St. Patrick's Day

I have one of those 'This Day in History Calenders' on my desk.

The First St. Patrick Day's parade took place this day in 1762 in New York City.  Homesick Irish soldiers serving in the British Colonial Army staged a parade celebrating their heritage at a time in history when "the wearing of green" was banned in Ireland.  The parade participants reveled in the freedom to speak Irish, wear green, sing Irish songs and play the pipes to Irish tunes.

I am first generation American.  My father was born in Scotland.  So when a very good friend of mine pinched me for not wearing green today, I exclaimed I am Scottish as I kicked him in the shins really hard.  I work at a tough place.  He later came in to my office, upset that his shins were still hurting and put me in a head lock, I stabbed him in the hand with my ball point pen (not terribly hard, he is a friend of mine, very close and old friend) repeatedly until he let go and I could get out of my chair.  We broke a lamp, (it needed replacing anyway the switch doesn't work, had to unplug it every night to get it to go off) and tore up my office a bit.  We both are little bruised, and still close friends, no hard feelings. 

I think we are so close because of the mutual respect we have for one another and the amount of pain we each know we could inflict to the other if we ever did really all out fight.  I think we were rolling around on the warehouse floor fighting years ago when we started to like each other.  My friend Rodney is black and bald, and I am white and bald, and we both will never say die or quit, and we both know it.  We kid with people and tell people we are brothers.  We both enjoy the funny looks people give us when they are like, 'You can't be brothers?'  We are really close friends and have been for years, we might as well be brothers.

My only other bit with this post today was, Scottish or Irish, don't F**K with us.  We actually enjoy fighting.  I would rather not, but if a problem arises, even if I get my butt kicked, somebody else will be going to the hospital with me, guaranteed!  My family comes from Clan Gunn, and the motto on our crest is "Aut Pax, Aut Bellum", which is Latin for Either Peace Or War, which is pretty accurate with my family, we don't go looking for fights but rarely will we turn our back on one. 

Posted in: St. Patrick's Day Scottish Irish