It’s Saint Patrick’s Day. My daughter tells me she went past two leprechauns as she drove her small daughter to school this morning. The leprechauns almost certainly worked at a nursery not far from her daughter’s primary school. She said the two women were walking rather embarrassedly along the road. We agreed that what you should do in such circumstances if you are in fancy dress is ham it up a little and cheer everyone’s day up. This was especially so as the traffic was stuck at traffic lights and so everyone was looking at them.
Years ago we never used to hear about Saint Patrick’s Day. Well, I suppose that in Ireland they have long celebrated his day but in recent years it has become an excuse for partying all over the country, indeed, perhaps all over the world, or at least the western world.
When I was a child growing up in Southport, one day a year the Orangemen came from Liverpool to parade through the centre of our town - with lots of girls waving orange-paper shakers, for all the world like American cheerleaders. This was a different lot of Irish to the St Patrick’s Day celebrators. This was an Ulster Protestant celebration, held on July 12th to commemorate the “Glorious Revolution” (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690).
My father would not let us go into the centre of town on that day. Too many people going in and out of pubs! I suspect he would have felt the same about St Patrick’s Day if it had been celebrated then. Nothing to do with us was his opinion!
My daughter and I had this conversation on our way to York to collect Granddaughter Number Two who was returning home from university. It was a last minute arrangement that I should keep her company during the drive. We also had musical accompaniment provided by her three year old. There is a limit to how many times you can listen to Incey Wincey Spider and the Alphabet Song but at least he was cheerful.
When his oldest sister, Granddaughter Number One, was his age, on car journeys we used to have to keep rewinding a tape of Carly Simon songs so that she could listen to Incey Wincey Spider, which then morphed into “Coming around again”, over and over again. Some things don’t change!
Here’s a link to an article about the children’s cartoon Bluey. Both our smallest grandchildren watch Bluey. The appeal seems to be that it portrays a fairly normal family life, along with some discussion about the gender of Bluey and her sister - both girls, although some assume they are boys. They watched it one day at Granddaughter Number One’s house. Since then Granddaughter Number One’s housemate, another 25 year old, has watched ALL the episodes of the children’s programme with enjoyment! So it goes!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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