apple_pathways | I'm not Irish, but I'm a damn good kisser...

I'm not Irish, but I'm a damn good kisser...

Still not eating any sweets, despite my father tempting me with fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies yesterday.

Still not getting much of anything done. (must finish dark fic must finish dark fic must finish dark fic!)

St. Patrick's Day is a strange holiday. It was never anything special when I was a kid. The only person I can remember really making a big deal out of it was our Irish librarian in elementary school, Mrs. Patrick. I was a library aide, and she gave me a bag of green, white, and orange-colored candies.

Even in college, I don't remember the holiday being that widely celebrated, until I made the move to EMU. For some reason, people there celebrated it as a 24 hour binge drinking session. I remember walking to class at 11 am, and seeing drunks dressed in green stumbling down the streets. I was sitting in my statistics course one year (about 3 o'clock in the afternoon) and this girl in the back row kept whining that the teacher should cancel class because it was St. Patrick's Day and she wanted to go to the bar. I finally got so irritated, I turned around and said, "You do realize that we're adults, and if you wanted to you could leave any time?"

She said she didn't want to miss the notes. Well, shut up then!

Today, most of the little kids I tutor came in with stories of Leprechaun hijinks from school. This is something I really don't remember being a part of St. Patrick's Day celebrations!

It started with the little sister of one of my students. She said to me, "Did you know I found two four-leaf clovers at my school?" (I am always charmed by the storytelling tactics of small children. I was tempted to say, "Why yes I did know. I know everything about you!" but I find it wise to be inappropriate and creepy on my own time.) She then told me a story about finding a Leprechaun on the playground.

Her brother then told me he saw a "Ghost Leprechaun" in the bathroom at school, described as "green footprints walking across the floor". Holy shit, when did St. Pat's Day become such a creepy-ass holiday?!

At another boy's school someone put green dye in the toilets, and in a little girl's classroom a "leprechaun" came in and stole someone's green backpack at lunch.

Now: I am a general non-believer and all-around spoilsport, but does anyone else find this a little odd? I understand a lot of adults have fanciful ideas about the "magic of childhood", but at what point are you just implanting delusions in the minds of impressionable youth?

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I'm still trying to figure out what a Leprechaun has to do with Paddy's Day?

It's a bank holiday here, so everyone has the day off. There's a HUGE parade in Dublin, which would have more in common with a Mardi Gras parade than the marching parades you'd usually find in the U.S. - although, every year, there are always a few bewildered looking U.S. majorette high schoolers in the line up! The celebrations also usually go on for a few days, with fireworks and funfairs etc.

Drinking goes on, but we keep the creepy Leprechaun stories for Halloween :-P

Edited 2011-03-18 01:43 (UTC)

I think for most of the US, St. Patrick's Day translates to "anything Irish"; hence the Leprechauns!

When I was a kid, it wasn't a Big Deal holiday. Well, at least where I live: it's always been big in Boston, for instance, where there's always been a large Irish-American population.

Ah, your St. Pat's Day celebrations sound a lot like what we do for Independence Day. Which, to be honest, is another holiday I can't be bothered to celebrate. I used to enjoy going to see fireworks, but these days it's hard to find a public display, what with the cost and the mess and whatnot. (Sorry, I'll stop rambling like an old lady in a minute!)

Anyway: did you have fun on your day off? :D

(Leprechauns are creepy, which is why I was so surprised to hear all the stories the kids had today!)

I have always liked St Patrick's day. It was a thing people did, but it wasn't a huge deal- people wore a bit of green, and the teachers used it as a chance to teach a bit of Irish history.

I don't understand where all the leprechaun stuff has come from. It's hardly relevant to the day, and tbh I think it's a little ridiculous. I'd be happy to read my kids stories featuring leprechauns, but... having them in school? Really?

(To be fair, my mom was always even weirder than what other kids learned. When my school taught me about Santa, whom she had never introduced to me, she told me he was Jesus' mailman.)

My poor mother always went to drastic lengths to get me to believe in magic, but I was an impossibly practical and logical child! She never tried to forge a connection between Santa and Jesus, but then I never had any particular interest in either of them, so I suppose she didn't have to!

The aforementioned librarian (one of the heroes of my life!) would read us Irish folk tales on St. Pat's Day, which I always liked. And the candy was nice! And putting shamrocks up on the bulletin board. But...that was it. Don't know where the creepy leprechauns are supposed to come in...

I don't think anyone's doing any harm giving the kids a little magic. They've got to grow up and be told that there's no such thing soon enough, and I sincerely doubt that it'll scar them for life to learn that just like Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and a dozen other mythical creatures, there are also no Leprechauns.

And/or that Leprechauns are not nice, whichever comes first.

Childhood is the only time you get to tell stories like that without having them branded with a big ol' "FANTASY" stamp. I miss that, and I think the unfair part in all of it is that at some point, someone is going to explain to these kids that grownups don't believe in magic, so they'll spend their early teenage years thinking that grownups are the most miserable bastards on the face of the Earth.

I suspect this will be altogether too Philosophical for me in the morning, but my favourite part of working with kids was their imagination, and watching it work. I always hated it when the older ones wouldn't make things up for creative writing because they weren't true :(

Oh no, I don't think any harm was done--if anything, I enjoyed all of the adorable stories the kids came in with today. Dying the toilet water was an especially nice touch, I thought!

It's funny, because even though I've always loved fantasy, science fiction, and make believe and spent most of my childhood inhabiting fictional worlds of my own creation, I'd always been a staunch Non-Believer. At four years old, I deduced that Santa wasn't real when I noticed that he used the same wrapping paper my mother had been using to wrap the family presents. (Actually, it was my mother's reaction to that observation that gave it away for me: she was straining way too hard to come up with a plausible explanation for me!)

I don't know, do you think kids need to believe that magic is real to still find it...magical? Or did my innate logic and skepticism rob me of a proper childhood?

ETA: I do, however, whole-heartedly believe in lying to children. One of my favorite ruses to keep up with my students is that I was specifically hired to be mean to them. (Don't worry: they think it's funny! Though I can be rather strict when it comes to their work, they know I'm a huge softie!) The other day, one of my older students jokingly told me I was being mean, and I said: "That's what they pay me for! I even get a bonus if I can make you cry..." (He got me back good by working up a few tears while I was helping another student.)

When I first started working for my employers, I was in a different building, with a little kitchenette around the corner from my classroom area. The kids always wondered what was over there, and I told them it was my dungeon where I sent the naughty students. I still remember the look on one boy's face when he finally got up to look and discovered nothing more than a sink and a microwave! "I knew you didn't have a dungeon!" he said with a huge grin on his face.

Of course, that's the thing about childhood: he knew that Miss Amy, the nice smiley lady who helps him with his math, doesn't have a dungeon with a troll and a pit full of smashed calculators. But there's just a tiny little part of his brain that had to look... :P

Edited 2011-03-18 02:22 (UTC)

These stories are sounding seriously creepy. What's wrong with kids these days?

I tried to take my sons out for nachos this evening and just as I was faced with NO PARKING ANYWHERE I realized oh, stupid, it's St. Patrick's Day. I live in a village for goodness sakes, but everyone's out getting trashed at 6pm, lol.

I will never understand the appeal of getting drunk before noon. In college, I had a boyfriend who would get up early on football days to go play beer pong with his friends before the game. "Hey Ames, you wanna come?" You mean get up early on a Saturday to binge drink crappy beer with you and your friends? No thank you. :P

I have no idea where all the creepy stories are coming from! Kids, eh? *shakes head* :P

Yeah that's weird. Most into St. Patrick's day they ever got when I was in school was the grade who wore the most green won a pizza party. And that was a crazy year.

Still have to do darkfic as well.. but my age fic for Thegameison_sh is sitting for a couple of days before reread/edit.

But my darkfic is almost done... MR. H. Craziness is fun!

Ooh, are you doing

dark_fest, too? Which prompt are you writing?

Ugh, I haven't even started thinking about my age fic. I have been phoning it in the last few challenges: the ideas just won't come!

The ghost leprachaun I cannot decide if I find it creepy or awesome. Though I would tell them leprechauns aren't nice because I believe in giving children the real unsanitised versions of things, they like them better anyway!

We never celebrated it at school or anything like that. My Mum sometimes threw a joint party for it and her birthday but that was just my Uncles coming round, us all spending a day eating and drinking and listening to loud music, then my Dad making all the hungover grown ups fried breakfast in the morning while I quietly laughed at them and enjoyed my hangover free breakfast (I do not get those, it is nice, though I think maybe the migraines are cosmic payback). We'd have potato bread with the fry up and there would be some Pogues on the playlists but that would be it really.

Its bigger up here and my favourite bit was when we met a bunch of Irish guys over from Dublin specially for St Patrick's day, wearing huge green top hats with Shamrocks on. Because really, why? If you live in Dublin what's Edinburgh got for St Patrick's that you haven't?

I believe in giving children the real unsanitised versions of things, they like them better anyway!

I couldn't agree more! I don't know if I was just a particularly ghoulish child, but I loved spooky, creepy things as a kid! When I was ten, all the other little girls dressed up as princesses and fairies for Halloween. I was the grim reaper. :P

That sounds like a nice celebration! But then, any celebration involving fried foods is always fantastic in my book. (You know, I don't get hangovers, either! *high fives you* I wonder what it is that some people get them while others don't?)

Perhaps the novelty of being the only authentically Irish blokes around? :P

Yeah, I bet they totally hoped to pull Scottish girls with their Irish accents!

I had to admit it, but an Irish accent on St. Patrick's Day? Would totally work on me.

boycotted St. Patrick's day this year. And no, it has nothing to do with my spending March 18th last year with my head buried in a toilet, nor does it have to do with me handing out bread to men at the pub or making out with my gay best friend. Not at all.

Handing out...bread? Am I missing out on a story, or is that just the sort of thing you get up to Oop North? (Sorry...I've missed teasing you, my Canadian beauty!)

I've made out with a ridiculous number of gay men. IT IS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF! :P

ahahaha I was really drunk and my friend bought a loaf of bread from the grocery store and so I went around to all the drunk men at the pub and gave them handfuls of bread.

this is shortly after I saw the mother of the boy I'm in love with and went screaming in the opposite direction 'IF SHE SEES ME LIKE THIS SHE WON'T LET ME MARRY HER SON.'

Haha, oh dear. In kindergarten there were leprechaun footprints around the classroom when we walked in, but I think that's the only time it's ever been a big deal for anything. I know most people use it as an excuse to get drunk ~~and perpetuate antiquated and possibly offensive stereotypes about the Irish~~, but I mostly associate it with struggling to remember to wear green so no one will be a dick and pinch me. I got pinched one year for wearing teal, because it was the greenest thing I had. :|

So yeah, apparently… abuse, alcoholism, and lying to children. ST. PATTY FTW.

but I find it wise to be inappropriate and creepy on my own time
This made me lol. XDDDD

The kids were talking about the pinching, but I don't remember it ever happening when I was little! And the leprechaun footprints sound cute, but still...creepy.

Lying to children is always appropriate. Read my response to

ladylovelace for my hearty endorsement of that practice!

but I find it wise to be inappropriate and creepy on my own time
This made me lol. XDDDD

While I behave myself at work, you should see me with my cousins' kids! At my dad's retirement party, we had Nick fetching errant ping pong balls while we played beer pong. :P

we had Nick fetching errant ping pong balls while we played beer pong
…wait, like, most people DON'T bear children so that someone little will pick up their stuff? o___o

I don't remember anything like that from when I was a kid, though I do recall that there was a haunted restroom in my elementary school. But I live in the south, and there generally are not a large number of Irish immigrants in the area.

The new creepiness of the holiday can probably be blamed on pop culture. We're heavily into vampires and werewolves and ghosts at the moment, so the kids are going to naturally implement those wherever the heck they want to. I wouldn't be surprised if you hear about Easter Bunnies attacking people and stealing their pastel bookbags.

A haunted restroom? Well that's pretty damn cool!

The Easter Bunny story definitely could use a bit of spicing up. I mean, Santa has the whole backstory and the entourage of elves and reindeer, but what's the Easter Bunny's deal? You don't even have to be good all year to get a basket! I think a little mischief and thievery would improve the story ten fold!

It's huge here. They celebrate it for a week. It starts the WEEKEND BEFORE the holiday and goes through the weekend after. It's fucking insane here in Boulder, for absolutely no reason at all.

Children telling stories is fucking ADORABLE.

Any excuse to get drunk, right? I'm just waiting for the same thing to happen to Cinco de Mayo. (Which I guess is already a big drinking holiday for some, but it hasn't quite gone mainstream yet.)

It seems to have turned into a bit of a binge drinking day here (GB) as well. I have no problem with it but I don't understand why it has become such a big thing - after all, this is not Ireland!

I don't recall such big celebrations ever taking place on St George's day...

Or maybe I'm just cranky because it is also my birthday and I've had enough of people asking why I'm not called Patrick!

Stewart

Happy Birthday! Hope you had a good one.

I think what St. George's day really needs is for the beer companies to get involved... :P

LOL leprechaun hijinks.

As someone who didn't hear about this holiday until I was about 13, St. Pat's Day means only one thing to me: boozing spectacularly. I mean, not to ME personally, but that's what the holiday represents itself as to me.

Your college story was hilarious. We always had spring break during St. Pat's day (but apparently not anymore because UIUC decided to move spring break week after St. Pat's day...hmm). We used to have "Unofficial," which was always two weeks before St. Pat's Day and involved all the students at the uni getting drunk all day. The first two years I luckily missed it because I wasn't on campus. Junior year I was at work in the morning and the rest of the day I spent in the comfort of my apartment. And senior year, I annoyingly had to deal with the drunks on campus. SO IRRITATING.

I never knew the holiday to be so creepy either. People dressed up as leprechauns stealing kids' stuff? Ghost leprechauns? I know leprechauns are supposed to be mischievous but that's just weird.

How old are the kids that you tutor? I'm never amazed by how "old" kids seem these days. We were never like that when we were kids!

I tutor all ages: from Kindergarten through advanced algebra. At the moment, though, all of my students are between 7 and 14. While the younger kids are adorable and certainly have a lot of cute stories, I prefer tutoring the older kids: the math is more challenging, and the kids don't need constant redirection.

Usually.

I'm always amazed at how confident at articulate the kids are! Most of them are perfectly comfortable carrying on a conversation with me from Day 1, while I was terrified of adults until I was well into my teens. They also dress much more stylishly: I have eight year old girl's whose outfits are much more adult/on trend than mine!

While the idea of dressing in green and going out drinking for St. Patrick's Day seems like fun, I can't remember ever really doing it, largely because it always fell on a week day. I don't have anything against drinking in the middle of the week, but when you work and go to school, it's hard to make it happen.

I have no idea how Nathan came up with the Ghost Leprechaun story, and I didn't ask: CREEPY! But the other leprechaun pranks (obviously perpetrated by the kids' teachers) sounded really cute!

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I'm not Irish, but I'm a damn good kisser...

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