Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Early next week, the White House grounds will truly be turned over to the people.

Well, to a certain group of people. The kids.

It's the annual White House Easter Egg Rule, and it's a tradition that goes all the way back to 1878.

The White House Easter Egg Roll actually began as the solution to a problem that Victorian children created.

Let me explain.

In the 1870s, on Easter Monday, kids in the nation's capital would celebrate by rolling eggs on the capital grounds, hard-boiled ones all day long, tearing up the lawn.

Eventually, Congress had enough, and so what did they do?

They passed a law kicking the kids off.

I guess there was no partisan gridlock back then, or at least not when it came to protecting

the precious capital lawn.

So how did these egg rolling-wraps galleons respond?

By showing up at the White House asking President Rutherford B. Hayes to let them use

his lawn.

He agreed.

And then every Easter Monday, the kids kept showing up. By 1880, there was no turning them away.

An article in the Washington Evening Star reported that Egg Rollers, quote, had taken absolute possession of the grounds south of the White House. For a few years, the egg rollers were happy to take over the lawn,

coming in their Easter best, rolling, tossing, and even smashing eggs in games of egg croquet

and egg toss. But by 1885, the kids got cheeky again and wanted to see the inside of the White

House.

So get this.

They marched inside the East Room, hoping to meet President Grover Cleveland, according to

...