I have always been a fan of St. Paddy's day since I was a kid, it's one of the few holidays that my parents celebrate for no apparent reason. They don't drink at all. We're not Irish, in fact my mom's family is almost exclusively French, while my dad's is a mixture of Scottish and English with a single Dutch great-great grandfather on his mother's side. We're not Catholic, although both of their families were up until a generation ago. As near as I can figure they celebrate St. Paddy's day solely for the purpose of eating a boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage and I am OK with that.
When I was a younger man I used to celebrate this day with gusto and much drinking, as is the fashion hereabouts. On St. Patrick's day of 1996 I started drinking early and downed 100 pints of Guinness over the course of the day. I was in college then at SUNY Oswego, which is a pretty hard partying school.
That's me on the right, pre-gaming with my buddies Tim C. (left) and Keith G. (middle) on that record shattering day, the picture was taken by Tim's wife Tracy. The car is my old Impala, how I miss having roomy cars with 8 cylinder engines. Really, what are the odds I'd have a picture from that day though, eh? I always thought this picture made us look like small, medium and large, but that's not really fair to Tim who is like 5'10" tall.
Honestly I am not even a fan of St. Patrick, I stand pretty much on the side of the druids and old Celtic gods in that argument.
Here in Oswego county St. Paddy's day is a pretty big deal. I saw a map a while back that shows ethnicity by county across the US and we're one of relatively few mostly Irish counties in the US, so maybe that's it. I know I'll probably have a pint of Guinness or two today and a corned beef and cabbage dinner, but I won't be going out like I used to; age and responsibility have ended all that for me.
Anyway, if your going drinking today, do so responsibly and use a designated driver.
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