Easter Sunday at “Fairyland” – a story from 1948

By a resident of Penn Laird, Va. 1948, who sent this story to me circa 1999, back when I did a newspaper column known as Another Way, in a dozen or so small town newspapers. I recently found this hilarious story again (which was too long to use in my column). But you might it enjoy it this Easter week. And if anyone knows this family or anything about the Fairyland restaurant, please let me know. (And I am so sorry I don’t have the name of the woman who sent me this true story.)

Easter Sunday at “Fairyland”

The Easter of 1948 we lived at Penn Laird, in a house called “Fairyland.” Formerly it was a “Tea Room” or small restaurant named “Fairyland.” They also sold small pieces of stone there, shaped like a cross, called “Fairystones.” These small brown crosses were used as pendants or pins and were very popular at one time. After the shop closed, the house was still called Fairyland, and when we lived there our daughters thought it was fun to say we lived at “Fairyland.”

We had five little girls that Easter in 1948. Alice was 8 ½, Marcia 7, Nancy 5, Janet 3 ½ and Libbie 6 months old. Going to church on Sunday was a big event that I had to prepare for all day Saturday. So we couldn’t always go. But “Pop” as the girls called my dad (their grandpa) had called to ask if we were coming to church at Mt. Horeb on Easter, and if so, would we like to come home with them after church for dinner and to hunt Easter eggs in the afternoon? Of course we all wanted to go, very much. I loved to eat Sunday dinner at home, and the girls loved to hunt Easter eggs there with “Pop.” Besides, other family members–Mary, Francis, Peggy, Sam and Marjorie would also be there. I wanted to be with all the family.

So on Saturday morning I started getting ready. First I trimmed and shampooed everyone’s hair. Most of the girls had long hair and it took awhile to dry. I started with Alice because hers was the longest and thickest. After the shampoo, each girl was given a coloring book and told to sit on the bench behind the table in the dinette, and color pictures until her hair was dry. I didn’t want them running around the yard with wet hair.

After shampoos, everybody’s good shoes had to be found, polished, and shoestrings washed. They were put on the window sills to dry. After some lunch, I began to get their clothes ready.

Now this was a time when little girls were about all the bows, ruffles, lace and ribbons that could possibly be put on dresses, petticoats, panties, socks, gloves, hats and purses. We didn’t have enough of all the fancy things for everyone to wear at the same time, so they had to share them: one got ruffles on panties, another pink flower printed panties, one got lace trim on socks, another a picture of a kitten on socks, one got gloves, another got the purse, one got hair bows, another a hat—and so on till all had ribbons and bows enough to look gift wrapped!

The girls often got into fights over this, claiming the pink lace socks, the ruffled panties, or the purple hair bows were theirs and theirs alone forever! But I said that it had to be divided, and decided, and things shared, on Saturday. We did not have time to settle arguments on Sunday morning! So I set aside a chair for each of the four girls’ clothes, and we all debated, fussed, and finally agreed on each piece of clothing as it was put on each girl’s chair.

I firmly stated that on Sunday morning each one was to put on exactly what was on her chair, and I didn’t want to hear anything more about it! I said that if they got into fights over the clothes on Sunday, we wouldn’t go to Pops after church for dinner and hunt Easter eggs. This was a severe threat!

So on Sunday morning, things went smoothly. The girls even helped each other with buttons, and I fixed their hair. Alice’s hair was dark blond, long, thick, and made beautiful braids tied with ribbons to match her dress. I had curled her bangs. Marcia’s was shiny dark brown, and curly, so she wore a hair bow with a ribbon tied on it. Nancy’s was light blond and fine, so she wore barrettes to hold the curls back from her face. Janet wore a small hat or bonnet tied under her chin, and showed a bunch of little brown curls in the back.

I had dressed Libbie, the baby, and myself, so now we were ready. I mentally patted myself on the back for my plan to have a chair fixed with each girls’ clothes. As we started to go out the door, Wiley and I smiled proudly at each other across the room, over the heads of our pretty little girls. With their ribbons and bows, each one was beautiful in her own special way, from Alice beginning to grow up, down to Libbie the pink-cheeked dimpled baby, kicking and cooing with her share of the ruffles and lace. A rosy glow seemed to spread over the room and hung in the air as we went out the door.

It was a wonderful Easter morning: cool and fresh and clean after rain. The sun shone brightly on the new green grass, sparkling with the misty due of early morning, Crocuses and daffodils were blooming and bushes and trees were showing tiny, faintly green leaves. I felt very happy, and as if we really were living in “Fairyland.”

Since we were going to Mt. Horeb the drive took about ½ hour. About halfway there, I looked around at the little girls in the back seat, still feeling proud at how pretty they looked, when to my shocked surprise I saw that in the midst of all the lace, ribbons and bows, Janet did not have on panties! I said, “Janet! Why didn’t you put on your panties?” She lifted up her shoulders, spread out her hands, and said, “There weren’t any on my chair!”

What could I say? I was speechless. Did she think it was her turn not to get panties? After all, I had told each one to put on the clothes on their chair, and no complaints! And if they didn’t like something on the chair, I didn’t want to hear about it!

I couldn’t think of anything suitable to say. If we went back home after the panties, we would get to church about halfway through the service, and I couldn’t NOT go into Mt. Horeb Church with five little girls when the service was half over. If we missed the whole service, I would be too embarrassed to explain “why” to my father. How could I have left home with one of the girls not wearing panties? I certainly didn’t want to miss out on Easter dinner at Mother’s altogether, and have the girls miss hunting Easter eggs with “Pop” when they had done their part.

So we went on, and Wiley walked around in the cemetery at the church with Janet, while I took the other girls into church. Afterwords, at Mother’s, I used a couple of my Pop’s handkerchiefs and pinned together some panties for Janet. Hardly anyone knew the difference!

It was a great day after all! Believe me, we had inspections on the way out the door after that!

[By a Penn Laird’s resident, many years ago.]

What do you like about Easter Sunday?

And yes, it can be hectic with little ones, getting everyone ready.

Let’s all remember and appreciate knowing about the resurrection of Christ on that day many many years ago!