Easter 1980

April 5, 1980 I was sporting this costume at the Hoover Jr. High ball fields...because I was in charge of the Easter Egg Hunt for the District 3 Recreation and Parks Department. This was back in the day when the eggs in egg hunts were hard boiled and dyed. And let me tell you...I did plenty of that. I purchased 100 dozen eggs from a chicken farm out in West(by God) Melbourne. I got in my little Toyota and picked them all up.....never really thinking too much about where I was going to store them... I hadn't really thought about just how many 100 dozen was......but as luck would have it...John and I had just bought a new condo and the brand new refrigerator was completely empty! Perfect!...In went the eggs...and Thank God they all fit!. I did manage to farm out about 10-15 dozen to my sisters and their friends in the Melbourne High School Honor Society or something...(Delta-Tri-Hi-Y Club maybe????) The rest of them were left for me to boil, cool and dye. Late into the night I was at the stove...boiling away...and then finally it was after midnight and I was down to the last 6 or so..."Are these boiled? I can't remember"..... I remember asking myself...John was no help...haha After shaking them and / or rolling them...I decided they were cooked...so I dyed them and put them away and went to bed.
The next morning I was up bright and early...loaded up the eggs and headed to the ball fields. With the help of my assistant Barry and his girlfriend, Patti and maybe a few others...we hid 1200! eggs out in the field. We had three different areas...for three different age groups. Right about the time we were finishing up...some kid came out of his back yard that bordered the fields on a MINIBIKE! YIKES...STOP! "HEY KID!!!!!!DON"T BREAK THE EGGS!"We were lucky to have a few guys working on a rooftop nearby...they yelled loudly enough for the kid to stop...so as far as I know we didn't lose any eggs in the process!
I remember the local bank had donated some lollipops and good old McDonald's gave us some of that God awful orange "punch" they used to give out free...cups and all. Hey...you can't beat free. We had a variety of prizes for the winners and at the designated time the kids were off and running! I think the whole "Hunt" lasted about 15 minutes...hahaha after all that work! But the kids were happy...the newspaper took a few pictures and almost everyone went home happy. Why "ALMOST" everyone???? Because 6 unlucky kids got those last 6 eggs that were NOT boiled after all! hahahahah....they thought someone was playing a joke! One little girl said.."Man...I got one egg that broke all over the place when I threw it in my bag!"
I never said a word.....hahaha but somewhere out there are a few kids who will always remember the time they got the raw eggs at the Easter Egg Hunt!and...... I hope they are laughing about it!
Happy Easter!