Patrick was five when he realized that there was a holiday with the same name as his own name. His first grade teacher said, “Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. If you are Irish please make sure you wear green.” Patrick raised his hand and when called upon, he asked, “What’s Irish?”
Mrs. Hogan replied, “It means you or your ancestors are from Ireland.”
“What’s Ireland,” Patrick asked.
A smile appeared on Mrs. Hogan’s face as she replied, “Just remember to wear green tomorrow. The student at Patrick’s left named Lucy said, “Yeah or I’ll pinch you.”
“Wait until I get home Lucy,” Patrick said, “I’m going to tell my Mother on you.” Lucy stuck out her tongue. She had red hair and freckles all over her face. The dismissal bell rang; all of the first graders got up from their desks, and walked down the hallway to front door of the school. Patrick couldn’t wait to tell his mother about the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and how Mrs. Hogan says that all of the children need to wear green if they are Irish. Patrick tried once again to find out some answers, he asked, “What’s Irish?”
“Look it up in the dictionary when you get home.” Upon arriving at home, without taking time to take off his coat, Patrick ran to the shelf where the dictionary sat. He choice the biggest one, he sounded the word out, I, r, i, sh like dish, must be spelled “Irish.” He turned the pages until he came to it, Irish are the people, Ireland is the country but the word that fascinated Patrick the most was iris. Iris was the word right before Irish in the dictionary, it meant “the rainbow.”
The next day, Patrick took off his coat at record speed, he could not wait to show Mrs. Hogan the beautiful rainbow on his t-shirt that he wore that day. “I didn’t want to take any chances,” he whistled through the space where his two front teeth had been. “I made sure that I wore all of the colors today.”
Mrs. Hogan said, “Excuse me, Patrick.” Quickly, she went next door to the facility lounge. She stood shaking with laughter, her face turned red, and Mrs. Cole, one of the other teachers in the building, asked, “Alright, so what has Patrick done this time?”
Not wanting to break out in laughter in front of the poor child, Mrs. Hogan often had to dismiss herself to the small facility lounge around the corner from her classroom. “I told the class to wear green today for St. Patrick’s Day. Patrick has a shirt with a rainbow on it, he said, that he did not want to take any chances so he wore all of the colors.”
Mrs. Cole began to laugh and before either of us knew it, other teachers joined us with their own delightful tales of St. Patrick’s Day. “I have to get back to class,” a resounding echo came from each teacher as they went back to their own classes, back to lessons and learning, yet for a few brief moments these stories shared among colleagues brought back memories of their own childhoods, the joys of those long ago times. It definitely brought us all closer together as teachers and friends.