visited and attended the very young we of a younger, freer and more adventurous nature hiked along the stream deep into the woods. The stream widened into a pool with a gentle moss covered bank where we could sit with shoes removed.  In water too cold for real comfort we dangled feet weary from the cramping of new shoes.  Later with shoes in hand, with  winter- tender feet suffering the punishment of woods’  terrain we made our way back to the Moore’s and the disapproval of parents, who threatened a punishment worse than twice aching feet if we tried this again. 

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