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Back in the 1940s and ’50s, there were no plastic Easter eggs.

Most people in Summerfield just went to the chicken house to get eggs to dye. You hoped there wouldn’t be any hens in the nests to peck your hands when you reached for the eggs. Then you boiled the eggs and last of all, you dyed them.

Sometimes dyeing the eggs was a challenge before you could go to the store and buy the dyeing kits.

Dewey Trogdon remembers his mother using beet juice to dye eggs. She saved some of the beet juice when she canned beet pickles. Their chickens laid brown eggs so the color wasn’t as pretty as they would be with white eggs.

Rachel Terrell said her mother dyed eggs for them and thinks they might have colored some of the eggs with crayons. They didn’t have Easter baskets and carried the eggs in paper bags to the egg hunts.

Bill Gordon remembers helping his mother dye eggs. They used tablets that you dissolved in hot water and then dipped the eggs. They hid the eggs at home and at their grandparents’ home; he doesn’t remember any egg hunts at church.

One of Linda Ayers Southard’s memories was an egg hunt at the old Methodist parsonage. The eggs were hidden in the woods near the parsonage; this was before Linda started to school.

The Sunday school teachers weren’t too pleased when Gene Barham peeled and ate some of the eggs before the egg hunt was over. He doesn’t remember any prizes but they had cookies and Kool-Aid for refreshments.

When her grandfather, Sheriff Joe Hoskins, was still living, Elizabeth Hoskins remembers going to his house to hunt eggs. The eggs were already dyed and hidden when the children arrived. Aunt Emma, not related but thought of as an aunt, Aunt Nelle and Aunt Kate Hoskins dyed and hid the eggs.

Hattaway’s Seed Store and Woolworth’s in Greensboro sold dyed baby chicks or biddies at Easter for several years. The chicks were dyed different pastel colors and the children loved them.

Mildred and Tommy Pope and David Angel received dyed biddies but the biddies didn’t live long. Margaret Chandler said she and John got one for Maurice and Donna, their children, one year, but when the children fussed a bit over the biddy they wouldn’t buy them anymore.

Margaret Wilson remembers that she and her brother and sisters got a new basket every year. The baskets contained dyed eggs, a chocolate rabbit and other candy, and sometimes a stuffed bunny.
Little girls, as well as older ones, looked forward to new dresses at Easter. Jean Angel Stofanik remembers that she and her sister, Judy, usually got new summer shoes at Easter too.

Mildred Pope Jessup remembers one of her Easter dresses was made from a feed sack. She also got an Easter bonnet, or hat, that probably came from Woolworth’s. When she got black patent shoes and a little pocketbook one year, she thought she was ready to lead the Easter Parade.

Bea Stafford Curtis remembers having an egg hunt for her class when she was teaching at Summerfield School one year. They hid the eggs along the chicken lot fence — on the outside, of course.
For several years, the Summerfield Fire Department has held egg hunts for all the children of the community.

At our house, some of the adults would play games with the children on one side of the house while other adults hid the eggs on another side of the house. Sometimes the dog found some of the eggs before the children got to them.

With all the fun of new dresses, dyed eggs, baskets and egg hunts, the real meaning of Easter was not overlooked.

Summerfield Methodist Church has had sunrise services since the 1950s, Louise Styers remembers. One year it snowed and they still had the service outside.

Peace Church has had sunrise services for many years but not always every year and the same was true of the egg hunts.

The first reference found to a sunrise service at the Baptist church was in 1964. It was usually held on the lawn in front of the education building and the choir stood on the steps.

It seemed that it always got cold before Easter and some of the teen age girls would stand in their thin dresses with no coat on, so everybody could see their new Easter dresses. I don’t know how they kept from freezing. It’s been several years since the church has had a sunrise service.

Moravia Moravian Church, as far back as Rachel Terrell can remember, has had a sunrise service on Easter Sunday. Before the service started at the church, the band would go to the homes of the sick and elderly members and play for them.

The week before Easter, the congregation scrubs the tombstones in the cemetery. At times, some of the Sunday school classes wanted to raise money for projects and would scrub the stones for a fee.

Many years ago, the Moravians had a sit-down breakfast before the sunrise service, but in recent years they changed to having ham and sausage biscuits after the service.

The service starts in the sanctuary and then everybody walks out to the cemetery. The choir sings and the band plays; they always try to be in the cemetery when the sun rises.

Rachel Terrell remembers very few times when rain kept them from going outside. Watching the sunrise and thinking about the first Easter gives you a really special feeling.

Thanks to all who shared their memories.

Gladys Scarlette is a local historian, lifelong of Summerfield resident and author of two books about Summerfield.