Easter... in June!

Growing up, we always went to my grandparent's place in Scurry after church for Easter, but we didn't do the traditional Easter thing. Instead of the ham and casseroles and whatnot, we built a bonfire, roasted hot dogs and stuffed ourselves silly with grandma's famous potato salad. It was bliss.
These days it's kinda hard to make it to Grandma's by lunch since we kinda have responsibilities at church on Easter. So this year, she did the sweetest thing. She postponed Easter until we could all be there. Sadly, we weren't able to make it 'til June. Nevertheless, we had so much fun.

In addition to the hot dogs, there was an Easter Egg hunt, but the real highlight was the Treasure Hunt. What it has to do with Easter, I'm not sure, but the tradition started when I was 10 or so, and we always had a great time. The original story started as such, and there's a new one every year.

The Tale of Whitebeard the Pirate


Back in the days of yore (yore grand-mammy and yore grand-pappy that is) there was this mean, nasty, rotten, stingy, and altogether disagreeable pirate named Whitebeard. He had previously been known as Blackbeard, but since he had drunk milk for breakfast and did not have a napkin he was henceforth and forevermore known in polite society as Whitebeard.


Well it seems that this vermin of the high seas had pillaged all of the treasuries of Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Cicily Alaska. His ship, the "Puddy Tat", was so loaded down with treasure that she barely stayed afloat. Every time a wave came by buckets of water filled her bilges. Mean, nasty, rotten, stingy and altogether disagreeable Whitebeard made the crew, which he had shang-haied once when he was in Shang-hai, go below and take their Tupperware buckets and form a bucket brigade to bail the water from the bilges.


One day in mid-November, while sailing the Gulf of Mexico just off shore from Galveston, he suddenly remembered that he had tickets to the December 3rd game which had the Dallas Cowboys facing the dreaded Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now Whitebeard didn't particularly care for the Cowboys, especially since Jerry Jones made Jimmy Johnson quit before having an opportunity to win the Super Bowl three times in a row. But he really admired the Buccaneers because their name reminded him of pirates and he really loved being a pirate. He often said "Being a pirate is a lot like being a preacherCyou gotta have the calling."


Knowing that he only had about three weeks to cover the four hundred or more miles to Texas Stadium, he immediately headed the Puddy-Tat up the Trinity River. When he reached the place on the Trinity where Cottonwood Creek joins it he became a little confused, which was understandable since he rarely thought very clearly since having his frontal lobotomy. And being in such a state of confusion, he turned right up Cottonwood Creek instead of continuing up the Trinity to Irving as he should have. After a couple of days heading up Cottonwood Creek the water played out and the Puddy Tat was stranded. Whitebeard was determined, however, to make it to the game so he and his crew left the Puddy Tat and decided to go overland to Texas Stadium. Of course though he didn't want to leave all the booty on the Puddy Tat where it might be found. So he and his crew buried the treasure on the land that is now known as the "Old Madden Place". (The old in this case refers to the place and not to the Madden).


Whitebeard said, almost intelligently, we better make a map so we can find the treasure when we come back, which they did. He decided though, that if he took the map to Texas Stadium some thief could pick his pocket and steal the stuff which he had already stolen. This really perplexed him and he said, "I wish they would arrest all of them thieves." Then one of his crew, who was a college graduate, reminded him that he too was a thief. After mulling this over he changed his mind about arresting the thieves. So he decided to hide the map in a hollow tree close to where he had buried the treasure. He didn't think about it being just as hard to find the tree as it would to find the treasure. So as it turns out old mean, nasty, rotten, stingy, and all together disagreeable pirate named Whitebeard has not made it back to claim the treasure he had buried.

So this year, the kids were big enough to embark on a treasure hunt of their own. And what an adventure it was!

We had a wonderful day together, enjoying family, food, and the beautiful, serene place that is Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was such a great day, and I was (and still am) just overcome with thankfulness.