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What Color is the Easter Bunny?
by LaVonne Boruk
I think I've found the Easter Bunny's hiding place. Oh I haven't seen any sign of that sly little rabbit yet, but I've seen plenty of evidence that he's been nearby. Or is it she? I think the Mama Bunny's job is finished when she supplies the eggs in their bright array of rainbow colors. That's a lot of hard work and she needs a rest. So Papa Bunny must be the one to deliver them to his secret hiding places for little kids to find and plunk into their Easter baskets.
That brings another question to mind. How big is that rabbit anyway? He must be at least seven feet tall, although you wouldn't think so by looking at the swing set that he placed strategically for his rests between treks to all the gardens he must visit to hide his wares. He made a beautiful place for his naps. The swing is all pink and comfy looking, and sits under an arbor decorated with butterflies and flowers. And there were dozens of very large eggs stacked on either end of it, hidden in a green forest. Beside it all was a wishing well filled with water into which somebody had tossed a slew of coins. Nickels, dimes, pennies, quarters, and half-dollars lined the bottom of the wishing well sending out an eerie glow. It is all very attractive, and I hope the coin tossers have all their wishes come true.
Have you purchased your Easter Bonnet yet? And maybe a little parasol to go with it? And what about the shoes and dresses, have you found just the right ones for the occasion? And the basket. Don't forget the Easter basket with chocolate rabbits and little jelly eggs, all nestled in a bed of green grass.
I still remember that first Easter Sunday on my grandfather's farm. Grandma made an Easter bonnet for my little sister and me. I had a little blue and white plaid dress and a pair of button shoes. They were black patent leather with a strap across the instep that fastened with a little round button that pushed through a buttonhole not unlike the one on a shirt. Somehow the Easter Bunny knew we had recently moved there when my daddy left the army. I was five years old.
The Easter Bunny must have liked grandpa's fruit orchard, because he deposited a lot of eggs in the high clover that swarmed with grandpa's honeybees. Well, not swarmed really. Actually, they were hidden in the clover gathering nectar from its blossoms. We didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. I loved my little dress and shoes. They'd been a gift from grandma and grandpa. It was cold that morning. We'd had a frost that night, but it got warmer as the day went on. We'd made our Easter baskets from cardboard boxes and crepe paper. Mama and grandma had seen to that, helping us to put the handle on and make them pretty. And they were just the right size. My little sister, being just two years old, got the smallest basket. Mine was a little bigger because I was a big girl.
It didn't seem like any time hardly until we had found all the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden there for us. But our baskets were full, and the sun was high in the Louisiana sky. We oohed and ahed over the gifts the Easter Bunny brought and wondered why he hid them in the orchard. It seemed to me it would have been a lot better if he had just put them in plain sight, but grandma said that wouldn't be any fun. Then she and mama took our baskets full of eggs and went into the kitchen to prepare lunch, shooing us kids outside out of their hair.
Soon mama called us to dinner. And what a feast it was. Grandma had made a coconut layer cake and frosted it with a white icing and coconut. On its top she had made a rabbit's nest with green coconut and placed inside some marshmallow rabbits and tiny jelly eggs. The same green grass and jelly eggs ringed the plate around the cake, too. It was such a pretty sight. Some of the eggs had been shelled and split in half and deviled, and they were served along with grandpa's cured ham. Grandma's baked yams and thick yellow cornbread made the turnip greens taste better.
Grandpa, who never in his life ate a bite of food without first thanking the Lord for the bounty that He had bestowed upon us, asked the Lord to bless the food and all of us, and forgive us our sins, and to watch over us and keep us in good health. Then he took a huge slab of grandma's cornbread and sliced it open and stuffed it with a large dollop of her home churned butter and put it on my plate along with a little of everything else on the table.
After dinner was over the grownups went out on the long wide verandah. Grandpa sat in his old-fashioned cane bottomed rocking chair and put one foot up on the porch post and puffed on his pipe. Mama and grandma sat in the swing at the end of the porch, and daddy sat near them smoking his cigarette. We kids played games until mama called us in for supper.
I think I know what color the Easter Bunny is. He's pink and yellow and green, with large floppy ears, and he carries a large basketful of brightly colored eggs wherever he goes.
©2001 LaVonne Boruk
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