It’s time to get out the Easter baskets and buy some Easter candy. As a kid, my family had a lot of baskets up in the attic, which were brought down and filled with green and yellow grass – not the plastic stuff but I think it was cellophane.  We dyed a couple of dozen hardboiled eggs with the little color tablets and a tablespoon of vinegar.  Nothing fancy. Maybe we’d use a crayon to write a name or do a little design.  I remember when the “marbled eggs” came out, we tried them, but they weren’t too popular.  There were always a couple of chocolate bunnies and plenty of jelly beans and foil wrapped chocolate eggs. I also remember little fluffy chickens in pastel colors. My dad really had a good time hiding those baskets and we would play the “you’re getting hotter - - now you’re getting colder” game.  One year, in deference to too much chocolate and candy, my baskets were also filled with rocks and minerals – a geode and some agate eggs. But I don’t ever remember wondering why there were eggs and bunnies and baskets on Easter.

So, when I decided to do an exhibit about baskets, I thought I should include Easter baskets.  Unfortunately, when cleaning out the closet a few years ago, most of the family Easter baskets had gone to the burn pile, but I thought a few of them were still the barn for the barn sale.