the_rck | (no subject)

On the 17th, Delia's school had 'winter carnival.' This means that, in the evening, there were a dozen or so games set up throughout the gym and the halls. There was a bounce house, a photo booth and a cake walk in the multi-purpose room, and there was pizza and candy for sale. The PTO does this every year. All of the games give out cheap, crappy, plastic prizes.

I ended up spending twenty dollars on tickets. Delia ran from one game to the next. She did the bounce house and the photo booth, ate half a piece of pizza and won the cake walk after three tries (she picked a plate of brownies).

Scott stayed home because he was exhausted. I envied him having the option while I was chasing after Delia. I ended up going to be early that night because I was utterly exhausted.

At least, Delia had a lot of fun.

On the 17th, I also made sure to dress Delia in green. I didn't want her getting pinched for not wearing it. Scott was utterly surprised to hear about that custom. Apparently nobody ever did it to him or did it near him. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't a widespread custom. Maybe it's unique to Ann Arbor or something.

Delia came home after school and told me that her teacher had forbidden pinching for not wearing green. That held in class. I imagine things were different in the lunchroom and on the playground. Banning the pinching seems like a good thing to me. This school has a high percentage of foreign students. They're not going to know anything about local St. Patrick's Day customs. Not that pinching those who do know the customs is a good thing. I'd rather skip the pinching altogether. Years of enforced green wearing are the reason why I don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It happened in Ohio, too, when I was a kid (the pinching, that is, for not wearing green). On the other hand, since I am an iconoclast and also not quite sure WHICH part of Ireland my father's family came from, I make sure to wear green AND orange on St. Patrick's Day -- usually a green shirt and an orange necklace/earrings. Amber goes very well with green, after all. I've done that ever since a coworker who came from Ireland lighted into one of my office mates for inadvertently wearing orange on that day, giving him a royal reaming out for disrespect. I now wear my orange deliberately.

Scott's theory on the pinching is that he was a large enough kid that nobody was going to harass him and that he was simply oblivious to other kids getting pinched. It might even be true.

Interesting to know that the pinching happened in Ohio, too. I wonder how widespread the custom is.

I don't think I own anything orange, so I'd have to go very far out of my way to wear orange. In a way, it would be appropriate-- My father's grandparents came from Belfast and were Anglicans. We may have some Irish Catholics elsewhere in the family tree, but the last I heard that was speculation about some ancestors who may have 'dropped the O in the ocean' on the way over.

I was afraid of getting pinched, too, when I was a kid. I don't mind wearing green particularly on SP's Day, though, since it's a color I wear fairly often anyway.

I don't wear green very often. I have one sort of green dress, and I seldom remember to plan to wear it on St. Patrick's Day. I just find it freeing not to have to care one way or another.

They had pinching for not wearing green when I was a kid growing up in New York City in the 1970s. But I never wore green and never got pinched that I recall. Pinching was more of a thing that people thought other people might do, not something that people actually did.

I always rejected St. Patrick's Day and made a point of wearing *no* green until just a year or two ago, when it dawned on me that celebrating a holiday is fun and that it's more fun to participate than to do the kind of crabby sitting on the sidelines that I had been doing. So for the last year or two, I've been gleefully wrapping myself in green on St. Patrick's day, and, to my surprise, I'm enjoying it.

I've only got one sort of green dress, so wearing green requires planning. Mostly, I'd rather not be bothered. The fact that nobody sees me but Delia and Scott adds to my lack of motivation. I'm glad that I'm no longer forced to pay attention in order not to get pinched. I remember actual pinching taking place, you see.

Pinches in Oregon for St. Patrick's Day too, if you wore no green. Including for older kids/teens. I hated it. I think it is a hateful, nasty, bullying custom.

The fact that I actually got pinched several times did not help.

*shudders*

It really is an excuse for being nasty. I don't think it's a good thing at all. Being pinched hurts.