Think green for St. Patricks Day p.g. blab By MAKCKI.I.AVVA1.KEK For all of you who need something to celebrate this month, St. Patrick's Day will be next Tuesday. Remember to wear green. Somehow Easter ended up on April 19 this year, so March just has the one holiday and it is a good one. In doing genealogical research, I learned that my mother's great, great, great-grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland. He came over in about 1750 or a little before. Actually he was Scotch-Irish and had fled from Scotland into Ireland. He lived in Stewartstown, Ireland when he came to America. He was a great military officer during the Revolution. Maybe that is why green is my favorite color. It is the Irish blood running around inside of me. As you know, it is tradition to wear green on St. Patricks Day. If you don't you will get pinched. When we were in elementary school that was really important and you always wore green as a protection on St. Patrick's Day. In junior high and high school, with all its nonsense and fun, we still wore green on St. Patrick's Day. However, it was a real dilemma if St. Patrick's Day fell on a Thursday. You see, back in those days in our schools, Thursday was "queer" day. I almost hate to say that word. You did not wear green or yellow on "queer" day. That was definitely a no no. Only "queers" wore green or i strange. In our high school it was a tradition for the new students to have to wear a little beanie on their heads during Hello Week, which was the first week of school. We also had a water fight the first week of school between the junior and senior classes. In those days of segregation, only the boys got to do the actually fighting while the girls sat in the stands at the football field and cheered. The fire department came up with their fire hoses and each class had a big hose. Then there was the tug-of-war while the water was sprayed. It was great fun and someone would finally squirt the water up in the stands and the girls would squeal and get a little wet. But that has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day and the "Wearin' o' the Green". At Weber State College I belonged to a Social Unit, The Merry Maids of Chanodo. During Hell Week we had to do everything we were told as we were initiated into the Club. One thing we had to do was dye some longjohns green and wear them under a beige tunic, ala Robin Hood. Oh, it was grand. You would have loved it. Now, that had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day, either, but it was green. Someone said once that blue and green must have been God's favorite colors because he used them so much in His creation. The great expanse of blue sky and the gorgeous green growing things would seem to attest that this is true. Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle. That is interesting to me because I was born in May and my birthstone is the emerald. Do you think that had anything to do with me choosing green for my favorite color? If so, it was not a conscious choice. St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland and now there are no snakes there. I know a few people who would almost find that reason enough to move to Ireland. Right, Kathy Harrison? I guess there must not be a lot of Irish people around here because we do not have a St. Patrick's Day parade like they do in New York and other places where there are bunches bun-ches of Irish people. Yet, everyone seems to join in the fun and wear something green on that special day. A little green treat for the family would be nice next Tuesday. Some people I know make green pancakes for their kids. Sounds pretty bad but the novelty would be nice. You could make a cake and add green frosting. Yuck. Maybe you should try green Jello or green Koolaid. That does sound a bit more palatable. You could add some spinach, broccoli, and green beans. Have an enjoyable St. Patrick's Day and be sure to wear your green. yellow on Thursday. You would rather be caught dead than wearing those colors on a Thursday. Now they use the word "gay" rather than "queer" and that is a problem because some of the nicest people I know are named Gay, including in-cluding my grandmother and it is my own middle name. It is really a nice name. High school and junior high school students invent some strange things, but that Thursday being "queer" day thing was really strange. I didn't think much about it at the time but as the years have gone by, I have decided it really was pretty