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 17th.
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.
