Chicks and Ducks and Geese Better Scurry

The Easter Parade
I'm the princess on the front seat.  My brother, Kirk, is the driver.

Ahhh, the surrey. The Easter Bunny graciously left it on our sidewalk when I was about 4 years old.  I think it was the Easter Bunny.  It might have been a St. Patrick's Day leprechaun.  What I do remember is that we rode it until the wheels fell off.  

The surrey was an extremely versatile "ride."  We staged East Neal Street parades waving to the mimosa trees that saluted us with their lacy fronds.  "Kirk, I'll be Miss Panola County, and you be the guy that drives the car!"  Sometimes we would pretend to be clowns in a clown car.    Dramatically slamming on the "brakes," we would fall like silly monkeys onto the street and then run around performing clownlike antics.  My favorite part was the smiling and waving at the pretend crowds of cheering admirers.  I've always loved a good parade.  

With a piece of manilla paper and a box of crayons, we created "Lemonade for Sale" signs that we taped to the front of the surrey's canopy with masking tape.  I sat on the front seat balancing a pitcher of lemon Koolaide and a stack of Dixe cups on my lap.  Kirk's job was to pedal and shout "Lemonaaaaaaaaaade for Saaaaaaaale!"  As we decorated the surrey and stirred the cup of sugar into the Koolaide, we dreamed about all that we would buy at the Dime Store with our earnings.  Half of 35 cents wouldn't buy my Barbie a tennis dress or a new nightgown.  So, I tucked my share of our meager portion away in my little oval rubber squeeze coin purse to wait until our next entrepreneurial venture.  Barbie would just have to wait.  

We sailed the Seven Seas in that good old surrey.  The waves would crash into us, but the surrey held tight.  Pirates chased us up and down East Neal Street.  Toothy sharks swam alongside us nipping at our bare toes while we screamed in horror.  "Oh no!!!  More sharks!  They're going to eat us!  Pedal faster!"  Sometimes we would sit and drift in the open ocean casting out our imaginary fishing lines hoping to catch Charlie the Tuna for our dinner.  Peter Pan and Wendy stopped by to see us from time to time.  We were a jolly crew on a the Good Ship Surrey.


My heartfelt thanks go out to the Easter Bunny or leprechaun for his or her generosity.  That surrey was more than a toy.  It was a vessel filled with adventures.  Those adventures created lifelong memories that give me pleasure to this day.