Blog archive
March 2025
About Senior Solutions
03/28/2025
Building a Bridge With Journey House, A Home Base for Former Foster Youth
03/28/2025
Come for the Knitting, Stay for the Conversation... and the Cookies
03/28/2025
Creating Safe and Smart Spaces with Home Technology
03/28/2025
Finding Joy in My Role on The Pasadena Village Board
03/28/2025
I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!
03/28/2025
Managing Anxiety
03/28/2025
Message from Our President: Keeping Pasadena Village Strong Together
03/28/2025
My Favorite Easter Gift
03/28/2025
The Hidden History of Black Women in WWII
03/28/2025
Urinary Tract Infection – Watch Out!
03/28/2025
Volunteer Coordinator and Blade-Runner
03/28/2025
Continuing Commitment to Combating Racism
03/26/2025
Status - March 20, 2025
03/20/2025
Goodbye and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
03/13/2025
What The Living Do by Marie Howe
03/13/2025
Racism is Not Genetic
03/11/2025
Bill Gould, The First
03/07/2025
THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY
03/07/2025
Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art
03/03/2025
Empowering Senior LGBTQ+ Caregivers
03/03/2025
A Life Never Anticipated
03/02/2025
Eaton Fire Changes Life
03/02/2025
February 2025
Commemorating Black History Month 2025
02/28/2025
Transportation at the Pasadena Village
02/28/2025
A Look at Proposition 19
02/27/2025
Behind the Scenes: Understanding the Pasadena Village Board and Its Role
02/27/2025
Beyond and Within the Village: The Power of One
02/27/2025
Celebrating Black Voices
02/27/2025
Creatively Supporting Our Village Community
02/27/2025
Decluttering: More Than The Name Implies
02/27/2025
Hidden Gems of Forest Lawn Museum
02/27/2025
LA River Walk
02/27/2025
Message from the President
02/27/2025
Phoenix Rising
02/27/2025
1619 Conversations with West African Art
02/25/2025
The Party Line
02/24/2025
Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
02/17/2025
Dreams by Langston Hughes
02/17/2025
Haiku - Four by Fritzie
02/17/2025
Haikus - Nine by Virginia
02/17/2025
Wind and Fire
02/17/2025
Partnerships Amplify Relief Efforts
02/07/2025
Another Community Giving Back
02/05/2025
Diary of Disaster Response
02/05/2025
Eaton Fire: A Community United in Loss and Recovery
02/05/2025
Healing Powers of Creative Energy
02/05/2025
Living the Mission
02/05/2025
Message from the President: Honoring Black History Month
02/05/2025
Surviving and Thriving: Elder Health Considerations After the Fires
02/05/2025
Treasure Hunting in The Ashes
02/05/2025
Villager's Stories
02/05/2025
A Beginning of Healing
02/03/2025
Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire
02/02/2025
Hurricanes and Fires are Different Monsters
02/02/2025
January 2025
At Dawn by Ed Mervine
01/31/2025
Thank you for Relief Efforts
01/31/2025
Needs as of January 25, 2025
01/24/2025
Eaton Fire Information
01/23/2025
Escape to San Diego
01/19/2025
Finding Courage Amid Tragedy
01/19/2025
Responses of Pasadena Village February 22, 2025
01/18/2025
A Tale of Three Fires
01/14/2025
My Favorite Easter Gift
By Edward A. RinderlePosted: 03/28/2025
Every year as Easter approaches, I think back on my childhood days with my family in New Orleans. Church was a feature every Sunday, but Easter Sunday brought something special: the music! I delighted in the lively hymns we got to sing on that Sunday. The music was glorious, and I relished sitting next to Dad and singing along with him. Easter music was indeed a great gift, but not my favorite Easter gift.
Back home on Easter Sunday, another gift from my parents awaited: an Easter basket filled with fake straw planted with Easter candy! The candy came from the Elmer's candy company. (Alas, there was no See's to be found back then.) At Easter time, Elmer's produced a variety of “eggs” - candies roughly shaped liked eggs but flat on one side and covered with colorful foil wrappings. My favorites were Caramel Fudge and Maple Nut. Oh, were they good! But the Easter baskets were not my favorite Easter gift.
One year I bypassed the Easter basket and opted instead for Elmer's top-of-the-line Easter treat – a thick-shelled oval of chocolate wrapped in gold foil. To my childhood eyes, it looked as big as a football! The hollow shell was filled with Elmer's signature “gold bricks”: little cubes of chocolate and nuts wrapped in more gold foil. Yes, Top-of-the-Line for sure, but still not my favorite Easter gift.
In addition to the candy, my folks sometimes had another Easter surprise in store. In preparation, Mom would gather a few eggs from the grocery and magically blow out the contents leaving the shells intact. She would then turn the empty shells over to my Dad to work his own brand of magic. He would dye each egg a chosen color, then glue carefully folded paper onto it. Next he would paint his creation with a fine brush. And voila! He had transformed the egg into the likeness of an animal! I remember best the pink pig and the multicolored chicken. They were works of art, but they were not my favorite Easter gift.
No, my favorite Easter gift easily bested any of these other Easter delights. For while my favorite came only once, it has lasted for a lifetime. I received this precious Easter gift way back when I was only three years old. For on Easter Sunday of that year, my sister was born.