West Austinites remember Easters past

Growing up, our Easter baskets were simple ... chocolate eggs and jellybeans. As a parent, I tended to go overboard, loading my boys’ baskets with books and toys and favorite snacks, but none of those have been greeted with half the joy as the baskets I set out for Easter 2020 when shopping wasn’t really an option. I had four cartons of cascarones tucked away that I’d picked up on clearance after Easter the year before, and those were our goodies. Once the boys figured out that yes, they were SUPPOSED to pelt each other and that yes, this would result in a HUGE mess actually sanctioned by Mama, they were thrilled. And we’ve had to have cascarones ever since.

— Kim Usey

— Compiled by Forrest Preece

Easter is indeed a Celebration of Spring and I have so many fond memories of flowers, family, friends, rabbits, hours in the kitchen, and excitement.

On a gorgeous day in spring of 1968, my dad, George Christian, then press secretary to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, took our large family to the Easter Egg Roll on the great lawn of the White House. My younger sister Susan and I spent a good bit of our time at a bingo booth where the prizes were Beatles 45s. We each won a record with “Lady Madonna” on the A side and “All You Need Is Love” on the B side. I’m glad we won two of the same record, as we played both of them until they were bald. Susan and I remember feeling very cute in our Twiggy haircuts and poor-boy dresses.

— Elizabeth Christian

I have delightful memories of Easter in Austin with my Grandmother “Lulie” (Lucille Nash) and my cousins. On Easter Sunday after Sunday School, Church, and Sunday lunch, all ten of the “Nash’’ cousins would gather in the backyard of my Grandmother Lulie to hunt easter eggs. Back then they were “real” dyed hard-boiled eggs. Her house was on Gaston Avenue, high on the bluff above Shoal Creek. We were all dressed in our Easter Sunday dresses and the boys in sport coats. We each wanted to be the one to have the most eggs in our Easter basket, but there was one “Golden” egg that we were on the lookout for – to get the one special prize. It was important to find all the eggs or later the backyard would smell of rotten eggs, if any were missed. What wonderful Easter memories!

— Nancy Nash Harper

As a child, I remember my daddy, Pierce Fletcher, promising my mother that he would join the family for the Easter church service at the First Methodist Church in Kerrville. Daddy fulfilled his promise once a year! My daddy was also a member of the Lions Club in Kerrville, and the Lions Club hosted a city-wide annual Easter Egg Hunt at Louise Hays Park the Saturday before Easter. Daddy brought home six dozen eggs for me to dye and decorate for this event ... a bit of a challenge for a young teenager.

Fast forward ... Richard and I initially invited neighbors and family for brunch and an Easter Egg Hunt in 1983 and this celebration continued until we sold our Niles Road home in 2018. Our Easter celebration expanded as families grew and in 2017, we enjoyed four generations celebrating Easter with us. The children loved the Pinata, carriage rides throughout the Old Enfield neighborhood, face painting, playing with our white Australian rabbits, “Lover Boy” and “Pansy” and, of course, the Easter Egg Hunt with a Golden Egg. We have been blessed.

— Martha Coons