St. Patrick’s Day came with a flourish and a flurry this
year with a bit of rain and snow and sun for the weekend. Nonetheless, it is a
grand holiday inspiring all of us to send wishes to folks for good luck and
good love the Irish way!
When I was in elementary school, we wore green from top
to bottom…shirts, skirts, socks…so that no one would pinch us. I wonder, do
they still do that? I do still wear green at least in some ways as no pinching
for me.
Our lovely ukulele group played Irish songs last week, so
I wore green and sported a green moustache to kick off the week. Actually, I
took a few extra ones for my fellow uke players! Of course, Carolyn picked
songs such as “When Irish Eyes are Smiling,” “Danny Boy.” It was great fun
playing those songs. I even added the kazoo to some of them. By the way, I am
getting rather good on my kazoo! Carolyn and I even went to the jam in Fort
Wayne and played the lovely Irish songs with them too. I didn’t actually eat
any corned beef, but there is still time this week to do just that!
When I was a kid, I always visited my grandparents on St.
Patrick’s Day or on the weekend before as it was the beginning of gardening
season. My grandpa Walter had the ground prepared for the garden and even if it
was covered in snow or frost, we went to help plant the early peas and
potatoes. It never made any difference to him on the weather. No. We had to
plant on March 17. He would drag out, with our help, the burlap bags full of
potatoes. He dumped them all on the cold ground and cut them up with his pocketknife.
He always talked about the eyes on the potatoes. As kids, we were very curious
about those eyes!! He dug the holes, and we put in the potatoes. I remember it
being very cold in the garden.
As the day progressed, my grandma would bring out a
thermos of hot coffee. She called it milk coffee as it was mostly milk and
sugar. That is exactly how I drink my coffee now. I remember how good it was to
drink that sweet hot mixture while planting! The best part of the day came when
we were finished, and my grandpa dumped every last potato out of the burlap
bag. There in the dirt combined with pieces of broken potatoes were two silver
dollars! One was for me and one for my sister, Jessie. We were so happy to have
those at the end of that day.
When we were finally finished, we went into the mud room
to take off our coats and boots and dirty gloves and washed our silver dollars
until they were once again shiny. At supper, with candles lit, my grandpa would
say to us, “Now hold your silver dollar up to the candlelight and see if you
can make it wink at you.” I think that kept us busy for another hour trying to
catch the light and get our silver dollars to wink at us. You might want to try
this with your kids or grandkids!
Of course, in the late summer we got to dig up those
beautiful potatoes and help store them in the root cellar for the winter.
Nothing tastes so good as potatoes right out of the garden! It is that time of
year, once again, to get those gardens started. I longingly look out my back
window. I always let the leaves stay right where they fall to put the nutrients
into the ground. Now it is time to take those off and see what little surprises
I might find in the garden. It is also time to prune the raspberries and get
the garden ready for potatoes and peas and spinach and all those early garden
seeds.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, these seeds can now be
planted in your garden: arugula, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, kale, kohlrabi,
lettuce, onions, peas, spinach, and, of course, potatoes. Early gardening is a
joy and gets us started. Maybe this year we should all double our gardens.
Until then, keep your Irish eyes smiling. Until then,
Bing Crosby reminds us…
When Irish hearts are happy
All the world seems bright and gay
And when Irish eyes are smiling
Sure, they steal your heart away
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