For the first time in 12 years, St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated as it was meant to be, in a bar, without our children :)
Because I am not a bit Irish, I never knew what the big hullabaloo was about St. Patrick's Day. This changed on March 17, 1985 when my boyfriend - now my husband - said "we are meeting my dad for a beer at Irish Bob's - at 10:00 AM!" My first thought was "who goes to a bar in the morning?"
Prior to that, I didn't know they made green beer and those who know me, know: a). I don't drink much and b). when I do drink, I'm a lightweight. But you know, I'm game. We met Karl at Irish Bob's at 10:00 am and Dave's brothers and sisters met us later. We were there until 9:00 pm that night. Since none of us had eaten much throughout the day and no one was in any condition to drive, we wandered across South Avenue to the China Gate - because nothing says St. Patrick's Day quite like 8 completely trashed celebrators dressed in green barging into a Chinese restaurant where apparently the patrons had never heard of St. Patrick's day.
Anyway, for the last 12 years, my daughters have been Irish Step Dancers. (see video) I've seen the "tsk tsk" looks appropriately given to bad parents who take their kids out of school to dance in bars all day (LOL). Homework is pushed aside from March 1-18th as mandatory practices, and bookings all take precedent. When the pub patrons ask why we have to leave the bar so early (10:00 pm on a school night) we say "well, her teacher expects her to be in 4th grade bright and early tomorrow!" I wouldn't have traded it for anything - neither would have they. They have had such great experiences performing and have made such terrific friends from their hobby.
Emily "retired" a few years ago, but last month, Hannah hung up her ghillies to pursue other interests - we will still go and watch our friends perform, but this year Dave and I will be where we belong - along side his family at 10:00 am drinking green beer - yep, I'm still the lightweight, so I am the designated driver. Sadly, we'll be done by noon and back home for the day - aww...getting old sucks!
Happy St. Patrick's Day - drink responsibly!
2 comments:
This was an awesome post Jill. I love the story from 1985, gosh aren't you glad you were game and went along for the ride? What a memory! LOL.
Thanks Jess - Dave's family had fun reading and remembering too! I've kept my mother-in-law's tradition of having the leprechaun come and dye the milk and sugar green the night before St. Patrick's Day. Of course, that is only fun until you are still drinking green milk on March 19th!
Post a Comment