March 14, 2007
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Thirteen St. Patrick’s Days adventures, as done by the various characters in and around Riverview, USA. 1. The year Trevor, who does have a bit of Irish in him somewhere along the line, put streamers on his Vincent and rode with a cycling group in the St. Patty’s Day Parade. 2. The year Amy told Mitchell that the Riverview State Park had been formed to preserve the leprechauns and their pots of gold, so Mitchell took off for the park — and got horribly lost in the woods. It took Patterson and a group of his colleagues to find the boy, well after sunset. Needless to say, Amy got into a bit of trouble. Mitchell didn’t brave the park alone again for years. 3. Pam makes a ritual of dressing up for the holiday around her exercise class. For St. Patrick’s Day, she wears those cheap cardboard top hats, green tails, green socks, black capri tights, and a green bra top. The tails come off at some point, but the rest stays on. 4. There was the time, early in the band’s career, when they took the stage dressed as leprechauns. Complete with shorts that let bony knees hang out, and fake red beards. Pictures of this do exist — in the scrapbook Amy keeps, of course! 5. The year that dark chocolate was first touted as having health benefits, Amy handed her patients some of those foil-wrapped gold coins that usually show up as Hanukkah gelt. Her older patients were horrified that a doctor would hand out chocolate. Her younger patients were amused. Her female patients laughed the hardest. 6. The staff at Chelle’s newspaper once decided to dress in green to mark St. Patrick’s Day. Chelle went out and found a green shirt and made herself a green skirt. It was quickly decided that Chelle looked like a green M&M, and that she should stick to black, white, and pastels in the future. Chelle hates pastels, but they do look good against her dark skin. 7. The year Daniel and Val began what became a yearly ritual: making shamrock-shaped sugar cookies for his grandmother. When Daniel’s on tour and can’t make the cookies, Val does. She sends half to Daniel’s grandmother and half to him on the road. 8. The time Eric and his older brother Jared strolled into church in the middle of their father’s sermon — faces painted green and wearing full leprechaun clothing. 9. One year during the band’s first tour — the one they drove their way through — Trevor poured a green beer over a blonde he was flirting with. She slapped him (the nerve!) and ran off. Trevor merely shrugged and said she apparently didn’t know much about what made for good foreplay. No one in the band bought his bluster. 10. The year Val was still in culinary school and decided to make a traditional Irish dinner for Daniel and his grandmother, since her own family wasn’t interested. It was one of her few disasters, if only because she didn’t know enough about Irish food to make a palatable meal. 11. When Mitchell was six and Amy eight, she convinced him that their front yard was full of four-leaf clovers — but they’d hide from bad little boys. Mitchell, of course, set out to prove her wrong. He, of course, failed at this. 12. A few years and a lot of culinary school later, Val finally managed to get the Irish dinner right. It’s now something she does annually for Daniel’s grandmother and her older sister, the only people who’re interested in joining her in the tradition. 13. Life isn’t complete without a Shamrock Shake or two for Daniel, Eric, and Mitchell, who sit and slurp happily as the tour bus rolls on… |
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karen!
March 15, 2007 8:55 am
Happy Thursday!BR/This is a fabulous list… BR/I love the idea of Trevor in the St. Patty’s Day parade.BR/Oh, and poor gullible M. lol
Jane
March 15, 2007 8:58 am
I can’t believe I am the first to comment. I am afraid I am not familiar with Riverview but it sounds interesting.BR/Thanks for coming by my T13.
colleen
March 15, 2007 9:24 am
My blog wears green because I’m Irish.
Amy Ruttan
March 15, 2007 10:12 am
What an original spin on a St. Patty’s Day TT!BR/BR/It was great! Happy TT Susan!
Sparky Duck
March 15, 2007 10:20 am
got a real dirty comment for number one 🙂
Mercy's Maid
March 15, 2007 10:27 am
Oh no…you’ve mentioned sugar cookies. I’ll be craving cookies all day! Thanks for stopping by my 13.
nancy
March 15, 2007 11:38 am
Where are all your comments? BR/BR/This was great. All the green goodness that abounds from St. Pats is awesome!
Rene
March 15, 2007 12:26 pm
It is kind of a rock n roll holiday, isn’t it?
Christine
March 15, 2007 12:27 pm
I love it! I posted about my favourite St. Paddy Day things this week. But I hadn’t thought about how my characters would see it. Great idea! 🙂
L^2
March 15, 2007 12:42 pm
Couldn’t find the place for comments when I visited earlier… thought maybe I just wasn’t seeing it. BR/Anyway, I love #11! I seem to recall doing something similar to a cousin once. BR/Happy TT! 🙂
Chelle
March 15, 2007 1:18 pm
Fun list! I’m part Irish and I’m lucky if I remember to dress the kids in green before sending them to school on St. Paddy’s Day.
Rashenbo
March 15, 2007 1:53 pm
I’m sitting here picturing two guys in green breaking up a sermon…. hahahah, at first it was the dressing around the exercise class that got me, but I have to say the devote little leps have caught my attention! 🙂
Janet
March 15, 2007 2:05 pm
LOL, I LOVE #5!!!
scooper
March 15, 2007 2:14 pm
Is the exercise class televised? A hidden camera placed somewhere?
Julia
March 15, 2007 3:47 pm
What a wonderful adventures list of St. Patrick’s Day! Sound like great time :)BR/BR/Happy Thursday Thirteen!
Darla
March 15, 2007 4:42 pm
Hmmm. You got your comments back. Darn. I was hoping I could just blame Blogger. :)BR/BR/Love the St. Patrick’s Day adventures. I’m not sure they celebrate it here, but I’ll be keeping an eye out when we go to Frankfurt on Saturday.
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 15, 2007 4:49 pm
Sorry, Darla. I put the Tour Manager on it this morning, and he came through.BR/BR/It COULD be a Blogger thing, though, because I did NOT touch that comments off setting. I know it.
Joy Renee
March 15, 2007 5:03 pm
how much of this already exists in written scenes and how much is stuff you just know about your characters and their world. i ask because i always seem to know about 90% more about my characters than ever gets into the written story. one work in progress covers four generations streatching from around 1900 into the future.BR/BR/fun list.BR/BR/my #24 is continued from last week:BR/http://joystory.blogspot.com/2007/03/thursday-thirteen-24.htmlBR/BR/13 more research projects impacted by the impending library closure.BR/BR/Also I posted an explanation of the closure last weekend. Sort of.BR/BR/Three weeks plus one day. Somebody stop the clock pleeease…
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 15, 2007 5:06 pm
Hey, Joy Renee!BR/BR/Actually, I invented all of this stuff just for this TT, but it all makes sense and I can picture it all, so hopefully it’ll show up in fiction somewhere. BR/BR/But when I sat down to write the first draft of a now-shelved story (that of Kerri and her mother), I knew plenty of stuff about her, and about her relationship with Mitchell. BR/BR/For me, the blog’s been a way to share the stuff that won’t get into a book but is still fun. Or to expand my world; bigger is better, right?
Sparky Duck
March 15, 2007 5:11 pm
ya did?
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 15, 2007 5:16 pm
Scroll up an entry. *wink*
The Plaid Sheep
March 15, 2007 7:10 pm
I usually stay in on St. Patty’s Day. I live in NYC and the parade is a bit much. I can’t help feeling that St. Patrick himself is shaking his head. But I’m all for corned beef and cabbage.
Sophisticated Writer
March 15, 2007 7:44 pm
LOL @ Sparky duck.BR/BR/Great TT as usual, Susan. I hope your son gets better soon, dear 🙂 How old is he?
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 15, 2007 8:36 pm
The son?? The son, Sophisticated?BR/BR/*snort*BR/BR/Don’t you mean Master-I-gave-Mom-the-asthmatic-a-chest-cold??????BR/BR/(in a matter of ten minutes, it went from a burr in my throat and an “uh-oh. I think I’m getting sick” to a full-fledged chest cold. Stinker.)BR/BR/He’s six-and-a-half. And little Miss “I started this fun” is four and a half. BR/BR/Grr. BR/BR/I envy my childless friends right now. I do. I HATE being sick.
Christie
March 15, 2007 9:44 pm
i would have a seriously hard time exercising around a chick in leprechaun garb. too funny! great list!
she
March 16, 2007 12:30 am
I want copies of the pictures of the band as leprechauns. My pot of gold at the end of the rainbow picture could use some company.
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 16, 2007 7:47 am
Uhh… yeah. Pictures. BR/BR/You’ll have to find either a better artist than me or some willing ShapeShifter stand-ins!!
Jill
March 16, 2007 10:18 am
St. Patrick day is usualy the only day I drink beer… They had that green draft special at the university club…BR/Happy St-Patrick’s Day!!(we usually have a storm around that date, so we’ll be drinking beer, watching snow fall down!!)
Jill
March 16, 2007 10:54 am
We could have that movie blogathon this weekend, since I’m gonna watch movie anyway… We could do a review of each of them, and could post it on my other blog…
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 16, 2007 11:02 am
Hey, Jill! It’s snowing here now and is supposed to snow on the parade tomorrow, too. Kinda typical for here, too, sadly. :(BR/BR/As for movies, let’s take some time and really organize this right – and pick a time when I’m not so sick, all I want to do is sleep. And we have Pens tickets tonight!
Robin
March 16, 2007 1:39 pm
Too bad the Shapeshifters are fictional – I would love to see those leprechaun pics!BR/BR/PS Feel better soon.
Sanni
March 16, 2007 2:12 pm
Love your list (as usual *LOL*). I confess I´ve never had a Shamrock Shake. We are not too familiar with St. Patrick´s Day in Germany. Could you please help me? =)
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 16, 2007 3:11 pm
I actually have no idea what’s in a Shamrock Shake. McDonald’s used to make them for a short time before every St. Patrick’s Day. All I know is they were green and everyone except me would get them. :(BR/BR/Anyone else know more?
cheesygiraffe
March 16, 2007 4:36 pm
Very nice TT. I love St. Pat’s Day even if I’m not Irish. My hubby has Irish blood in him though. 😉
Uisce
March 19, 2007 4:53 pm
did you draw that picture? very, very nice! crayon? colored pencil? I know, I’m being nosey.
Susan Helene Gottfried
March 19, 2007 7:52 pm
Yes, U, those are my limited art skills at work. Expect to see more of them, I think. BR/BR/It’s Sharpie and Crayon. BR/BR/Only the best art supplies for me!