IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER 30

In the last post I mentioned the boardwalk in Atlantic City and I didn’t mentioned the Easter Parade the way it use to be. Hollywood made a few movies about the Easter Parade and the song in Your Easter Bonnet was quite popular. As the holiday approaches you will see on the movie channel some of those vintage movies back in those days when ladies wore new outfits with new bonnets and to parade on the boardwalk showing off their outfits. Ladies wore hats to church so it wasn’t a waste of money with a onetime wear. My oldest sister loved big brimmed hats,

This all changed because the media has taken the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ out of the holiday. There were no family gatherings anymore and that is too bad for them because like it or not going to church, to worship as a family cannot be replaced.

The Easter Parade was a big event on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, people from all over the state and elsewhere came just to off the new bonnet on that day. This is me on the boardwalk one Easter. Photographers from the newspapers all over were there snapping pictures for their papers. Now people don’t rely on newspapers anymore. They didn’t take my picture. In N.J. it was still coat wearing weather and especially on the boardwalk than ran along the coast.

There was a shop on the boardwalk that served fresh strawberry shortcake. After our restaurant closed at night we use to go down to Atlantic City just for shortcake I think the place was called Lindys. At that time I was in high school and my sisters’ friend use to drive the four of us there just for shortcake because their family owned a house they used in the summer. Theyowned the ladies millinery Shoppe in town that sold silk stockings, under garments, hats and purses. The few pictures here are the four of us girls in my family in different hats.

Here is a picture of C in his hat just hamming it up. Also this is earlier in our life and our kids were very young and we are visiting dad. This picture is of dad playing solitaire in the kitchen. I just have too many pictures I would like to share so I will bunch them together because I know my girls would enjoy having them showing me oh so young.

This Easter is going to be really quiet from past ones. Living out in the country makes it difficult for the girls to visit. My DIL is cooking dinner for her side of the family and me so I won’t be entirely by myself. I will attend Church by myself and come home and read the paper and then go down the driveway to eat with DIL and her mom and family.

Greeks make bread at Easter that is delicious and my youngest can really do a fine job at making it. I will attempt to make my Koulouris cutting the original down to fourths because it takes so long to make them. These are the holiday cookies that are very popular in our family. I guess the most famous dessert is baklava even the large grocery chain are selling it. That is one thing I never made it is too hard.

I am so thankful to be able to remember some of these times I lived through.

One of the jobs I had was selling expensive ladies shoes in a large privately owned department store in Little Rock. I had a lot to learn about the different brands of shoes and how to measure the feet and get the right size for the customer. Learning was how to fit in with the old timers who resented new sales people, was the biggest challenge facing me. The one thing in my favor was the manager who hired me told me of what I had to overcome. They would have customers come in that didn’t ask for them and if anyone sold them shoes they would raise a ruckus. Or if you sold shoes to them they tried to bully you to get the commission they thought they deserved. I work there I year and one day my pastors wife came in and while I was fitting her with shoes he came in and sat down to talk. He offered me a job to be his secretary. I said your joking and he said no he meant it. I said I am no secretary oh I took typing in school but not shorthand and said again I’m not and office worker. He said he too would be new because he was assigned as an archdeacon and this job was in the diocesan office under the bishop.

The main part of my job was to get along with the bishops’ secretary who already ran off two, receptionist. He felt she wouldn’t run me off. And he was right she couldn’t. She was felt she owned the place and would give orders to anyone. I just wouldn’t obey because she wasn’t my boss.

One day she told me you are no secretary and you can’t even type. I looked at her and said “you are right” and it shocked her. I told her she was so good at her skills no one could match her shorthand or typing besides I wasn’t hired for those skills. I was the front office receptionist answering the phone besides being the archdeacons’ secretary. I was so kind to her she didn’t know how to handle me because no one ever said nice things to her. She left after her vacation that year.
That was the best job I ever had, not money wise but people wise. I nice met people from all over the State and when I asked how could I help to direct their call. They reported that it was such a pleasure to be asked how I could help them and not trying to find out their business by asking, “What do you want to speak with the Bishop?” The business that comes to the Bishop is personal and no body’s business and before me the people use to have a hard time getting through just to talk to him.

I listened to Greg Laurie this morning and he said a friend heard two atheists talking that said the Christians have Christmas and Easter to celebrate and Jews have Yom Kippur and Hanukah and we don’t have any special day. Some one close by heard said yes you do its’ April 1st, that’s the day fools celebrate.”

I see this is a good place to close so I will say Happy Easter from Immigrant Daughter.