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Glen Ellen’s egg dyeing extravaganza

The news from Glen Ellen

  When I was just a kid, one of the cinematic tropes used to illustrate fleeting time was a steady stream of newspapers pouring out the business end of a huge printing press. Faster than a coho leaps from the stream, into the foreground suddenly jumps a front page, with date in bold-faced focus. As quickly as that disappears, another front-page springs up like a whirling dervish, a new date prominently featured.
 

As this repeats, second by second, the dates whirl by and the passing of days, weeks, months and years is featured in mere minutes.

This brief glimpse of time’s exhilarating, accelerating speed is memorable. And real. But that was then.

  Now I feel time’s rapid tumble into the future isn’t all that exhilarating, mostly just confounding. But this column today isn’t primarily for those confounded oldies among us. It’s for the young’uns.
 

However, since I doubt there are many youngsters among my few fans, I ask my regular readers to please share this news with any cute kids you know. Even teenagers. Here’s just the treat for those from 1 to 13.
 

This coming Friday afternoon, April 6, at 3 p.m., a Glen Ellen tradition will be repeated, even though it seems (to me) that last year’s event just happened. That would be the awesome egg-dyeing extravaganza held at our Glen Ellen Fire Station located at 13445 Arnold Drive.
 

Here I ask you to morph that newspaper illustration of fleeting time into a 3-D explosion of pastel colored eggs, each dated with a year, coming at you in warp time.
 

Children and adults of all ages are invited to join IC (that’s fire-folk talk for Incident Commander) Edmond Joseph and his sweetie, the lovely Theresa Joseph and their darling daughter Ruby Marie in coloring the 120 dozen eggs provided by Don and Sherry Shone and Dale Downing.
 

After turning these monochrome eggs into a pastel-colored rainbow, the group can sing a slightly belated Happy Birthday to Ruby who was born on lucky 4/4/04.

  Sometime later that evening, in a top-secret maneuver, a few hardy folks from our firehouse will hide all of those eggs in the tall green grass in Cunninghame Field at Dunbar School. Small tykes are cautioned to avoid the schoolyard then; no peeking before Saturday.
 

Ah, but then come early Saturday morning, April 7, at 10 a.m. every child is invited to join the race to find the hidden eggs. A certain number of golden eggs will be planted. These are redeemable for a special prize being offered by Betty and Caroline Kelly of Wine Country Chocolates. This year they are fashioning a handcrafted chocolate fire truck for the lucky winners.  
 

This is one event where you don’t want to be on Slow-noma time. We urge you to arrive early with basket or bag in hand. The enthusiastic crowd descends upon the field with amazing alacrity and all 1,440 eggs are collected promptly. Arriving early gives you ample opportunity to visit with real firefighters, greet the Easter Bunny and sometimes to even sit for a photo op in the fire truck.
 

A special added treat this year is Dunbar School’s second annual Garden Anniversary Park and Work Day following the egg hunt. The garden party will include arts and crafts for kids, a bake sale, student created cards for sale and tours of the garden. It’s the perfect prelude to a harmonious Easter Sunday.
  Jim Hill and the folks at the Glen Ellen Community Church will have special events on Good Friday and Sunday, so check their website: www.gechurch.com/easter-schedule.

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Share your good news with friends and neighbors in Glen Ellen. Call or write me at 996-5995 or P.O. Box 518, GE 95442. Or email me at creekbottom@earthlink.net. Glen Ellen chatter rarely requires timeliness; however, if your news does, please be sure to contact me at least three weeks before the run date.