A Bible purchased 65 years ago creates an Easter memory

The Bible salesman came to our door in the San Joaquin Valley on an early spring morning. Door-to-door salesmen were common in that April of 1955. The Fuller Brush man carried brushes and mops. The Watkins man brought spices, vanilla and liniment. And, of course, there was the Tupperware Party Lady.

But this was a Bible salesman, and on that April day, with a 3-month old baby in my arms and another one on the way (although I didn’t know it yet), I was exhausted and in need of spiritual support. I was also not able to recognize a con man when I saw one. I pushed the overloaded and redolent diaper pail into a corner (no disposable diapers in those days). I listened raptly while he explained that this Bible, with its imitation leather cover and full-color pictures by Celebrated Old Masters, would be a priceless heirloom.

“Only,” the salesman dropped his voice as if about to make a shady suggestion, “we’ll need to call the Lieutenant and get his permission.” Of course, a woman couldn’t possibly make such a purchase without her husband’s approval. My husband was called to the phone in his CO’s office. I sure wouldn’t do that again.

“How can we pay for it?” he asked. It would only be $2.50 a month, I explained, spread over 24 months. That amount would be equal to $370.04 today. (The story of these unscrupulous Bible salesmen was hilariously told in the movie “Paper Moon” in 1973.) We proudly bought the LifeTime Bible and inscribed our wedding date, my husband’s military service so far, and the name of our daughter on the Family Page.

On that first Easter in California, our worldly possessions included a car that had cost $75 and our minuscule black and white 12” RCA TV, which we tuned by adding strips of aluminum foil to the rabbit ears and occasionally whapping it with the Sears catalog. It wasn’t new, of course. The only thing new we had was the baby. The Bible was our first new purchase.

By the baby’s first birthday, the cover, which turned out to be pasteboard, had already fallen off the Bible, but there was still the full-color picture of Jesus on Easter morning. There was also a full-color picture of the Pope. Fair is fair.

We moved 22 times in the next 20 years and Easter became an extravaganza of faith and fun, shared with many friends of many beliefs. On Easter morning, our family filled a whole pew at church and I’d glance down the row and catch my husband’s eye with a smile, until our sons grew taller than he was and I couldn’t see him over their heads anymore.

Easter egg hunts were essential. No. 4 Son recalls the year we made the switch to candy eggs for hunts. He found tasty snacks all year long, he said. After all, they were wrapped in plastic. Younger daughter recalls, “I think I found a hard-boiled egg once, but it was long enough after Easter that I left it for the squirrels and raccoons, because yikes. “

Now, Easter has come again. I’m trying to learn how to use Zoom so that we can still have a family get-together.

Creativity guru Marilyn Schoeman says it’s a great time to bring all branches of the family together virtually by creating a family trivia game. Even if the family is far-flung, each branch can contribute facts known only to them and shared by email, or Zoom, for everyone to guess the answers.

This year’s to-do list includes making calls to isolated older folks. Actually, nobody’s older than I am, but you get the idea. Karen Strand made her own Easter cards from material on hand, sharing scriptural quotes that are meaningful to her.

I still have that old Bible. The covers came off long ago, and many pages are missing. Why don’t I throw it away? Because, I guess, the unscrupulous salesman didn’t succeed in cheating us. It was the first thing we bought, and somehow, like faith, it survives.

My mom would have known how to handle this year’s puzzling holiday. She would have said, “Let’s just draw a curtain of pity over this.” As for people like the Bible salesman and some others who may be on your mind and in the headlines, “Flush him down the toilet!” she’d say.

Today, when we reach out to each other, it’s good to remember that we’re all doing what we can, and that will be enough! Happy Easter.

This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 5:01 AM with the headline "A Bible purchased 65 years ago creates an Easter memory."