Easter Egg Hunt in the Osage

Obviously Easter is not about bunnies and hunting eggs but it was a heck of a lot of fun growing up hunting and coloring Easter Eggs.  What was your favorite part ?  Here is a side note:  go to mylifelegacy.com and start writing your story.  Well I have to say I loved coloring Easter eggs and my sister was the gasoline that ignited that fire.  Another way of saying that is she was the energy behind the coming of Easter and all its trimmings.  She taught me to love coloring those eggs and I especially remember the WAX pencil that allowed you to write on an egg and after coloring it your name or message would pop out.  Now for me, I am the guy who always wonders who thought of that.  It was such a great idea.  I also remember folks like Joy Frank who was particularly talented and artsie ( that is a derogative word from a jealous or less talented person like me) who brought her colored eggs to school and they were really cool. 

Now the second best part of Easter (when I was a child assuming I have grown up) was the HUNT.  I was always bigger and faster (due to my size not quickness) and I would always be very competitive at getting the most eggs.  Now most of you youngens (yes, that is a word because I learned it as a child in Grainola) eggs were not always plastic and broke into two parts and were filled with candy and money.  NOPE, ours were real eggs, chicken eggs for the most part.  At the end of each Easter we had the best deviled eggs you can imagine and I have no why you take an Easter egg which represents the beginning of life and Christ and call it a deviled egg, strange?   However I do remember Eddie Harris on occasion would bring a goose egg that was about 3 or 4 times bigger than a chicken egg.  I don't remember how old I was when someone brought in those plastic eggs but it was late in my childhood experience.  The best part of our egg hunts was that literally every child in and around Grainola (yes, Oklahoma) came for the hunts.  We had them in school and after school and at church and it did not matter who you were or what color your skin or what your economic status or even your church affiliation and even if you did not have a church affiliation you came with an Easter basket  and fire in your eye to compete.  Sure there were winners and losers but pretty much everyone got at least a few eggs.  I don't know how the parents made sure but they did.  For us Fabulous Four (Jimmy, Hugh Allen, Jon Tanny and me) we always had a great time.  We competed with all ages and of course as we got older we did better but I consider those as learning experiences.  I remember competing against my brother Larry who was four years older and my cousin Bill Snyder (son of Gladys) and Billy Don Head (Head country BBQ family) and Joe Conner (smart and Eagle Scout) and Jay Olsen (not a bad guy but a smart elic sometimes) Glen McConaghy, Dee Johnson and the list goes on and on.  Oh ya, there were girls in the race.

And then of course there was Sunday Church.  Generally the girls would have new dresses and the guys would have new Levis or maybe a pair of slacks or a new set of shoes.  We never did it very many times but a few times we would have sunrise church services and they were good and bad.  The bad was we had to get up in the dark and be out on a hill top in the Osage before daylight.  The good and I can say great is we watched the sun come up and there were typically three crosses on the hillside with the sun coming up and symbolically THE SON came up as well.  Those were GREAT moments and impactful for my entire life.

Wow, great memories and here is a final thought:

                 ETERNAL LIFE (GRACE) IS NOT FREE, IT WAS PAID FOR

Happy Easter 2017,
gary@thepioneerman.com








 

Expectations -

I don't know about you but I have always been a pleaser (not an official word) and I cannot say that is a great thing.  My dad and mom and my Aunt Gladys and my Aunt Peggy were always folks I looked up to and NEVER wanted to disappoint.  Dad never said much but he just expected the best and I wanted to please him.  But those sisters, Opal, Gladys Snyder and Peggy Heath, were another story.  Those three girls were smart, very smart but they kind of had a critical nature to them and they were all strongly opinionated.  I think I just never wanted them mad at me so it was easier to be a pleaser.  All kidding aside, Mom had a passion for me to do my best, Aunt Gladys bragged on me so much I never wanted to disappoint her and Aunt Peggy was the funest (not a word that you can find in the dictionary) Aunt a guy could ever have so I just wanted to be around her and Uncle Bill and of course Joe, Cathy and Marie.  The problem with all of this is if you don't know what their expectations are you never know if you succeed.  Luckily mom and dad always let me know I had arrived somehow and met their expectations.  I will have to say over the years there were many time I was not sure.

Aunt Peggy and Aunt Gladys (Mrs. Snyder for those Shidler folks) were hard to figure as I never did know if I had met their expectations which I sincerely  wanted to   The funny side is both would ask me if they were my favorite aunt and of course I told them both YES.  I had good reason.  Aunt Peggy made the best cinnamon rolls and Aunt Gladys was my encourager and invested a lot of time and effort in me over my life.  I never wanted to disappoint them.

All that brings me to the real point of this topic.  Over the years I have found that folks make decisions about you without ever talking to you and or knowing what you think and a lot of times they are emotionally charged for no reason.  How about a good old time example:  I remember when my first cousin Bill Snyder cornered me at a family reunion about the politics of "right to work" legislation.  There were a bunch of family there who were die hard democrats that assumed because I was a business man that I was against the unions and for "right to work" legislation.  Quit frankly I had not given it a thought at the time but about four of my favorite relatives jumped on the band-wagon and I felt attacked.  I want you to know I love every one of them regardless of that event but I have never forgotten it.  I did not have a dog in that fight but they had EXPECTATIONS that I was against unions.  Another time I made the comment that Bill Clinton was not that bad of a president and in fact did some good things in spite of his moral compass.  You would of thought I was looking for a fight.  I was trying to point out that there is good in all presidents regardless of being a democrat or republican.  I failed the expectations test again. 

My point in all of this is lets look for the good in ALL people regardless of our differences.  Yes it is true I am a conservative republican but I will tell you some wonderful folks are die hard democrats.  Mark Hammons is the head of the democratic party in Oklahoma and a fine person married to a wonderful wife, Lourie and they are long time friends.  My neighbors Brad and Kim Henry are so nice they make me want to be a democrat (Brad is the past governor of Oklahoma), just kidding on becoming a democrat.  Sure, I am dropping names but do you get the point?  STOP having expectations that everyone see your point of view and just try to understand theirs and you might learn something.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Expectations are a great way to be disappointed in someone else and in the end you will be disappointed with You having unrealistic expectations
• Expectations can be the most encouraging thing you can do for someone if you just let them know (like Aunt Gladys expecting me to be great at math)
• Treating someone bad because You have expectations for them to act like you want is unreasonable and unfair
• The best expectations are those you have a chance at succeeding at if you know what they are.

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com