From smiling ladies parading in Easter bonnets to the clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages, all the right nostalgic pieces for an old-fashioned Easter were available last weekend in downtown Wheaton–they just got nudged a little into the 1990s.
Handmade bonnets adorned dozens of female heads of all ages who paraded the streets for an Easter hat contest. A few followed tradition with decorations of lace and flowers and bows, but most bonnets were covered with mini-stuffed Easter animals and plastic colored eggs.
Eight-year-old Vanessa Travis echoed many of the younger contestants: “I picked it out and told her where to put it,” and her mom, Karen Sarallo, wielded the glue gun.
One young girl’s white straw hat truly gave a nod to the 1990s with a brim of small chick-shaped lights powered by a battery dangling off the back.
Images of laughing children in pastel dresses and suits frolicking across a lawn gave way to dozens of children in gym shoes and hooded parkas swatting with paint stirring sticks at plastic colored eggs as they tried to roll them 30 yards to the finish line.
But the giggles for the most part were still there, especially on the faces of winners like Charlette Jauch, 7: “It makes you feel good to win. It doesn’t matter, it’s still a fun game, but when you win it makes you feel special.”
White carriages guided by men in black top hats and drawn by horses with red-trimmed harnesses clip-clopped over the cobblestones of Front Street.
And also like an old-fashioned street scene, sidewalks were filled with smiling, strolling window shoppers. Easter baskets swung from the hands of most of the children and from their mothers and fathers as they tried to collect the right plastic eggs from merchants that would have an entry blank inside for the stuffed animal raffle. And the Easter bunny roamed the streets dispensing hugs and store coupons.
A petting zoo gave children a chance to touch and feed real lambs and sheep and other small animals. Watching animals is how many of the children had started their day with a free viewing of the Oscar-winning movie “Babe” at the Wheaton Theatre.
But whether old fashioned or modern, the good time was the same.
“It’s great fun,” said Barb Coye, manager of Carlson’s Hardware, who, like other members of the Downtown Business Association, pitched in to help run things. “Kids have a good time, parents have a good time. It’s just real simple fun.”
