Of Traditions by Konnie Enos

I can remember, somewhere in the very early 70s when I was in grade school, walking into the school and stopping in the hallway by the row of hooks there to hang up my coat. It wasn’t quite yet spring weather yet therefore I had on a nice warm coat.

Before I even had it unbuttoned, my cousin came up to me and pinched me hard enough I yelped. A teacher came out to find out what happened and we told her. At this point, I still hadn’t gotten my coat off.

Now our school did have policies about hitting and pinching so normally he would have been immediately punished for his infraction.

On this particular day, he was positive he wouldn’t be punished or even yelled at, not even when he’d done it as hard as he did.

I, on the other hand, was indignant at being pinched at all, let alone that it hurt and left a clear mark on me. I remember the teacher could still see the mark he left. I wanted vindication.

What did I get?

The teacher told my cousin not to pinch that hard.

That’s right, the teacher did not enforce any of our school rules.

I did not think it was fair and was rather upset about it. As I took my coat off and hung it up, with my back to the teacher and my cousin, I told the teacher I hadn’t been expecting to be pinched.

She told me I should have expected it and if I hadn’t wanted to be pinched, I should have prepared accordingly.

I then spun around to face them and said, “I did!”

With my coat now not covering the front of my shirt it was obvious I had indeed made appropriate preparations.

You see, it was March 17^th. The day for the wearing of the green. My outfit that day was, as I recall, a pantsuit. One whose most predominant color was purple as I remember. The only other thing I remember is neither my coat nor shoes were green.

I did, however, have something green pinned, quite prominently, to the front of my shirt. It was large enough to not be missed. It was also right where it could not be seen with my coat on.

Well at this point the teacher could not give Jon the usual punishment for pinching because it was a free reign that day, but she did reprimand him and told him he could not pinch anybody at all until after he’d made certain they had no green on, more specifically, their coats off.

Though I think it wasn’t long after this event when that particular school banned St. Patrick’s Day pinching altogether.

As widespread and common as this activity was when I was growing up, I’ve been amazed at the number of people I know who has never heard of it. I know most schools have banned it mostly because of how hard some kids would pinch, thankfully.

When my kids were in school they focused on “catching leprechauns” instead. Once one of my older girls asked me what kind of traps and such we had come up with to catch leprechauns when we were in grade school. I had to tell her none. I’d never even heard of making leprechaun traps until they were in grade school.

I can also remember people who weren’t of Irish descent NOT wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. Instead, they wore yellow. However, I also remember that most non-Irish would wear at least a token bit of green because very few people bothered to find out if they were Irish or not before pinching them.

I don’t like the tradition of pinching others and I’m glad it’s being dropped for less offensive traditions. Of course, nowadays I doubt anyone would dare pinch someone not wearing the green. Not just because that tradition is disappearing, or even the issues with the current pandemic (though I’m positive it would be a deterrent), but rather because people are recognizing that even pinching can be as hurtful or traumatizing as hitting. This is a good thing.

 I can also remember wearing green to bed to prevent my brother from pinching me before I even got out of bed. I still did that as a young mother.

Now?

Since I’m staying in all day I doubt I’ll even worry about the wearing of the green. After all, my kids aren’t going to pinch me. Partly because I’m Mom, but mostly because they didn’t grow up with that tradition.

What St. Patty’s Day traditions did you grow up with and which ones do you still follow.

May the luck of the Irish be with ya.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.