St. Patrick’s Green Zone

St. Patrick's Day was better before. When kids woke up and rubbed their eyes in disbelief as green pancakes were stacked on their plates. Irish music played throughout the day. The tricolor Republic of Ireland flag draped across the dining room wall along with several linens. Dinner included roasted potatoes and trifle for dessert. The day often ended with the family following Dad around the living room with arms straight by our sides and doing our best imitation of Lord of the Dance. Those were good days.
Last week I didn’t want to dig the flags and linens out of the box. I remembered at dinner we hadn’t heard any Irish music so I put a CD in with traditional fiddle and pipes. The fiddles seemed to screech and each number sounded the same so I pushed the reject button. Jan and I settled down to spaghetti and a green salad. For dessert I found a chocolate fudge cookie hiding in the cupboard.
The only thing close to an Irish jig was when I caught my foot on the side of the couch and jumped around on one foot yelping in a non-Irish brogue.
I did dye the pancake batter green. At least I hope it was the batter I’d put the food coloring in and not the container that’s been in the back of the fridge since Christmas.
Speaking of green…when Jan and I visit Dad at Baywood Court he often introduces us to a few of his neighbors. Sometimes he’ll share a little about the person then do the introduction. An example:
“This is Marge Curtis. She taught school for 50 years in Oakland. Marge, this is my favorite child Greg and his beautiful wife Jan” (I may have included the word “favorite”…or I may not have)
Then there were some he didn’t really want us to meet. We were walking toward the elevator after breakfast when a short white haired man pushing a walker pulled up along side.
“I saw this movie, “The Green Zone" last night. It was awful what Bush did to this country, getting us involved in a stupid (my word, this is a clean language blog) war without any evidence.”
“Greg and Jan, this is Dr. White.” Dad said as he tried to steer us away. “He’s been here for several years””
“I think Bush should be impeached for what he’s done to this country!” Dr White defiantly yelled as our elevator door closed.
“He used to be the head of Eden Hospital,” Dad explained. “Nobody likes him.
“Dad?” I asked. “Does he realize Bush isn’t the President anymore? And, did he know “The Green Zone” is a fictional movie starring Matt Damon?”
Ah… Another day at Baywood.