Bring Back All Of Those Happy Days

The ultimate "Peep" show...

It's so strange to me that it's Easter...I'm notorious for forgetting holidays these days, to the point where people will have to spell it out to me why they're not going to be able to call me back on a given special day. Easter is a holiday I equate with Reese's peanut butter eggs, chocolate bunnies and the vinegar stench of Paz Easter-egg dye, applied with the aid of a flimsy wire dipper that'll do more for your hand-eye coordination than Atari 2600 any day.

Hiding in plain sight, 1984.

I know from childhood it has a bigger meaning—a command performance at church.

An '80s Easter with blown-out eggs decorated to look like Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper & Michael Jackson.

One year, as a kid, I remember my dad helped me with a Flint Journal contest to find impossibly well concealed eggs all around the city. We didn't find any—I think the prize was cash, but the fact that he indulged me was more of a treat. I was into mass contests at the time, like the book Who Killed The Robins Family, and was no more successful a detective than I was a deteggtive.

Mass contests and...Garfield???

Ever since I left home, Easter's been meaningless for me. José used to like to make something special, like a ham or maybe corned beef and cabbage. Today, it's down to Weight Watchers spaghetti (only six points! tastes like nine!) and I didn't get any candy this year. I did find some egg whites this morning concealed in a whole wheat wrap.

With washcloth bunnies made by my late grandmother.

The only holiday that has any impact on me whatsoever is Christmas, because we make an effort to see our families on and around it. I kind of miss caring about holidays, but you can't just make yourself care again like you can just make yourself stop eating Easter candy. Maybe for me holidays worked best when I was young, like overeating or my shoulder.

My sister and I, Easter 1980.

Comments

[joe to hell]

u look like such a lesbian in that last photo

[Matthew Rettenmund]

Yes, I was an 11-year-old boy slash 28-year-old baby dyke.