Do your memories include the childhood and early family times spent dyeing Easter Eggs? How exciting it was for you or your children when it was time to dye eggs.
In talking about this the other day in a genealogy chat room, we shared the ways we dyed them and what dyes, utensils we used. I remember at first we used the liquid food colors dropped into a bowl of vinegar. Next we progressed to the special dyes we bought some liquid some tablets but we still used the vinegar. I especially loved it when the mixed dyes came out, they were sort of oily and stayed on top of the bowl, when we dipped the egg into it they came out beautifully colored sort of like a kali scope picture, of course mine were the ones with purple and lavender in them. We saved egg cartons to stand them up in when they were dyed to dry and lifted them out of the mixture with a wire that had been bent to fit around the eggs with a small handle. I still have one that my daughter and I used back in the 50's and 60's, should dig that out and include it in my memory box, along with the skate keys, jacks etc.
One year we did the predecessor to tie dyeing by putting the egg in an old sock and dipping it, really neat. We also used crayons or candles to draw pictures on the eggs before dipping. I didn't like the stickers as much as the drawing as they all seemed to come off faster.
Our family tradition when I was little was to go to Marshal Hall an old fashioned amusement park with tables for picnics on Easter Monday, or to the White House lawn to roll the eggs when I was even littler. We went every year to Marshall hall even after I got married and would probably still be going today if they hadn't closed the park.
I can remember my Mother telling me while we were dyeing that when she was little and they didn't have or couldn't afford the food coloring, that her Mother taught them to use what her Grandmother used to get the right colors. Such as Beets for the red, Onions for a pretty yellow, Cabbage made light green and artichokes or prunes the brown. They also used the juice from cherries, blueberries, raspberries and chinaberries. They cut a potato in half and cut a design in one end and dipped it into a color and made pictures on the eggshells.
Later in my craft classes, we worked one fall making Christmas ornaments from eggshells, by making a hole in the ends and blowing out the inside washing them good then cutting a round hole in the side and painting them adding glitters and putting small figurines in the inside. When we were working on these many of us told stories of our experiences dyeing eggs with our parents and siblings. What great memories something as simple as this we all have stored away, we need to write them up and include them in our memory book or at the very least in our notes in our software program. Of COURSE share them with your siblings and children.
