Peeps

I do so love Peeps, but this is a different kind of Peep Tale.

In the Fifties many stores gave out Baby Chicks at Easter.There were long lines, kind of a precursor to buying Cabbage Patch Dolls. On Front Street, about a quarter of a mile from our house was Lou Rappaport’s House of a Thousand Items. (Forerunner to The Home Depot that is there now) Rappaport’s gave out free chicks, the Saturday before Easter for many years. They at least didn’t give out the dyed ones( at least that’s how I remember it) but there were plenty of places did that. The various places would advertise the week before and you would chose by how many you could get or if you wanted colored ones. I remember coming home with about 6 chicks each time. I would say I got chicks 4 or 5 times. The most memorable time though(and was probably the last time) was the day we learned they were too big for the box they were in. The box was kept over a heating vent( the wrought iron kind that was ornate). As we often did on Sundays we went to one of my sisters’ for family dinner. The chicks,who were several weeks old by this time, were left safely in their box.While we were gone we believed they could not get out of that box. While we were gone they seemed to moult their young feathers, grow new ones and wings to match. While we were gone the chicks escaped..and let me tell you chicks on the run, poop a lot. We came home to an indescribable mess. The chicks were sent packing to my sister Joan’s barn. The Hollidays always had a lot of free chickens..3 kids, you could really make a haul at the Easter give aways!

Now I am a part of Chix on Stix. We eat chicken 3 or 4 times a week. I like eggs. But I have never gotten any of my kids free chickens, dyed or plain. PETA would probably hunt me down . They probably stopped the carnage tradition of free Easter chicks. Eggselent!