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Tales from Tri-Town

Tales from Tri-Town: Hallowe’en ghosts and trick or treat

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This time of year, orange is the new black, and vice versa. But is it just me or has Hallowe’en gone on for weeks and weeks…and weeks. For some folks, pumpkin spice season started in late August. But at my house, we are happy celebrating a more traditional Hallowe’en – an event measured in hours, versus weeks.

Now, if you talk to folks of a certain age, Hallowe’en had nothing to do with candy – and everything to do with causing mayhem, especially to people in the neighborhood who were considered “mean.”

One correspondent in their 70s admitted to “pressing door knobs and running – knocking over trash barrels – stealing pumpkins and smashing them,” when I asked about Oct. 31 activities (this person preferred to stay anonymous despite my assurances that the statute of limitations for vegetable thievery has probably passed).

But over time, the custom of children putting on costumes and roaming their neighborhoods collecting candy without any “tricks” became the norm. However, I well remember being a very young child in our family home at the end of Main Street in Lunenburg on Hallowe’en night. Just before bedtime, a herd of teen ruffians stampeded onto our farmers’ porch to swipe the jack o’lanterns.

Fortunately, our kindly neighbor Ida “Gram” Ellis was looking after us that night. She consoled my brother Hal and me by saying that the wild animals would be happy to eat the bits of pumpkin. Still, it was a terrifying memory.

When some of us were growing up in homes filled with mid-century modern furniture on its first go-round, the height of luxury was a “store-bought” costume. This consisted of a hard plastic mask with eye holes and a flimsy gown-style costume made of colored rayon. Special bags for candy hadn’t been invented, so you’d bring a laundry bag or satchel. Looney Tunes cartoon characters were big, ditto Batman and Spiderman. If these items made it through the evening without cracking, tearing or shredding, it was a miracle. (Aside: If any of you have a ‘60s- or ‘70s-era costume that survived, get in touch with Rick Paige, of Atomic Dimestore, online. He is looking for “TV-related or monster-related” items, also superheroes.)

However, we Cragins were a theatre family, and there was no way we weren’t going to make our costumes. I was mad about Australian animals and went as a kookaburra, a koala and a kangaroo in subsequent years (all costumes started with a pair of foot pajamas).

In Lunenburg, the houses were few and far between so in early years, off we went to our grandparents’ house in Fitchburg. In the Beacon/Atlantic neighborhood off Summer Street we were surrounded by gangs of children in costume, and houses one after another. The candy pickings were well worth it!

Fitchburg native Janice Nurmi has fond recollections of the annual Hallowe’en tradition. “We had a box of Hallowe’en things (decorations, various parts of costumes) up in our attic. At this time of the year, I couldn’t wait to open it up and look through. I may have had one store-bought costume, but otherwise my costumes came from that box in the attic.”

Nurmi’s family lived on Columbus Street. “We especially liked the tenement buildings because we could get treats from three different apartments in just one house. Believe it or not, my favorite treats were bags of homemade popcorn. Such fun memories.”

But Fitchburg also has its share of ghosts – and ghost stories. I asked people in the Fitchburg Historical Society Facebook page about supernatural encounters and Linda Gosselin shared a story about babysitting at a house on Blossom Street (where all the houses are old) when she was 15.

“I kept hearing footsteps walking up and down the hall upstairs. The little boy I was taking care of was sound asleep. Every time I went upstairs to check, the steps would stop and then resume as soon as I got back downstairs. Who was pacing?!”

Who indeed. One individual in Fitchburg was so committed to his belief in an earthly afterlife that he endowed a professorial chair at Clark University for the purpose of studying the paranormal. Joseph A. Battles is his name, and we will explore his story in the next “Tales from Tri-Town.”

In the meantime – save the Heath Bars for your faithful correspondent here, and remember to vote on November 7.

Sally Cragin is an award-winning journalist and reachable by talk or text at 978-320-1335. 

Tales from Tri-Town: Going once, going twice…

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From Matchbox cars to campers – with a lot of tractor-mowers in between – spring cleaning comes every day for Ken Maston who, with his wife Robin, owns Fitchburg’s Parkhill Estate Liquidation, a multi-level business, which includes a regional favorite: “U Bid to Buy” online auction.

Maston, a genial fellow with the rapid-fire delivery you’d expect from a licensed auctioneer, recently spoke about his one-of-a-kind operation. By his own estimate, he’s easily handled a million items, including remarkable objects such as automotive collectibles from the late Fitchburg Music Store magnate Gerry Martel, and horse-drawn carriages from Judge Gelinas’s house.

Years ago, Maston, who is also a realtor, realized that family members who were left an estate needed more assistance when left with “a house full of stuff.”

“Families who have lost a loved one are looking for a turnkey solution,” he said one afternoon in the cavernous Parkhill headquarters. “We have a client from the west coast who had a week to meet with us and organize the whole process then have the funeral. So we stepped in, got the house cleaned out and listed and, when he left, the ‘for sale’ sign was in the front yard. It was a turnkey solution for them.”

Maston works throughout the region, and is always delighted when an older home is added to his list. “We’re working an estate right now where the man was the local minister and a theology professor, and there is a collection of antique books — some dating back to the late 1700s.”

However, some treasures aren’t out in the open. When he started in the house-clearing and auction business, “a friend of mine told me to always look up.”

“We got called by an attorney to go into a townhouse in Brookline. And, sure enough, when I looked up at the space where the central chimney had a hollow, I reached in and pulled out a bag and it was full of these Civil War revolvers. He (the homeowner) looked at them and was dumbfounded and said ‘These have been here long before my family.’”

Maston researches unusual and surprising items before they get listed and has developed encyclopedic knowledge about what museums used to call “Decorative Arts,” now known as antique, vintage, or collectible items.

The biggest trend he continues to see in furnishings and houseware is Mid-Century Modern, and “Scandinavian inspired stuff.”

However, an enormous category that is no longer trendy is furniture. When emptying a house, he isn’t particularly looking to take the furniture for resale.

“We take it if we have to but it’s not something we look for. The current generation now calls Bob’s and has it delivered. When they get five years of use out of it they throw it in the dumpster and buy it again,” he said, shaking his head. “The whole used furniture market has collapsed.”

Classic kitchen items such as matching mixing bowls had gone the same way, until Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart started using them as props on their shows, “or behind them on their set, and now you can get $100 for a four-color nested Pyrex bowl set. We used to throw them in dumpsters – but now we put them aside.”

What  else do the 5500 active users who browse the online auction like?

“Ceramic Christmas trees, and blow mold stuff does really well,” he said. “Those blow mold nativity scenes and Santa’s doing 80 or 100 right now. If we notice it’s local, like Union Products, we mention it.”

Maston notes that taxidermy is also “one of those freakish collectible things. The rarer the taxidermy the better. Firearms are another thing we find in estates all the time. We’re licensed to transport them, we can broker the deal and put them into an auction. We work for our clients’ best interests to get them the most amount of money.”

Buyers also like new stuff in boxes, and “things people can use like a lawn tractor or snow blower or good quality tools or electronics. People don’t want to spend 1200 for a new snowblower but they’ll spend five or six hundred dollars for one slightly used,” said Maston.

The online auction runs Saturday afternoon to the next Saturday – “and the hammer comes down at 12 sharp,” said wife Robin Maston, who, with their pup, Oscar Madison, “the Mayor of Parkhill,” presides over the inventory.

When an auction concludes, Maston notes that the average buyer comes from 20 miles or less and we only ship about 2 to 3% of our stuff.”

However, the flip side of collecting is hoarding. One suspects Maston has seen more hoarding disorders than psychiatrists and has noted numerous nuances.

“The analogy I use is: we spent half of our life building our life and the last third thinning out the things we collected during the productive years. The hoarding disorder is the exception to the rule. We have worked with clients and cleaned houses where it’s obviously a hoarding disorder. Hoarders who hoard everything and anything including rubbish and junk? Their estates tend not to have large value. There are sanitary issues, odors, rotten food, non-functioning plumbing.

“Then, there’s the hoarder who likes to collect – and who will collect quality things. We have customers who are hoarders but everything in their house has value. They’re surrounded by stuff of value, like pocket watches and jewelry. It’s two different types of mentalities.”

As for Maston? Through the years, he’s collected art glass and cameras, but now? He pauses at the question, and then declares: “I collect Ben Franklins – that’s a joke!”

Parkhill Auction Gallery, 551 Electric Ave., Fitchburg (behind, and to the right of Family Dollar). Hours: Tues-Wed: 12 to 5; Thursday, 12 to 6; Friday, 12 to 5; Sat., 10 to 4 and closed Sun.-Mon. Call: 978-345-2022. Visit: ubidtobuy.com.

Tales from Tri-Town: The aftermath of the Civil War

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In 1875, Fitchburg had been a city for just three years, and business was booming, although there were clouds on the horizon, since a larger national event, the “Panic of 1873” was affecting banks, businesses and the railroads throughout the country.

Fitchburg had a growing middle-class, but statistics tell another tale, which is that poor families were moving in at a fast clip. The year of the Panic, the Overseers of the Poor were put in a tough place. Led by Cyrus Thurston (who was also the leader of the “Old Folks Choir”), the Overseers reported the Almshouse “furnished partial support for 78 families” (240 individuals).

In this era, cities or towns were obliged to support former residents in the period that they left town and relocated. However, Fitchburg had the cost of immediate care of these people and had to provide food, lodging, and other supports (clothing, medical, and other supplies) for the newest arrivals.

Next, the City was in the position of trying to get payment from the towns these individuals and families move from. Thus we find that Springfield paid six dollars to support Daniel Shay, and Palmer provided $182.45 to support “Mrs. Pearson and family.”

Costly indeed, but probably not as much trouble as the “travelers” who came to town, seeking work on the railroads, or day-labor in the mills. In 1873, a total of 573 travelers were accommodated, including 415 at the Police Station (in the basement of City Hall; the Chief’s office was in the western Main Street corner of the building, now a meeting room).

Unfortunately, some of the travelers brought habits of crime with them. Fortunately, Fitchburg’s first police chief, Russell Obad Houghton was a highly capable Civil War veteran. Houghton was a blacksmith who’d risen to Captain in the 26th Mass. Volunteer Infantry. He’d survived being shot in the shoulder during Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

Fitchburg’s first Mayor Amasa Norcross described him as “a man of fine presence, dignified and courteous.” He was also deeply dedicated to his tasks, which included hiring and organizing the work-force, assigning duties, keeping track of the costs as well as criminal behavior.

That first year, there were 381 arrests; 246 for drunkenness, but six for assault on an officer; 28 for assault and battery, 25 disturbing the peace (more if you count anti-social behavior like “disturbing public school,” and “escaped from reform school”).  With just six officers (five assigned to night duty), Chief Houghton soon realized that substantial improvements must occur to ensure Fitchburg residents and property owners received better protection.

In his final report as chief, he noted: “As the Patrol force now stands with its small numbers, we find it impossible to perform the work assigned us in a satisfactory manner. With the present arrangement the night Patrol go on duty at six pm and immediately commence lighting the street lamps  –  thus occupying the time until seven. Between those two times our shops close work and there are more people on the street than at any other portion of the twenty-four hours.  It is essential that the officers should be on the main streets to preserve order.  At eleven o’clock they commence to put out the lights, and until twelve no officers are on the main streets, except the Captain of the night watch. This leaves our business places unguarded.”

Chief Houghton recommended that an additional rota of officers go on duties in two shifts  —  one beginning at 6 p.m. to light the lamps and patrol; and the other to work from 1 a.m. until 7 a m., when the day officers come on duty. He spoke from experience when he wrote: “Much better order can be maintained. Another result of keeping officers on their beats is that if an officer is wanted, people know where to look for him and are not obliged to go to the station house.”

Within a couple of years, the Fitchburg Police Department more than doubled the number of constables, and hired many other Civil War veterans, some of whom stayed on the job into their 60s and even 70s! (George Flagg). After Chief Houghton stepped down, making way for Chief A.F. Whitney, he continued his participation in the local veterans’ association, the Grand Army of the Republic. And he retained his involvement with the police, serving as a Constable to the end of his life.

History comes to life

To learn more about Civil War Veterans who joined the Fitchburg Police Department, the public is welcome to attend “Brothers In Blue – from the Battlefront to Main Street” a theatrical, historical walking tour at Forest Hill Cemetery, Tuesday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m., Mt. Elam Road entrance (raindate: Wed., June 14, 6:30 pm). The tour is produced by Stratton Players, Fitchburg Historical Society, Fitchburg Cemetery Commission, and Fitchburg Police Department and featuring Fitchburg Public School students, Chief Ernie Martineau and City Councilor Amy Green. The event is free.

Thanks this week to Chief Martineau, and former Chief Ed Cronin for background information on policing.

Sally Cragin is a Fitchburg city councilor and an award-winning journalist.

Wordly wise, Fitchburg goes mad for spelling contest fad

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Back in the 1870s, public school curriculum put a lot of emphasis on rote learning — and proper spelling was crucial. These and other literacy skills might advance young people out of the laboring classes to clerical and professional positions. However, our long-ago ancestors also discovered that spelling could be fun!

Two years after the Panic of 1873, which brought a national depression, Fitchburg was still suffering but you’d never know it from the number of spelling matches that year which gathered hundreds of residents at nail-biting competitions of brain power.

The fad started on the Ides of March, 1875, when an item in the Sentinel mentioned “an exciting spelling match” in Easton, Pennsylvania between students from two local academies. Fitchburg’s Dr. Jabez Fisher and his wife noticed this story and got a brilliant idea: why not create a local “spelling match.”

This local couple had influence: Dr. Fisher was a “hydropathic” physician; musical director of the Fitchburg Choral Union, and the first chairman of the first Board of Water Commissioners in Fitchburg, which oversaw the construction of Overlook and Marshall Reservoirs. He also presided over “Pomoland” his family fruit orchard and served as a Senator in the State Legislature (Fisher Road is named after his family).

Within days, the Ladies of the Universalist Society planned a “Spelling Match,” on April 1, with “umpires” Stephen Shepley and D. H. Merriam (an attorney and later the fourth Mayor of Fitchburg). Tickets were just 15 cents.

Mistakes were on easy words, such as “fabrick” for “fabric,” and “fruntere” for “frontier,” as well as ten-dollar ones: aesthetic, heterogeneous, received, and authorities. The custom then was that a misspelling meant the next speller tried his or her skill at the same word. How many of us — under the pressure and excitement of a public match — could place all the ‘r’s in the right spot with “referring,” or the placement of ‘c’s in “accommodated” and “lacquer”? These words “sent three into the back seat” according to Sentinel coverage.

Despite Fisher’s eclectic background (think of all the unusual words he encountered in his various occupations), Mrs. Fisher’s side performed well. Two finalists from each side remained until Miss Lizzie Sleeper a pupil at the Day Street School, put an “e” into the word “using,” and Mr. Watson left an “e” out of Beethoven. Miss Lora Alger who worked at the Sentinel won by default, and her trophy was Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary and — one hopes — hours of bragging rights at the office.

Eight days later, April 9, 1875, another match with school children and adults was held which drew nearly 100 participants. The students easily trounced the adults on words like “atafia” and “achromatic.”

Finally, “Miss Nellie E. Bates was the only representative of the schools with Fred Fosdick and Mrs. James H. Whitcomb for the other,” wrote the Sentinel writer. “Euphony was too much for Miss Bates and gillyflower sent Miss Whitcomb down, leaving Mr. Fosdick the sole survivor.”

Four days later, on April 13, a third spelling match “was well attended. Schools had 52 contestants, opposite side 28.” A week later, the fourth Fitchburg spelling match pitted ladies against gentlemen. The Sentinel writer observed that the words  “were by no means easy,” and that “the first to fall was a gentleman and “niche” was the word that dropped him.”

Before long, champion Frederick Fosdick and Day Street School pupil Miss Lizzie Sleeper were in the finals. Poor Mr. Fosdick was obliged to spell four words to one for each of his four female opponents “and finally slipped on ‘solecism.’ “

Miss Abbie A. Whittemore, a teacher in the West Fitchburg grammar school took the laurels, while Miss Lizzie Sleeper won a barrel of the best St. Louis flour.

Whatever became of those spellers?

The aftermath of spelling match fever must have been a letdown for all participants – there are no records of subsequent matches for many years. However, Frederick Fosdick was elected as Fitchburg’s ninth mayor in 1886, and Lizzie Sleeper got top marks at Fitchburg High School, and later became a teacher there. Just think how far she’d have gone had women the vote, and the opportunity to run for office. But as the consistently highest-scoring female speller in Fitchburg, her title remains her own.

Sally Cragin is an award-winning writer and the Director of Be PAWSitive Therapy Pets and Community Education.

Tales from Tri-Town: Celebrating our local matriarchs with more than flowers

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In 2024 Mothers’ Day will be a century old, after informal beginnings in 1907, when Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia had a memorial service for her own mother. Many female friends attended and spoke about Anna Marie’s desire for a holiday just for mothers.

Here in the greater Tri-Town area, aka North Central Massachusetts, the concept of Mother’s Day took time to gain traction. In the May 7, 1926 Fitchburg Sentinel, Brooks Pharmacy had the only ad mentioning the holiday and offered a typical Mothers’ Day gift: “Thompson’s Spa Chocolates Boston inn Beautiful “Birth of Love” Package.”

However, this ad was dwarfed by an adjacent quarter page featuring the new Eureka Vacuum Cleaner available at Fitchburg Gas & Electric Light Company. No mention of the holiday; just a nicely-dressed lady pushing an upright model and the slogan: “Spring cleaning? She doesn’t dread it!”

Fortunately, by 1931, Mother’s Day ads start popping up, usually for apparel. My favorite was from Main Street’s Academy Hat Works boasting the quality and variety of their hats including: Sailors, Poke, Boucle Turbans, Small Brim, Panamas or “A Real Swagger Hat” (“Collegiate — very swanky — made of better suede in every wanted shade: 85 cents.”)

I can imagine wearing my Swagger Hat as I wandered down to Central Hardware, a store that definitely got the memo about the holiday. Their company advertised flowers for mother. The hot sellers of 1931?  Geraniums, Hydrangeas, Ferns, Begonias, Petunias, Vincas and of course “Extra Large Potted Roses.” Moeckel, the florist was on point with a tagline that is now very familiar: “Say it With Flowers.”

In the 1940s, everyone knew about Mothers’ Day — even if they weren’t celebrating. My friend, Dr. Joe Cronin, (one of seven children of an Irish mother who’d emigrated to Roxbury) told me “Mother’s Day wasn’t a big deal — this time of year we were all out playing baseball.”

Since my mother’s birthday was May 15, and my grandmother’s birthday was May 14, and mid-May coincides with numerous perennials blooming, there was no shortage of lily of the valley and lilacs. Saying it with flowers? Easy-peasy.

However, we do need a holiday that celebrates women who may not have had kids, but whose ideas about nurturance and strengthening their communities influence and extend across generations.

The first local woman on that list should be Eleanor Norcross, daughter of Fitchburg’s first mayor, Amasa Norcross (1872-1873). She grew up on Main Street, graduated from Fitchburg Academy in 1872, attended Wheaton Female Seminar (now College) and became a painter.

She moved to Paris in her 30s and sent paintings, sculpture, furniture, prints, and artifacts back home to Fitchburg to be displayed on the third floor of Fitchburg’s City Hall as well as the Rodney Wallace Library. Her dream was to create an institution that displayed art as well as provided art classes to nurture residents, young and old. So when you visit Fitchburg Art Museum, you are stepping into her dream.

Next, tip your Academy Hat Shop bonnet to Leominster Abolitionist Frances Drake. Author/Historian Mark Bodanza writes in “Leominster Chronicles: Tales from the Comb City” that “Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frances Drake both railed against the fugitive slave law, a measure, which with some irony, was aimed to preserve the Union. It did not, but to the contrary drove a larger wedge between the North and South.

“The two little ladies shared another common experience which motivated their heartfelt efforts – human loss. Mrs. Stowe lost a son at a young age. “It was at his dying bed and at his grave I learned what a poor slave mother must feel when her child is torn away from her,” she wrote.

“Mrs. Drake, who was born Dolly Wilder on October 25, 1814, lost three family members in a six month period before she was eighteen years old. Her mother died in November of 1831, an infant brother, Albert died February 12, 1832 and her younger sister Adeline, passed on May 14, 1832 at fourteen years old. Mrs. Drake took on the role of motherhood at a very young age. Undoubtedly the losses suffered by these two ladies contributed to a compassionate heart and steadfast moral convictions.”

I asked friends to share memories of  Mother’s Days past and heard about wonderful mothers all across our region — mothers who received gifts of stemless blooms, and smiled; mothers who only took showers who showed delight at bottles of bubble bath, and mothers who are dearly missed to this day. And so, on this day, celebrate your mum, and yes, you can “say it with flowers,” but if you find the perfect “swagger hat,” pop it on her head.

Sally Cragin is an award winning journalist and the director of Be PAWSitive Therapy Pets and Community Education. Email sallycragin@gmail.com.

Tales from Tri-Town: Friends, family underscore Easter traditions

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Do you ever have the experience of meeting someone and saying right away: “Oh, we’re going to be good friends!” I recently had this experience at Fitchburg Historical Society as I looked through a box labelled “Diaries,” and found one from 1914 kept by a Helen Hardy in Fitchburg. Here’s her entry from Sunday, January 4, 1914:

“Put up a holler & pouted so I didn’t have to go to church. Papa wouldn’t let me read all day. It rained and snowed and hailed. It was quite cold to. If it freezes it will be great skating. School tomorrow until Feb. 28.”

Any girl who’d spend the day reading inside while a storm rages outside definitely has the right attitude.

With Easter (and Passover and Ramadan) this season, I was curious to see how Helen celebrated the holiday. The family had an outing. “Sunday, April 12. Easter Sunday wore my new things. Fine day but rather windy. This afternoon, Chet, Ma, Pa, Paul & me went to ride in the new Auto. The motor is awfully silent.”

Wishing you all a fine day, and hope everyone is wearing “new things.”

Easter memories

Do you have a family Easter tradition? Amy Lantry Jue grew up in Lunenburg received a solid chocolate bunny every year, right into adulthood thanks to her “sentimental Dad.” As Amy’s own children got older, “each year, I’ve kept my Dad’s tradition,” and her adult daughters can expect chocolate bunnies again this year.

Chris Mulholland of Gardner grew up in an early 19th century home in Lunenburg. His memories included “sneaking down the stairs to see what the e-bunny had brought. The door to the dining room was locked but we could peek through the old keyhole. There we would spy the tall baskets covered with colored transparent plastic wrap, and a hollow chocolate rabbit in gold foil sitting on bright green shredded plastic grass, surrounded by shiny jelly beans and hard-boiled eggs we had drawn designs on with wax and then dipped in bowls of vinegary dye the day before. Egg salad sandwiches for a late snack!”

Dani Kumpaleinen loved the egg hunts during her childhood in western Mass. and remembers that one year “the parents assigned each kid a different color, and we kids all had the same number of eggs to find. We could only collect the ones in our color and had to leave the others.”

Other traditions: new shoes from Goodwins (Paul Grant of Fitchburg), or new outfits “flowered hats, white gloves, little purses, new dresses and coats and jackets (Jane Lonnqvist, Fitchburg). Jane and others had very busy days during Holy Week.

Joanne McGuirk of Fitchburg sang in her church choir and remembers: “We would start after Holy Thursday Service at Sacred Heart, then proceed to St. Joseph’s in Cleghorn, Immaculate Conception, St. Francis, St. Bernard’s and some years go to St. Leo’s in Leominster.”

Amy Newberg of Leominster grew up in Pennsylvania and notes: “Apart from having a Seder on the first night (some do a second night), Passover traditions are limited to getting drunk on sticky sweet wine at the Seder and avoiding leavened bread for eight days. Usually being the youngest at the table I had to ask the Four Questions in Hebrew. Luckily there’s a tune that goes with it which makes it easier to memorize for those of us not great at reading Hebrew.”

Rev. Wil Darcangelo, pastor of First Parish Unitarian at the Upper Common, Fitchburg had a memorable Easter morning when he was nine-years-old and sang his first solo in “One Early Easter Morning.”

“I really wanted to memorize it like the grown-ups did. The choir director, Marion Dalton (later Rogers), cautioned me against it, but I insisted. The first verse went perfectly, and the choir sang the refrains. The second verse, however, must have ascended to heaven before I could get the words out. I completely blanked.

“The choir, realizing what was happening, began to sing, as did the congregation, in an attempt to get me back on track. I stood my ground and started to sing again with their help.  I finished the rest of the song without incident. That is, until I walked crying to my seat. I was embarrassed, but at the same time, reassured that I was so loved and supported in my struggle. I’ve carried that feeling with me throughout my life.”

Another year, when we were a bit older, they put numbered slips of paper inside the eggs. We could collect as many as we wanted, and at the end we had a great time opening the eggs and finding out which number corresponded to which prize. The prizes ranged from dollar bills to scratch tickets to candy, nothing major. It was a lot of fun!”

I am glad it is an Easter Season. That lasts 50 days after Easter Sunday. A beautiful time of year.

My sister and brother were older with their own families. Get together would be Easter Sunday. Also, I sang in Sacred Heart choir. Memories to always remember. Thank you and Happy Easter!