all this from a coffee mug and a spoon
recently i was making some coffee during an all night session of movie-watching and paper writing when i realised something. the clanking of the spoon in the mug as i stirred the sugar and non-dairy creamer reminded me of childhood. every good friday or holy saturday for just about thirteen years, my family would color easter eggs. i can recall the entire process vividly. From the large pot that my mom would hard boil the eggs in to how we washed our hands afterwards. Every year there would be one or two eggs that would basically crack, but not break, in the boiling water and the egg white would jut out of the shell. those were the first eaten and obviously not eligible for coloring. different smells were associated with the coloring. most of the years, we would have the color pellets that would dissolve in vinegar, so it was not necessarily a good smell, but we dealt with it anyway. we had these 'cool' coffee mugs that said any number of things like 'love' in psychedelic type, ones with fake street signs that said stuff like 'handle with care' and soft shoulders.' (we color the eggs in these mugs). of course we would fight over the best colors and who would get to dissolve the blue pellet or the red pellet. this is where the spoon clanking would first be heard. stirring the solution, thinking that the pellets would dissolve faster and therefore letting us color the eggs faster.
we would do eggs with just one color, dip half in one color and the other half in another, drop the eggs in one color, let it dry and then go for a second and sometimes a third. we thought of every possibility... or at least we thought that we thought of every possibility. we would let the eggs dry on cooling racks with paper towels lined underneath. there was also the clear crayon that would add to the mayhem. my dad would always write obnoxious things on the eggs like 'cholesterol bomb' or 'bill cartwright's egg.' i was always terrible at writing on the eggs because you couldnt see what or where you were writing and the oval surface was not kind to my sloppy writing. after we were all done, our hands were obviously covered with egg dye. after we packed the eggs away, we would dip the paper towels in the dye and make 'pretty designs.' we would tire of that eventually and have to wash our hands. we used this stuff called 'goop' in this little tub. it looked and felt like lard, but after about ten minutes of scrubbing, there was no trace of the red and green and blue stains that seemed like they would be permanent. we all got too old for coloring eggs, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.
i never liked hard-boiled eggs.
we would do eggs with just one color, dip half in one color and the other half in another, drop the eggs in one color, let it dry and then go for a second and sometimes a third. we thought of every possibility... or at least we thought that we thought of every possibility. we would let the eggs dry on cooling racks with paper towels lined underneath. there was also the clear crayon that would add to the mayhem. my dad would always write obnoxious things on the eggs like 'cholesterol bomb' or 'bill cartwright's egg.' i was always terrible at writing on the eggs because you couldnt see what or where you were writing and the oval surface was not kind to my sloppy writing. after we were all done, our hands were obviously covered with egg dye. after we packed the eggs away, we would dip the paper towels in the dye and make 'pretty designs.' we would tire of that eventually and have to wash our hands. we used this stuff called 'goop' in this little tub. it looked and felt like lard, but after about ten minutes of scrubbing, there was no trace of the red and green and blue stains that seemed like they would be permanent. we all got too old for coloring eggs, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.
i never liked hard-boiled eggs.