Hot Start to Easter Holidays

Hot Start to Easter Holidays ©

By Michael Casey

So hot in fact that I just typed the title in and stopped to enjoy the sunshine outside while I sat on the garden wall.  I would have blown some bubbles but my mixture has gone flat and bubbleless. I have found that women’s shampoo makes the best bubbles so tomorrow maybe I’ll  steal some  from the bathroom and make a fresh mixture. Then I can blow bubbles to my heart’s content for Totoro our cat to chase. Speaking of whom, the girls in the house steal my shampoo to wash the cat in, so its balance that I should steal their shampoo so that me and Totoro can have some fun.

Easter is the time for eggs, I always thought the egg represented the stone in front of the tomb, but you need to ask your own priest, or maybe the man in the chocolate shop, Mr Cadbury. My mum used to say if they got an orange at Easter or Christmas they considered themselves lucky. I also seem to remember that she hid things at the back of the pantry.

Tomorrow would have been her Birthday, 97 if she were still alive. So all high days and holidays bring memories of her flooding back. As well as the threat “I’ll give a slap in the puss, or hit you with the wet mop” She never did it I just seem to remember she did say it, even if it was only once, but aimed in my direction, the golden child, ok the family pet.

Easter has lots of Masses and so forth, I never missed all my life, until these past couple of years, Arthritis and post quadruple chest pain is an “excuse” for not attending so often. Though if I offer my pain as prayer, then I think I should be Pope now, or at least a Bishop. It was 6am yesterday/today before I was comfortable enough to sleep, my neighbours think I’m a shift worker judging by the times the light goes on in the kitchen.

Hols are times to avoid doing school work and slinging your school bag to the back of the pantry. Then mum would wonder had Jean our black cat done something at the back of the pantry, and if she had mum would rub her nose in it. Only on this occasion it was just my smelly rugby kit festering for 2 weeks.

Mum had made me a kit bag out of an old pair of bathroom curtains, the curtains may have originally been the cloak that Irish dancers wear when they jig up and down. Recycling at its best, my sisters had been Irish dancers, Ann King was their teacher, so when my sisters stopped the Irish dancing their cloaks became curtains, curtains for the dancing but a new beginning in the bathroom as curtains.

It’s funny what you remember, the man who did the music for the Irish dancing was actually a teacher, he later left teaching to do music full time, he used to live just down the road from where I am now. How you make your daily bread is best if you can enjoy what you are doing, and if it hurts your spirit then change.

A guy I was at grammar school with ended up as an accountant and hated it, I believe he retrained and became a History teacher, if I’m wrong I’m sure he’ll correct me. He remembers me because I made a Whitty Comment, he called it a S**tty  Comment and Mr Ealy the woodwork and PE teacher hit him with the pump for using bad language, about 47 years ago. I’m listening to Bread right now hence the segway into our daily bread.

Easter is food and family, in our case the feeding of the 5,000 all the Caseys and the dog and cat, and at Xmas we fed the lodgers too. I don’t remember feeding lodgers at Easter maybe just a couple of cans of Guinness. What more can I say just enjoy your holidays and time with your kids, soon you will be as old as me, hopefully not as illness prone, and then you’ll see if all the time invested in them is rewarded.

Love and Parentage is all about sacrifice, looking back at the alternative, a life of loneliness and quiet is ok if you like books or records, but the noise and spirit of family cannot be bettered, even if they steal your shampoo to wash the cat in.