Perhaps today, the wearing of the green will remind you of someone in your family history who loves green and St. Patrick’s Day. What stories can you share with others to keep those memories alive?
Perhaps today, it’s remembering someone who came to the US as a child. We’re remembering a great-grandfather who arrived in the US at the age of two. That’s a pretty specific number that we didn’t know this morning. While a nephew was at Ellis Island, we were trying to remember who and when our ancestors passed through. And was it at the age of two, eight, or twenty? Details matter but the story remains the focus. Why did they come to the US? Where did they settle? When did they become citizens? Were they also farmers?
Just a glimpse of our conversation today as we “wondered” what we knew and what we perhaps thought we knew. The family history books are dated. But so are our memories.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day,
I remember the Chicago River
Irish green;
The parade in Chicago,
So many costumes,
songs, and floats;
growing up in a house
with interior walls all green;
school days while wearing green t
o avoid the dreaded pinch.
It’s not just “the wearing of the green”
But the pride
of belonging
to a group
with ties to a geographical region,
a time,
a moment
suspended in unity.
Resources:
Quotes
100 Quotes ( https://parade.com/1172685/jessicasager/st-patricks-day-quotes/ )
Poems
St. Patrick’s Day Poems and Poetry ( https://www.theholidayspot.com/patrick/poems.htm )
And a previous blog post: https://franmcveigh.wordpress.com/2018/03/16/sol18-march-17/
What will you celebrate today? What stories will you tell?
___________________________________________________________________________________Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this daily forum in March. Check out the writers and readers here.
Resource - Full 
I love family stories and this post that focuses on them. We found my husband’s grandmother when we visited Ellis Island. We may have some Irish legacy on my grandfather’s side with a name like Duff. But many of our family on both sides have been here since the 1700s.
Wow. Centuries of stories, Ramona! Duff sounds either Irish or Scottish!
Nice, Fran. I like all the memories you share in your poem. I will be celebrating on Saturday with some of my siblings. We’ll have to have some of these discussions about our roots. I wonder if we have any Irish at all. (I’ve never heard about it, if we do.)
Denise, you never know. Our research yesterday was on the Czech side which was also fun!
It is nice to remember our past. Thank you for sharing.
And thanks to you for reading
I attended Catholic school growing up and St. Patrick’s Day was always a fun celebratory day! When I married into the Donnelly clan, I proudly learned to make corned beef and a cabbage noodle dish. I’ll be making it for Saturday’s dinner, once I finish virtually attending the TCRWP Sat. Institute! Fran – if free today at 5pm, join me and Fran McCrackin on zoom for our slicer workshop!!
I’m excited about tomorrow’s institute. Its a great sign of spring! Maybe today. It’s an issue of timing for sure
I was lucky to know Richard Fennelly from my time teaching horseback riding. He told the best jokes in his thick Irish accent and loved to listen to tapes of the Clancy Brothers and the Dubliners. He had the most beautiful blue eyes and longest lashes. From Thomastown, County Kilkenny. 10 brothers and sisters. Quite a character!
That Irish accent. What a great reminder.
There is something about an Irish family, and I am not just saying that because I married into one. The joy, the welcoming spirit, the laughs, the stories. We are going to an Irish pub with some friends today. Should be fun.
The joyfulness! Yes! Perfect day for a visit to a pub.