PATRICK MCVAY

WRITER

My Musings

This text is currently hidden by a css change. Alow's me to go directly to the category description because it is editable in the front end,

Ghosts of St. Patrick's Day Past

In the not-so distant yesteryear, when I wasn’t so much a wee lad as an underdeveloped adult, I’d find a random St. Paddy’s Day falling on a weekend and would drive home to meet mom and Dad at Coleman’s Irish Pub in Syracuse, NY. Syracuse wasn’t a town known for being Irish, at least in my mind; everyone I knew seemed to be Italian, and the people who weren’t (like me) wanted to be Italian (like me!).

But to hell with any other tradition on March 17th. Friends of all stripes were keen to pack the bars and throw up all over each other. Slight exaggeration. Still, it was a pretty tipsy scene, and there was often an earnest singer crooning “Danny Boy” on a cheap PA system, enjoying his once-a-year day in the sun. And outside Coleman's, the traffic light had the green on top and red on the bottom, blowing people's minds. 

At home, someone (not me) would put “The Irish Rovers” on the record player and we’d sing along to songs like “No, Nay, Never,” which the Dropkick Murphy’s reprised a few decades later. Later my Dad would fall asleep with a toothpick in his mouth (substituting for a cigarette) to John Gary crooning the very sad “Molly Malone” on our console record player.

Years later, when we kids were out of the house, my parents would throw wild parties where everyone would strip naked and drink Irish coffee, because that was life in the 1970s and 1980s. OK, no one ever stripped naked thankfully, but the Irish coffees flowed like coffee. Thankfully, most everyone was walking home (although, I’ve recently read it’s better not to be tipsy when walking).

All these years later, I find the old John Gary “A little bit of heaven” album still intact in my basement, deeply scratched, bearing my long deceased parents’ fingerprints, and coaxing me to YouTube to relisten to the old songs. Hard not to miss mom and dad on this St. Patrick’s Day. 

Continue reading
  1041 Hits

 

 

J'Biden Era Haikuage

 

People's Arms. That's right!

200 million shots

In 100 days

 

We are good people

But we still have far to go

Repair. Restore. Heal.

 

There's nothing new here

The Affordable Care Act

We're restoring it 

 

America's Day

Democracy is fragile

The world is watching 

 

Strategy is based

On Science, not politics

Truth, not denial

 

 

Subscribe To The Blog

Produce This Audio Play!

Ever wanted to produce a radio play?  Think you have the mettle?  Read on!

Tag Cloud

1980s Climate Change NFL War and Peace Tom Waits Rabbit Hole Bikes midwinter vacations Quebect Zoom My Estate Bicycles Butterfingers The Old Days Marketing Gimmicks COVID-19 Scotch and Sirloin Chowder Vaughn Allergies Ukraine COVID Grass Skiing Yeast Cats China Music Imaginings Things I've done Godfather Audubon Bar Bob Dylan high winds My Parents Bill Monroe Art Canada Stories I should write New England Roommates I've Had Bands I've Seen Bunker Accounting punk music BB King Audio Eating and Drinking Europe Guns and Ammo Folk Music Earth Spice Girls technology Hawaii People I know Skating Spoon the band Candy Big Shoes Royal Stuff cornhole Mass General Hospital tambourrine Hache Verde Weather Vaccines The future coronavirus Christmas Cornhole star Car Dealerships curling shoes Bodysurfing The Past nukes Joan Jett Soul Coughing NPR Politics As Usual baseball Texting Soviet Union Advertising Mustard Hurricanes Stairs Higher Education Barber Shops Belgian Ales Peacekeeping My grandparents Trump Canadiana Boston Brain Surgery Syracuse afterlife Sugarbush Elvis Presley Work Soccer Halloween Bands I've seen Reveillon plan mid-winter vacations acerbic high school principal Skiing Rock Bands Ketchup gathering throngs Wind Mike Doughty Mom and Dad My sisters Sports Football Bands I haven't seen Soup the future Motorists The Future Beer Good Reads Eclipse Drumming Religion Food US Senate soapbox rantings Putin Communication Channels First World Problems Liz Phair Golf Fiction TV Plastic seasons Cars Diseases Knots Red Sox Reese's Peanut Butter Cups When I die Martinis Snow Guns Hand Planes Pats town square Me Them Kids Theater weather Biden Dad advice Head injuries Email Existential Crisis Hot Air Balloon Ticketmaster Coyotes the sea Ice Dancing vacation