Memories: Good Times with the B's.....

Hello!! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend.

Easter brings back fond memories of coloring eggs with the B clan. We, of course, had the traditional PAAS tablets that turned the eggs one (sometimes) bright color and for the more adventurous and patient, a two-toned egg by dipping one side in at a time. My most vivid memory, however, was the whole production of Mr. B’s eggs. Unlike the rest of us (the kids) that had our glasses of green, red or orange dye, Mr. B had a big bowl where he would put drops of this liquid dye then blow the colors around to make a swirling array of colors. We would all stare in amazement as dad gently blew the dye to make the “perfect” mixture. Once ready (about ½ hour later), it was time to dip the first egg. Seriously, you would think that Dad was about to create Faberge eggs the way we all held our breath as he loaded the egg on the wire holder. One thing I need to mention is that the strange thing about this dye is that the egg took on the color as soon as it hit the water so placement was of the up-most importance. So with egg on wire holder in hand, Dad would find what he thought to be the best spot and start to lower the egg into the water, inevitably (seriously everytime) the egg would fall off the holder and splash into the water only to come out with one side looking like someone got sick on it, the other blank and most of the time cracked.

Mom: Oh Mike...keep your hand steady..gimme the egg!
Dad: [mad face...silence]
Kids: Kind of scared and slowly losing interest as our eggs sat at the bottom of paas filled glasses.

In the event of crackage, Mom would make one of the kids eat it since it could not be redipped…average of 3 eggs per kid (after dinner)!! I will never forget the year that in an effort to avoid incident explained above, Dad had the idea to tie a piece of thread around the egg and spin it into the water for maximum color coverage. For those of you who know my dad, he does not have the slimmest fingers; actually they are like sausages so the pure comedy (actually stress) of him trying to tie the tread almost brought down the whole egg coloring operation. Unfortunately this McGuyver-like idea didn't really work either as most of the eggs came out looking like a bad acid trip.

By the end of two dozen eggs, me, my bros and sister would head to our rooms with red, green, yellow stained fingers, totally over the coloring experience and full from the cracked hard-boiled eggs, mom, unhappy with the less than perfect eggs, would spend the rest of the evening redipping and dad angered from his less than perfect attempts would retire to the family room with his matzo (the Easter staple in the B household) to contemplate next year’s strategy. Good Times!

In all seriousness, it may not read like it and the above may sound like no fun at all but it really is one of my fondest memeories of growing up. That's the B's, warts and all and I wouldn't change a thing.

PS Vietnam weekend wrap-up tomorrow.