Adkins, Mattas, Mize Family History

A Story for

Easter

My aunt, Grace (Adkins) Mattas played the Irving Berlin song “Put on Your Easter Bonnet” for me as a child. I was fascinated by the words and by the fact that somewhere there were Easter Parades and grand ladies with fine trimmings on their hats. Though we had no parades in Parkston, South Dakota, my relatives had their share of fine hats!

Grace Mattas on the right with two of her friends. Circa, 1890s

My grandmother, Amelia (Mattas) Mize on the right with one of her friends. Circa, 1880s

Picture is a friend of  Grace Mattas showing off her Easter hat. Circa, 1890s

Hats were a traditional adornment for years. In the 1950s the best place to buy a woman’s hat was the Lou and Trudy shop in Parkston.


I can remember the beautiful “bride doll’ displayed in their window, but never knew who won it!

The men could get their Easter hats at Kayser’s.

In my mind, no one looked better in a hat than my Dad, Pete Adkins.

Children also donned hats at Easter. For my Rauscher cousins who attended Catholic Church hats were a necessity to show reverence. 

Children also donned hats at Easter. For my Rauscher cousins who attended Catholic Church hats were a necessity to show reverence. 

Amie Rauscher (Honermann) standing in front of LaVae Marquardt. Circa, 1940s

For some children, like my friend Susan (Winter) Buxcel and her sister Mary Loge, having a new hat was one of the Easter joys. 

L-r: Mary and Susan. Circa, 1950s

I don’t remember ever getting a new hat, but sometimes there were new shoes and new dresses. At least new dresses to us! Hand-me-downs were a way of life. The prettiest dresses that my sister Gloria and I remember were these, gently “broken in” by another family in the community.

L-r: Me and Gloria (Adkins) Leonard. Circa, 1958

My cousin Noreen (Hoffman) Wallace never got a hat either!

She tells this story:

“My dress had blue flowers and my cousin, Sandra Thompson was mint green with white flocked designs and lace trim. She had socks with ruffles. I inherited the dress but not the gorgeous bonnet she wore.” 

L-r: Noreen Hoffman and Sandra Thompson. Circa, 1960

Getting new clothes was just one of the wonderful things that happened at Easter time - another was dying eggs!

My friend, Susan (Winter) Buxcel had a little trouble with this. She would painstakingly dip her eggs into all the cups, thinking she was creating masterpieces. The problem poor Susan had, was that she was colorblind! According to her sister Mary, most of her eggs turned brown!

The transfers that came with the Easter Dying packets were tricky to apply. You had to cut them out of the thin paper and hold them on the egg with a wet cloth. If the cloth was too damp the image would just become a blur. We always dyed an egg for my aunt Grace (Adkins) Mattas. Her favorite transfer was an image of a cross with a lily. They don’t put that image in the PAAS packets you buy today.

Easter was the time that Priebe’s, later the Parkston Hatchery, gave away live colored chicks. I don’t how many they gave away, but it must have been hundreds! All my childhood friends seem to get some.

Photo from the Parkston Historical Society. Circa, 1959

Terry Grajkowske had one that grew up to be a really mean rooster. It always chased his friend, Dave Snyder.

Terry Grajkowske. Circa, 1950s

My chicks didn’t fare so well. At a very young age, I was worried that they might get cold overnight. So, I put them in one of my mother’s canning jars and closed the lid tightly. Needless to say, they never grew up!

Easter morning also brought the baskets and for some, the hunt!


Karen Runge, as well as Susan Buxcel, would find their eggs in their shoes. Noreen Wallace’s family would make their own Easter Baskets from boxes and shredded newspapers for grass. Most families, like my cousin Lynette Rauscher’s, would hide the Easter treats in the house. 

Not ours. The Easter Bunny always hid them outside. We had several acres surrounding the old Adkins place on the hill overlooking Parkston. On Easter morning, we would get up, sometimes put our coats over our pajamas and begin the hunt. Stuck in tree branches, under lilac bushes, down the hill near Pony Creek we would go. There was more than once that some creature had gotten into our candy before we did!

My Aunt Grace (Adkins) Mattas' program from the Presbyterian Church. Circa, 1930s

One of the things I remember most fondly about Easter in our small town was the sound of all the church bells. Whether it was for sunrise services at the UCC Church, or the Catholic Church calling their worshipers to mass, or the bell in our little Presbyterian church, it was a time when people came together to celebrate their own family’s faith. 

This post card was sent from my Great Aunt Ida Adkins Keene to her niece. I send you the same greetings!

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