Longe Life Lesson 7 Easter Egg Hunt

An Easter Egg hunt tripped my competitive switch. Staying in a bungalow close to the beach on the grounds of the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, we experience one of the few family vacations that included my parents and siblings. I have snippets of memories of that trip in the 1950s, that are fueled by a couple snapshots in photo albums, two or three stories told and retold like a family myth and a searing sense of physical pain when a coin toss meant I did not win the biggest, lushest Easter basket I ever saw.

When he had the opportunity, Dad retold the story of how I embarrassed him by falling asleep at the dinner table at white table-cloth restaurant. I remember chasing after a red stone that my brother repeatedly tossed into the pool at deeper and deeper depths to teach me to dive.  I remember an argument with my mother not allowing me to go into the pool after particularly bad sunburn and eventually compromising on wearing a long sleeve shirt in the hot Florida sun. And, on Sunday after church, I remember the Easter egg hunt.

With 'Ready, set, go!" a bunch of kids, a quantity smaller than my first grade class began lifting leaves and pushing back petals to find eggs in a hotel garden. There were boys and girls younger and older than me. I remember my brother, too old to participate, acting as my coach, encouraging me and urging me to hurry. At one point I stopped to count the eggs in my basket and turned over the entire basket, dumping out the eggs. Clearly a setback, but it didn’t stop me. I’m sure it took encouragement, I refocused my search to find the most eggs.  

The competition closed when no more eggs could be found. The judges, who to me were like adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon, legs to the belt line, counted the eggs in my basket.

Behind them on a ledge stood the Easter basket with stuffed bunnies, sand pail, shovels, rakes, cars, jelly beans and chocolate. I had the most! I won the basket! And, so did a boy, bigger than me.  The judges conferred and a coin flip, it was determined, would break the tie.

He won the basket. I got the quarter and a memory that has lasted fiftyfive years. It taught me about the importance of a good coach, about fairness not being fair and about not stopping to count your eggs.  

Happy Easter.