I grew up in the far northeast in Maine. The winters were (and probably still are) quite severe and like this year it seems that Spring is a long time coming. I remember that it snowed the night of my junior prom in May. In Maine, nothing is predictable where weather is concerned. I checked the old hometown weather forcast for today and it’s snow showers in the leadup to Easter.
Spring was always a matter of looking at the calendar and not looking out the window. My youthful memories of Easter were getting new dresses with those snappy patent leather shoes and hats… always a hat for Easter. I would beg for some summery spaghetti strapped dress and my mother would roll her eyes and tell me I was going to freeze and worse yet people would think I had an uncaring mother. (that’s another story)
As far as I can remember, every Easter I got a dress and matching Spring coat, new patent leather shoes (a concession from my mother) and a hat. Always a hat. Back in the day, women needed a hat to go to church. I’ve mentioned before that I’m short. I’m pretty used to it by now but there are times I get on a step stool about a foot tall and look around. You should try it once and see the difference in your world view. I can see the top of the fridge – and the dirt I ignore because it’s not in my line of sight.
In addition to being short, I have very fine hair atop a small head and buying a hat in any shop in the US or Australia is impossible. I’m okay as long as I wear glasses but otherwise any hat goes down over my eyes. It’s decidedly not attractive, plus I bump into things so I don’t wear hats.
As a young person growing up however, hats were required attire for women in order to get through the church door and being a good Catholic family, to church we went. I’m sure it was some archaic law made by sad old men that said women were unworthy and needed to be covered.
Before Easter, early in the morning when the big department store opened, my mother and I would be waiting at the door so we could be first in. I’d look around to be sure nobody I knew saw us go in and headed for the little girls department. Those hats fit. My mother would take off the ribbons and bows and redesign the hat to match my slick new Easter outfit. It was my secret. Friends would ask where I got my hat and I said the same thing every year. “Portland.” It was the largest city in the state and 90 miles away so no fear of anyone doubting my story.
All these memories came flooding back today when I read a Facebook group post from my old hometown. “Anyone remember the big Easter Egg hunts we used to have in Waterville?” Absolutely. Waterville was just across the river, making it one big community.
One year I found an egg. The local radio station would broadcast clues and if you had a loving dad like we did, he’d cart us around town following the clues. The eggs were clear plastic and about a foot tall and filled with chocolate and free prize coupons. The prizes were nice but the best bit was going to the radio station to be interviewed. “Where did you find it, what clue gave it away, etc.” I felt like a star. This photo is a springtime shot from what was called the 2-cent Bridge between Winslow where I lived and Waterville across the river. It’s now got a new name but for me it will always be the 2-cent bridge. Yes, it cost 2 cents to cross. Y0u can tell it’s Spring because the river isn’t frozen over.
Easter is now in the Autumn for me and it feels wacky even after nearly 18 years. It’s the last holiday before winter and the hotels near us are all cheerfully putting up their no-vacancy signs.
No more seeing Easter as a time for baby birds nor the rebirth of flowers but it’s still a lovely time of year. Our climate is Florida-like so no leaves dropping or cool mornings yet but there is a change in the air. After this weekend, taking the dog to the beach will find miles of sand with nobody but us tossing a ball as far as it can go and waiting for those little furry feet to race to get to the ball before it lands.
I used to have chickens at our old place and a friend gave me this toy chicken as a hostess gift at a dinner party. I cracked up. If you pinch the wing it sings and dances to the Chicken Dance and I thought this was a perfect thing to bring out for Easter. I found these tiny coated chocolate eggs and made chocolate oatsie nests and chocolate cupcakes. Yeah, I overcooked the chocolate hoping it would look less shiny and more nest-like. A bit of a fail.
My Easter cupcakes were made from Sugar and Snapshot’s blog and she adapted her recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. Happy Holiday, everyone!
They look so delicious! Happy Easter 🙂
Thanks! lovely to see you and thanks for the visit!
Maureen: I love both the oatmeal nests and the chocolate cupcakes…The decorations could not be cuter!!! Wishing you a very Happy Easter!
Thanks Denise, same to you!
Lovely post! Although I cracked up at this line: “Y0u can tell it’s Spring because the river isn’t frozen over.” I used to want to live in Maine, even as old as my mid-30s. It took that long for me to get sensible — gorgeous state, horrid climate! It’s interesting that you say you haven’t fully become accustomed to Easter being in the fall — I’ve wondered about that (and Christmas in July) and how transplants to Australia thought about it. Of course before I moved to Florida (I’ve since left) I’ve always thought it would be weird to have a warm Christmas (I loved putting Christmas lights on the palm trees!), and I adjusted. But still, Easter does mean things starting to grow and all. Or in your childhood case, a thawed river. 😉 Thanks for sharing your memories.
I have begun thinking of Christmas as a time for cold salads instead of hot roasts but I do think back to snow crunching under my feet instead of sand getting stuck in my toes. 🙂
I adore your cute little nests…Happy Easter, Maureen…makes me nostalgic for egg hunts, too!
Next time I won’t overcook the chocolate and the nests will be cuter. Happy Easter!
I love to grill and my daughter loves to bake.
I have send her a link to your site. Bet she will read and maybe even try every recopy on here.
And the good part is that I got a piece of all of them.
Thanks for sharing
Ed
Hi Ed and thanks for stopping by. In Australia they’re all called “a bbq”. When I first moved here I would say, “will you turn on the grill?” and got, “It’s not a grill it’s a bbq” so many times that the word grill doesn’t come out any more until I hear someone like you say it. 🙂 Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to you too, Maureen. How great that your Mom had the skill to redesign the hats, lucky you. And you need not worry you would have the same hat as anyone else.
Those Easter treats are incredibly adorable. I particularly love the nests, so creative. Happy Easter to you too.
My mother and I had a love/hate relationship my entire life. I coped by moving away and I’ll always feel sad that we never had a close relationship as adults. She was a great cook and a clever woman.
What wonderful Easter memories. I love the story about you and your mum sneaking into the department store and re-decorating the hats to match your outfit. Cute!
I would have been mortified if my friends with beautiful, thick hair on heads big enough to wear hat had seen me. 🙂 Happy Easter!
I don’t think I’d ever really adjust to so great a change in the Seasons as you encountered when you moved to Oz. As recovering Catholic, I, too, have memories of Easter, Mass, and new shoes, though mine were not patent leather. My Sister, though, shared many of your experiences. Thanks for the bit of nostalgia, Maureen, not to mention the treats and their recipes. I hope you have a wonderful Easter.
I don’t think there’s a kid who ever went to a convent school that doesn’t share the same “issues” with guilt about perceived sin. I see all the crap going on in the priesthood and with the curia in the Vatican and I’m glad I left it in my 20s. I do miss the ceremony 🙂
What a cute toy chicken and lovely cupcakes.
Have a great Easter.
I keep it in the closet and only take it out when kids visit 🙂
What a gorgeous story <3 It's always fun to learn a bit more about people!
I love how the little chickens are dressed up in your photo 😛 Why didn't I think of that!?!
I will admit that I went to the cheap store to buy ribbon and they had a box of 4 of these little chickens for $2 and I lashed out. 🙂
Easter must have been so much fun during your time….looking at the baby birds and the flowers and enjoying nice weather. I never knew that wearing hats were so important! Your blog posts are always a nice read!! Those little chickens are too cute… 🙂
GREAT post, Maureen. Love the stuffed chicken. It has more personality than some people I know.
Mostly love the memories this post brought to consciousness.
That age almost seems so far away these days……a distant memory.
I remember when Easter was a dress up Sunday. It was time for Sunday and spring best. Your post evoked those happy times going shopping for just the right dress or suit and shoes and hats. Gloves too. You were not a lady unles you wore gloves.
It was a time to look forward to. Trying on hats and looking at yourself or a friend and deciding what was just THE right one for you or a friend. And afterwards we would go eat in the store cafeteria. Those were the days. Fun and class. Those were the Jackie Kennedy days.
These days Easter is just another day on the calendar. Things change and I like that. That’s life. But some how I think we lost something in the rush to TOO casual.
All of that is gone now in the rush to comfort and jeans. I think we have lost a lot for it too.
Hehe sometimes hubby lifts me up to see things at his level and it’s amazing the difference in view! And hehe as you say the taller you are, the more dirt you can see! 😛 These cupcakes are exceptionally cute and I always love using those little chicks 😀
Poor John would be in traction if he had to carry me around to see dirt 🙂
Love your Hat/Portland story ~ Happy Easter 🙂
I have found out it’s possible to have people make a hat that fits LOL
Maureen, your Easter memories took me right back to my childhood. Did you have to wear white gloves, too? (For me, it was the gloves that “made” the whole outfit.) Your toy chicken cracked me up, too — especially the photo where he’s eyeballing the nests. It’s refreshing to see a subtle sense of humor in a food photo!
Gloves! yes, white cotton and I wanted some that went to my elbow – you know, those elegant women wore those. My mother would say, “Seven year old girls can’t wear those, they’d be long enough to go around your neck.” That didn’t stop me from begging. 🙂
This is a lovely post, Maureen. Love those cute little twitties standing next to cute muffins. Are they edible? 🙂 Have a wonderful Easter.
no, sadly not edible. I got them for $2 at a local shop 🙂
Maureen, it took me over 10 years to get used to Christmas in the middle of the winter… growing up in Brazil, Christmas was the time to lay in the sun and get a serious tan for the New Year approaching! 🙂
I loved this post, and tried to comment many times before, but for some reason my iPad is giving me grievances to post in some sites. I resorted to the computer, at work (shame on me, don’t tell my students… 🙂
I never thought about it the other way around. John felt the same way when we went to a snowy New York one Christmas. He loved it and he hated it. LOL (I loved it) Sorry about the posting comments problem. I wish I knew what it was because I’d fix it. 🙂
Lovely Easter memories! Your cupcakes are adorable :).
Thanks Laura! Happy Easter!
Such a festive post Maureen. We aren’t in Maine, but I’ll vouch that it’s still cold here in the North East. Hope you have a Happy Easter!
yeah, Eileen, I can’t see myself going back to the ice and snow 🙂
Such fun memories!!
And a cute little easter nests! Bet it was so much fun creating 🙂
I have a neighbor with a 5 year old grandson and a 4 year old granddaughter and they had fun once the photos were over 🙂
Thank you so much Miss Mauz for that window into the Maine of your youth. Like another reader above I was very romantic about the idea of living in Maine I think because of the writer is it John Irving? The Cider House Rules and Hotel New Hampshire and World according to garp, oh and Stephen King, though his vision was less romantic. Love love the story about your hats! My Sunday School teacher called us girls all Jezebels once and referred to our uncovered heads….churches huh? Adore the 2 cent bridge, this story and you x
Maine is wonderful to visit in the summer – absolutely green everywhere and beautiful. Rocky coastlines, green meadows, lovely mountains. and Christmas.. especially if there’s snow. The soft crunch, crunch, crunch your boots make as you walk is something you’d never forget. 🙂 The rest of the time it’s pretty crap. LOL
LOL, Maureen, you are such a treasure! Happy Easter my friend xox
aww shucks 🙂
Snow for your prom? I will not complain about Indiana’s weather again! I remember my mom always wearing a stylish hat to Mass…but I only had one for my first communion. Mmmm…I have a feeling I could eat a lot of those oat nests…and your cupcakes are darn cute, too! Happy Easter!!!
yeah, Maine is cold 🙂
You know it’s spring because the river isn’t frozen over…..that cracked me up. Today morning, I saw some ducks floating around on the creek in our backyard, and I thought, hey! Ducks are out, so it’s spring, lol! Simply ignore the snow around, hahaha!! Thank you so much sharing this story, it makes dealing with this wretched weather a bit easier. Happy Easter!!!
When you grow up there, you don’t know any different. That’s what Spring looked like 🙂
Well as cold as it was it sure looked like a pretty place to live! Happy Easter!
It was (is) a small town in a sparcely populated state and it was a lovely place to grow up.
What lovely memories, Maureen and I would have loved you to have posted an image of you, back in the day with your patent leather shoes (that I always wanted but my mother would never buy for me) and church hat. Your Easter cakes are just gorgeous and I love how you decorated them xx
I remember always getting a new outfit for Easter. We did it with our kids too when they were young. Such a cool memory.
Love both the oatsie nests and the cupcakes. Don’t you just love Easter. It’s so much fun.
Easter was lots more fun with kids. Not so much fun without family around.
Your cupcakes are beautiful Maureen. I always think how lovely the double cupcake cases look and then I forget to do it.
We have the opposite problem with hats. I can’t wear them because my head is so big!
I would have loved that Easter egg hunt, what fun!
I would never have said you had a big head. I’ve met you on more than one occasion and I’ve never said, “Did you ever meet fathead?” nah.. we’ll just keep each other’s secrets.
What lovely Easter memories, and I imagine so different to what you experience in Australia now! Think you would be the envy of Melbournians if you said your hat was from Portland these days, it is the hipster city of the world now! 😉
Have a great Easter Maureen!
I laughed. I doubt Portland, Maine would ever be the fashion capital of anywyhere 🙂
This is my second Easter in Australia and it feels SO strange to have it in Autumn. 🙂 Not as strange as Christmas in Summer, but still odd. 🙂 I like your over-cooked chocolate nests. I think they look rustic and good. 🙂
My first Christmas in Australia was in 1994 and I was standing on Southbank in Brisbane watching fireworks and singing Christmas carols at 9pm and I was wearing shorts. It was surreal. I can think of Christmas without cold but not getting dark is still a bummer after all these years. Also, Spring being the “rebirth” as what Easter is all about is pretty silly down here. 🙂
I just love your little nests and cupcakes and the cute chicks. I can’t believe how many things we have in common. I’m short too…just under 5 ft. with fine hair and can totally relate to the hat story. I love hats but most don’t fit. Maine has been hammered with snow this year. I have no idea when we will be able to get down the steep road to our summer cottage. No telling when all the snow will melt. It is a good thing that I can’t plant the garden there until the end of May. I hope you have a Happy Easter.
LOL maybe you had a father like mine. He also had a small head. “Maureen, it’s okay, every time you feel bad about having a small head think of this. Little head full of wit, big head full of shit.” I laughed then and I laugh every time I buy a hat. 🙂
The best aspect of Easter are definitely the sweet treats, and your adorable cupcakes certainly live up to that promise! Hope you have a happy holiday. 🙂
Hi Hannah and thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!
I just love these cute photos! Makes me so glad it’s Easter 🙂
Thanks, Kristy, I’m still hankering for that goat cheese potato gratin!
Such a fun post Maureen! Love all your memories. It reminded me of a funny memory – I once got a pink dotted swiss dress with a hat and pink patent leather shoes to match . Oh man, did I think I was the cat’s meow! I was supposed to save it for my brother’s wedding so my mom hid it. I would always find it, no matter how good her hiding place was and I was try it on and pace in front of the mirror Then I would put the dress box under my bed. My mom would find it and hide it again, then we’d go through the same ritual, over and over. I’m surprised the dress wasn’t all worn out by the time the wedding came around
I can see those smiling eyes of yours in that dotted swiss dress sashaying in front of the mirror. You are delightfully girly. 🙂 Happy Easter, my friend!
What delightful childhood memories of Easter. I love this time of year and Easter always makes me happy because of all the bright and happy colors. The cupcakes are adorable. 🙂 Hope you and your family enjoy the holiday weekend. 🙂
Same to you, Ramona!
Maureen,
I, too, am an expat American living in Australia, except I grew up in San Diego which has a very mild winter. Yeah, I remember the required hat and gloves at Easter Sunday church, and don’t forget that horrible girdle that held up your stockings! Your cupcake recipe looks great- hope to try it soon. I am a new blogger- just started two months ago- and hope to connect with some other bloggers! (Fran from G’day Souffle’)
Fran@gdaysouffle recently posted..Spaghetti Marinara with Ginger, Fresh Basil and Feta
Fran! I wish I’d known about you when Adelaide held the big Australian food blogger’s conference. We’d have had some zippy stories to swap. 🙂 AND… you use EasyRecipe, a woman after my own heart.
Now about that girdle. My mother used to tell my sister and me that if we didn’t wear a girdle people would call us sluts with everything “hanging out.” My best friend wore a garter belt and my mother thought it next to sinful. LOL
Best of luck with your blog.
OMG those cupcakes are adorableeeeeeeee
Oh you’re so sweet to say that and it’s lovely to see you again!
I have always had Easter in autumn but do have childhood memories of Easter cakes and cupcakes with speckled eggs like those here 🙂 Beautiful.
My husband says the same thing. “Easter is in the Autumn, I don’t know why it seems odd to you.” :eyeroll:
Love your nest and eggs, so adorable and the cupcakes too. Such a creative Mom I see where you got your talents from. Happy Easter to you and yours.
Norma Chang recently posted: http://gardentowok.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/star-anise-beef-stew-with-roasted-root-vegetables-asian-beet-salad/
Happy Easter to you too, Norma. My nests and cupcakes weren’t all that special. If I had little ones around I would have really worked hard at it. 🙂
Hats simply do not stay on my head, and I always got into trouble for not having one on at church – the little veils were a lot easier because you could hold them on with a bobby pin!
I hope you have a wonderful Easter!
My brother always told me I’d get along much better with a Kleenex and a push pin. I remember the olden days where we wore those Spanish mantillas.
I enjoyed all your memories. Such great stories 🙂
Thanks Valerie and thanks so much for coming by.
What a gorgeous story! I love your cute little cupcakes too, so sweet 🙂
Have a lovely Easter
xx
I am hoping to install the easy recipe plug in by the end of this week 🙂
I am very excited 🙂
fantastic! if you need any help or guidance, we’re around! Hope your Easter was a good one.
Happy Easter Maureen. I grew up in Michigan and you never can predict that weather. Snow on Mothers day, needing to wear both right and left hand gloves when you golf in June and I don’t think we ever had snow in July, but if your pond is not frozen then spring is here. Cute little cupcakes. Take care, BAM
You are so right! If you can’t drive on the lake then it’s early autumn or late spring 🙂
Hope you had a Happy Easter, Maureen!
I’ve never experienced a ‘proper’ spring Easter before but would love to one day – all that about-to-melt snow makes everything look so pretty!
well, in very rural settings that might be so but in the cities, the snow is covered in dirt and sand and everyone is so ready for it to go away. When the spring flowers first come up, many push through the last layer of snow. That’s quite fun.
Hahaha, I like the picture of the chicken eyeing the chocolate nests!
I couldn’t resist! 🙂
Love this post, and hearing about your memories! I have an Aunt and uncle in Maine and although I’ve only visited in summer and fall, I can imagine Easter being quite chilly there. I have hat memories as a kid too…makes me think I should have my daughter wear an Easter hat, but it was hard enough convincing her to wear sandles instead of Tennis shoes to Easter brunch 🙂
yes, always a matching coat for Easter 🙂
Dear Maureen,
That bird looks so cute and silly at the same time.
On the contrary to many friends, I LOVE cold climate having grown up in a tropical country like Malaysia – the colder the better and I can think of so many beautiful winter recipes too!
I grew up in Maine in the far northeast of the US. When I was a kid the snowdrifts would come up to my bedroom window and my room was upstairs. The window panes would have a layer of ice — on the inside. The first snow is great, skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling and ice fishing are all fun but but by the end of January, I was sick of it. 🙂 My dad said when he retired he was going to put a snow shovel over his shoulder and walk south and the first person who said “What’s that?” he was going to live there. LOL He didn’t get a chance but I would have loved to have seen it.
What no marshmallow Peeps? 😉 Happy Easter to you!
There are NO peeps in Australia! Don’t get me startede. 🙂 HOWEVER, I did find 3 big packages of Reese’s peanut butter cups at Aldi today after my neighbor came running over to tell me she’d bought 6 packets.
Hi Maureen, I’d find it SO hard to adapt to having easter in the autumn, and… shock horror… Christmas in the summer?! I want to experience it once in my life though, just so I can say I know how it feels :).
I hope you had a wonderful Easter – the nests and cupcakes look wonderful (especially the nests I must say… very nice!).
If you made this your home, you’d adapt. Even after all these years, it seems odd. 🙂
It is funny, I was born and raised in Michigan. I remember the crazy winters, and the crazy travels with my car. Then we moved to Arizona, then North Carolina, so now 18 years later, and my memories of winter are hazy. I actually miss the winters…..and everyone keeps telling me I am crazy, and would tire of winters fast….I don’t believe them, LOL! What a lovely post, and your cupcakes look fun, especially with that cute chicken:-) Hugs, Terra
let me raise my hand to your everyone friends 🙂 I’d never live in that cold again when I could live here and enjoy being outside all year around. Just me I suppose. LOL I do enjoy visiting because the memories are in my DNA but not to live there permanently again.
The minute I opened your site..my eyes went right to Easter Memories because I knew it was going to be good. Well…that’s an understatement – I felt like I found that egg with you (exciting!), I felt like I crossed the 2 cent bridge with you. Now, I wish I could eat those cupcakes and nests with you! xo
PS – I understand being ok with autumn Easter, but I don’t think I’d ever get used to summer Xmas/Hanukkah !!
Lisa, you would get used to it but you will always remember the Hanukkah of your youth. I suspect even now you remember those. It’s no different but I look around and think, “Santa can’t come in weather like this!”
I love your hat story! I always got a new one too – along with the spring coat and patent leather shoes that I forgot about. And remember, you never wore patent before Easter or after Labor day! I also got a new pair of white gloves – you?
In addition to the hat and the gloves and the new dress (with coat) we were permitted a new matching handbag. My mother was always the sort of woman where one handbag was all any woman needed. She was like that until she died.
Oh how sweet! I made really similar Easter cupcakes which I featured on my site recently. Love this post! http://themasterchefette.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/easter-nest-and-mini-egg-vanilla.html
How nice to meet you Chefette!! Thanks for the lovely comment but your Easter cupcakes definitely come out on top!
Love it! Maureen I am sharing this in my Easter round up xox