Easter in the Past

Easter in New York city in the 1940s and ‘1950s meant I would get a new dress and probably also a new spring coat.

What exactly was a “spring coat” anyway? As I remember it, it was a — often navy blue — lighter coat than my winter coat, which was often red or camel colored. And it didn’t matter what the weather was, we wore our spring clothes on Easter Sunday. Much of the time I remember being freezing. This was before climate change.

And guess what we did? We drove downtown from Riverdale or Washington Heights to Fifth Avenue in our new “spring clothes” and walked down…