[RICHARD] Happy Saint Patrick’s Day To All

Saint Patrick's day is upon us.  The tons of corned beef and cabbage and green beer that will be consumed this weekend are the stuff that legends are made of.

Not that many years ago St. Pat's was an event.  My late Irish grandfather taught us well to celebrate the wearing of the green.  The lessons were handed down from generation to generation.  Growing up with an Irish mother, Saint Patrick's Day was like all of the other major holidays, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving.  It was a day to rise up early, pop on the green clothing and begin the pub crawl.  Some years it was Boston and The Black Rose and The Purple Shamrock.  In the 1980's there was no place you'd rather be than Fiddler's Green Irish Pub at the New Bedford Airport or Bunraddy's Pub where Antonio's now stands.  Everyone was at "the pub" on St. Pat's.  It was the Portuguese Feast for Irish people.

Funny how times change.  One generation passes and makes way for a new one.  Old traditions fade but are kept alive by wonderful memories.  St. Patrick's Day, once a day of revelry has become for me a quiet, more pensive time.  I recall with great joy my late Irish Mom and my Uncle Bud and Aunts Ella and Eileen and know that Callahan is in fact still awake.  And if I close my eyes I can still hear the sweet sounds of Toby Lynch and Billy Mulligan and I'll see them one day in Fiddler's Green.

Whatever your plans for St. Patrick's Day, make it legendary but play it safe.

Erin go Bragh!