IT'S GOOD FRIDAY .... SORT OF.

I don't recall much about Good Friday as a kid in the Sixties. I know we ate fish, probably finney haddock or what I called yellow fish. I wasn't keen on its smoky fishy flavour but we had it with mash and peas no doubt. Nothing as dramatic as my Missus's neighbours. They kept a live carp in a bath-tub in the cellar for Good Friday! Yikes! That poor damn fish.

Being a sort of religious family in the Sixties, RC, my Mum and Dad will have dragged us to mass as well at some point that day. Or maybe that was Easter itself. I will have had to look at the stations of the cross and kneel, sit and stand through an hour of incense, homily and putting coins in a baize hat. It all seems like a lifetime ago now because it is. 50 years. Half a century. Another planet where I had Parents and siblings. All in the same house.

The only thing I can be sure of is that Good Friday meant a day off school. I imagine we will have broken up from school a week earlier but just the name Bank Holiday still fills me with glee. No school and latterly no work. Good Friday also heralded the coming of the Easter bunny and a trail of chocolate eggs, which were works of art back then and often involved plastic toys like trucks and clocks. God how I loved those Easter eggs with toys. There were cups too topped with a chocolate egg and all wrapped in cellophane. I recall vaguely seeing them on the shelf at the local Post Office and somewhere someone is playing Can't Buy Me Love by the Beatles on the radio. 

We can't feel that usual Bank Holiday glee this time round. We're all locked down and Good Friday has become simply the third Friday inside. Our private solitary. For religious people it will still have huge significance. For me Good Friday still has meaning. It's always Spring. Daffodils are nodding and I still observe some rituals, pleasant signs of the holiday, the secular remains.

I have just enjoyed two fresh boiled eggs. Eaten from an egg cup with the second egg waiting at the side of the saucer like a patient. Salt is the key to good flavour here and buttered soldiers complete the assault. The final treat is the oyster of white in the egg lid. When I'm done I like to turn the empty shell around and draw a silly face. Today's was a pirate, which I'll WhatsApp my Grandson with later, maybe adding some gers and gars like Long John Silver.

Yep, the most palpable thing about today is that we can't see our Grandkids over Easter. One of them, mini Moonbase Miss, is brand new, mint in box! She's only 2 weeks old! We saw her for an hour on the day of her birth and then bam! Nothing. Nada. We haven't been able to see her since.

To make up for our absence and to make ourselves feel slightly Eastery we packed some sweets and chocolates and toys in a big box full of straw and sent it off at the start of the week. It cost £15 to send first class and was worth every penny. I just hope the Easter bunny knows how to open a box for Moonbase Junior and Miss. Their parents will be on hand to help.

The Lockdown means we won't be trimming up this year. A first. No eggs in trees. No rabbits on the table. No bunnies on a see-saw. There doesn't seem much point as no-one can come round. There are also too many people having a really bad time.

I may sneak just a couple of eggs on strings somewhere before the day's out though. For old time's sake. After all, it is Good Friday and Easter is but a rabbit's whisker away.

What are you up to today and how was it as a kid?

Enjoy it whatever your'e doing at home.

Easter memories Moonbase 2019