Doodle Town by Melissa Lomax for March 18, 2024

Cleverly dodging the “scamrock”.

When I was teaching, instead of pinching the kid who wasn’t wearing green, I’d pinch their clothes. Obviously it was the clothes’ fault for not being green, right?

When I was a kid, Ireland hadn’t been discovered yet. We just pinched each out out of boredom.

Wow, that takes me back in time. I had some really great teachers just like that one in grade school.

I can’t remember us making any kind of big deal about St. Pat’s Day, when we were in school. Maybe shamrocks in art class. Howsomever, in the working world, it was a fun way to relieve some of the boredom. So, we wore green, we ate the corned beef platter or sandwich at lunch & had green foods to nosh on, especially green-frosted cake/cookies!

I always had the advantage of my Irish green eyes.

A friend’s mom would put green food color in her hair. Friend thought it was embarrassing. Trend setter (1960s).

I never got why pinch them? I’m not Irish, why should I wear green? I’m German, English, Native American…should I pinch them on certain holidays? Should I be allowed to pinch them back on St. Pats? Oh look, he’s not wearing red on St. Val’s day, let’s pinch him!

There’s no big fuss for St. Andrew’s Day, nor for Robbie Burn’s Day … perhaps in Scotland, but not worldwide.

I forgot most of celebrations of the year… what is a problem when in those days no one works or goes to school, and I find everthing closed.