About Eggs for Easter

 

When I was a child we had a unique Easter custom.  A contest to see which family member could eat the most eggs at our Easter Sunday Breakfast.  We must have had some small treat, and some years we dyed hard boiled eggs, however it was the egg eating competition which fired our imagination.  All of the family participated, however everyone knew that Dad, Rodney and I were the real contenders.  To train for the competition Rodney and I would eliminate eggs from our breakfast menu at least a week in advance of the event.

We had moved to my Mother’s home community when I was eight.  Soon after the move, we discovered that some families celebrated holidays quite differently than was our custom.  For the family of my best friend, Easter was a second Christmas.  They would receive a large toy, like a bike, smaller toys, clothing, a large chocolate item and many Easter Eggs.  Rodney’s best friend also received a similar haul.  But were we envious?  No, we had our Egg Eating competition.  As an adult I decided that Mother had started the competition so we would have our own special ritual.  In our church community eggs were tied to Easter as symbols of spring and new life.  What better symbolism could she have chosen?

Easter morning would arrive and we gathered at the table.  For the contenders there was no bacon/ham, toast or juice.  Rodney and I only ate the eggs.  We would start with boiled, usually I preferred soft but then I would need toast to dip in the yolk; so hard boiled it was.   We would eat about three. 

Then we would move on to the fried, over easy eggs.  But they are also best with toast so it was fried with a hard yolk; ketchup helped them down, I could eat three – Rodney could do more. 

Fluffy scrambled eggs would be our final method.  Even after six eggs it is easy to finish a plate of four or five scrambled beauties.  I aimed for a total of ten and once made it to eleven!   Dad ate fifteen that morning complete with ham and toast. 

Rodney Vail - champion egg eater

Rodney claims he only had seven but I am sure he outnumbered me. He had a hollow leg and he always followed our breakfast with a second one at his friend Brian’s.   In the Egg eating competition there was no question, my brother Rodney Vail was king.

My Mother was here yesterday for Easter Dinner and I asked her about our childhood competition.  Imagine my surprise when Mother told me that ours was not original, it had also been a ritual in her childhood.     Their competition had been done with a twist.  A pail of their own farm eggs would be boiled… Yes a milk pail that held two and a half gallons; so I am thinking they used four to five dozen eggs.  When the eggs were cooked they would assemble at the table.  As Mother was remembering a time before the Second World War there were probably ten of the twelve children home, plus Grampy and Grammy.  Then the race would begin.  Anyone who could peel an egg fast had an advantage.  The contest continued until the eggs were eaten or everyone had their fill.    Mother could not remember a winner but was sure it would have been one of the older brothers. 

It has been many years since our family held an egg eating competition on Easter morning.  Perhaps next year I will re-establish the practice.