{"id":7036,"date":"2024-03-31T09:29:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T13:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7036"},"modified":"2024-03-31T09:29:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T13:29:03","slug":"easter-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/03\/31\/easter-dawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Dawn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is another in the \u201cSunday Story\u201d series.  No politics today \u2013 just remembering Easter Sundays.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogs (of course<\/em>)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a gray Easter morning here in Pataskala, Ohio.  But I was definitely up to see the \u201cdawn\u201d, even if it was just a gradual lightening of the gray.  The dogs are \u201ctrained\u201d, get up at 5:15 to go out.  Maybe, some days, I can persuade them to go back to sleep for a while afterwards, but by 6:30 it\u2019s definitely time to go \u2013 BREAKFAST!!!!  Dogs are wonderful time keepers, but they don\u2019t have calendars.  Easter Sunday isn\u2019t on their plan. so I got to see the Easter \u201cdawn\u201d, like it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easter was never a huge deal in my family, certainly not like Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0As a kid, I remember getting up, excited for Easter baskets.\u00a0\u00a0It was all chocolate, all the time, plus a stuffed bunny.\u00a0\u00a0Then we had to get dressed up for church.\u00a0\u00a0After services when I was really young, Easter was also a day to visit \u201cthe aunts\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We only had one \u201creal\u201d aunt nearby, my Dad\u2019s sister Auntie \u201cDel\u201d (a child\u2019s version of Aunt Adele).\u00a0\u00a0And my Mom\u2019s sisters were far away in England, people we saw on summer trips, or the occasional American visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But we had other \u201cAunts\u201d in Cincinnati, Aunt Leah and Auntie Fran.  And there was also Libby and Maggie, not \u201cAunts\u201d in name, but good older friends of Mom.  Easter was often a day to visit some or all of them, particularly Auntie Fran Fries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her son was an old school friend of Dad\u2019s, and we were included in her family Easter plans.  The Fries had a family business, Fries and Fries in Cincinnati, that manufactured \u201cflavors\u201d.  If you grew near the Mill Creek Valley (where I-75 north of downtown in located today), you grew up to the fragrant smells coming from the Fries and Fries \u201cflavor factory\u201d just south of Galbraith Road.   It was on the \u201cline\u201d of fragrant smells on I-75 from north to south.  First you\u2019d detect the Jim Beam Distillery, then Fries and Fries, and finally Proctor and Gamble\u2019s \u201cIvorydale\u201d works, now the St. Bernard Soap Company.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auntie Fran had a big mansion in College Hill (I think \u2013 but I was pretty young), and there were lots of kids there.  I remember Easter Egg hunts and a stairlift on the big winding formal stairs to the second floor.  I think we went there around the Fourth of July as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scouts at Dawn<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Later on, when we were living in Dayton, Ohio, my Boy Scout Troop worked at the Easter sunrise service at the Carrillon, the bell tower located on the southside of downtown.\u00a0\u00a0We were up at 4:00am, and arrived by 5:30 in \u201cfull dress\u201d Scout uniforms, with sashes (merit badge and Order of the Arrow) and the official red \u201clumber jack\u201d jackets.\u00a0\u00a0We got to see the sunrise and hear the bell selections, as we handed out programs and directed folks.\u00a0\u00a0What I remember most, was wrangling my young \u201cTenderfoot\u201d Scouts, eyes full of sleep, cajoling and prodding for to get their jobs done.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t that they weren\u2019t trying, they just couldn\u2019t wake up.\u00a0\u00a0That was back in the mid-1960\u2019s, and it still goes on today (at least the service does, I\u2019m not sure if they still use Scouts or not).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track Season<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But since I\u2019ve been an adult, Easter is in the middle of track season.  And since Easter follows a different calendar than high school interscholastic sports, it was always a \u201cchallenge\u201d for scheduling, particularly in the \u201croad trip\u201d days.  We would often take the team on an overnight trip in the early part of the season, to find different competition but also as a teambuilding plan.  And if that happened over Easter weekend, we worked hard to find Good Friday services, and made sure kids got home for their Easter plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easter became another \u201crecovery Sunday\u201d for me, after a big meet or a road trip, or worse, after our home invitational.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019d just try to catch up on sleep, (and school work), before the roller coaster of practice and meets started up again on Monday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Easter dinner wasn\u2019t a big deal, even for Mom.\u00a0\u00a0My parents were OK with our 9 am phone call, or sometimes drove up for Easter Sunday lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawn Thirty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not coaching anymore.  But I was at a meet yesterday, the Watkins Icebreaker Invitational that I started seventeen years ago.  It was one of the first meets of the year, and I decided it was easier to freeze at home, with a hot-tub only ten minutes away, than at some meet with a two-hour bus ride.  And that proved true yesterday.  The meet began in a steady rain and mid-forty degrees, my least favorite track weather (give me snow flurries anytime).  But, as Coach Severino says, there was a \u201cwindow\u201d.  By 11:30 the rain stopped, and by 3:00 I was officiating the pole vault in my shirtsleeves.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So today is a \u201ctraditional\u201d Easter for me \u2013 recovering from the track meet, seeing the dawn with the dogs (it\u2019s looking better, maybe a partly-cloudy Easter this year after all), and prepping for our \u201cnew\u201d Easter tradition.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m smoking a spiral ham this afternoon, a lot of food for just Jenn and me.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s \u201ctradition\u201d (along with a Bloody Mary at breakfast about noon).\u00a0\u00a0A calm, quiet Easter celebration, just us (and the dogs).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Easter, everyone!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n