Where have all the bonnets gone?

Even with snow flying sideways on Easter, 1,300 diners still showed up for dinner. With camera in my pocket, I spent the day looking for the gala Easter parade of outfits that I remember growing up. I fondly remember my mother dressing my sister and me for Easter, with new clothes and bonnets for the ladies. My church was a pageant of other families who had done the same. We always anticipated Easter in our house with the excitement of spring. Over the three decades that I have been pouring water and coffee, bussing tables, and greeting guests, I have regretfully seen a gradual and ever increasing disappearance of this ritual rite of spring.

Families are still celebrating this most important of Christian holidays together around the table. They come in every shape and size. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, cousins, nieces and nephews, are mixed in a nearly unending combinations. It certainly remains a festive day and the Easter egg hunt for 500 eggs Janis hid and the carefully colored eggs on paper in the coloring contest attest to the excitement felt among the children. Sadly, my search was reduced to a single bonnet shared by sisters in matching pink dresses and it was bought in our gift shop.