St. Patty's Day Memories

I don't recall ever doing anything especially noteworthy for St. Patrick's Day as a child. In elementary school, we cut shamrocks out of green construction paper, combed the playground for four-leafed clover and coloured-in leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows with crayons, later coloured pencils. I remember learning about St. Patrick in school... We may well have made circle streamers and other decorations to display at home and my mom surely baked and dressed a thematic cake but no memories pop out distinctly.

The only St. Patty's Day memory from childhood that I recall with much clarity is one I remember quite fondly. Full of the mystical wonder of childhood on a bright spring morning, walking with my mom and brother down our long, curved, tree-lined, rural Alberta driveway to catch the school bus we speculated about the sneaky habits of the leprechaun. Where did they live around here? How could we set a trap? What would we wish for if we caught one? All while searching for tiny leprechaun footprints in the snow.*

As an adult, I never felt the need to party on St. Patrick's Day, to drink green beer or to get drunk.** The only adult St. Patrick's Day story I have to share is only a SPD story by default. I planned a surprise party for hubby's 30th birthday; it happened to fall on the green holiday. We had some green hats and streamers but nothing over the top. I told him a friend was having a stag and doe party on the day and that they ended up needing his assistance at the last minute with something I couldn't do for some reason. I don't remember the exact lie but I remember he REALLY didn't want to come and I had to pretty much beg until my friend piped up beside me to say she'd pay him. That did the trick. Needless to say, he was surprised.

Purchase Leprecadaver, the leprechaun zombie gnome on Etsy from RevanentFX!

My Irish heritage was something I've always known about though it was never really celebrated within my family like it was in the families of some of my friends. Perhaps that's because my Irish relatives have been in Canada for well over 150 years now. Also, probably, because it was only my mom's paternal side that was Irish and we didn't have much to do with them on a regular basis.

I knew my Irish ancestors came over because of The Potato Famine (I had yet to learn there was more than one famine), that there were two brothers - one who settled on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River and the other who settled on the Ottawa side. Annnnd that's about it. To date, I have a copy of other family members' work on our shared genealogy but have not entirely verified everything for myself, to my own satisfaction nor that of the BCG Standards manual.





Yes, The Asterisks Mean Something

* Yes, spring with snowbanks. Such is weather in Canada and Alberta. Fun, eh?

** I've never been a drinker, to be honest. I'll maybe partake of a daiquiri or a beer or a glass of sangria once in a while but I've never been drunk in my life and don't particularly plan to be... although one New Years Eve at home with hubby I did actually TRY to get drunk. I drank a couple of beer and almost an entire bottle of champagne by myself, but... nada. Nothing happened. No tipsy. No woozy. No hangover-esque feelings the next day. I was disappointed, stupidly, but I've never tried it again. Realistically, I think I'd just find a corner, curl up and go to sleep anyway.

The Birdman of Alcatraz

Today, while hubby spent his last day of Christmas vacation binge-ing on NFL, the semi-finals of the World Juniors hockey tournament and WoW*, I spent 147 minutes watching the Turner Classic Movie Channel - specifically, the black and white classic film that is "The Birdman of Alcatraz," starring Burt Lancaster.

In 1962, Lancaster was nominated for an Academy Award for this performance.
Photo courtesy of www.imdb.com

Widely known as The Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Franklin Stroud, spent most of his life in solitary confinement (ironically, not at Alcatraz) after being convicted on two separate occasions of murder. Although recalled to be a difficult inmate, Stroud was allowed to raise canaries in his cell in effort to make a productive use of his time. Indeed, the convict managed to author some articles and two books on ornithology and become a leading voice in the field before it was discovered some of his requested equipment was being used to create an alcoholic still. Shortly thereafter, The Birdman was transferred to Alcatraz.

Photo courtesy of www.AlcatrazHistory.com

All of this to say... I suppose if you HAVE to find a criminal in your family tree, one like this would be a good one to find. I mean, at least he contributed in a meaningful way to society at some point, right? Though I'm not sure any contribution can make up for murder...

Anyway, without digressing into a discussion about civil rights and the downfalls of the criminal justice systems of our world, yadda, yadda, yadda ---

Have you ever found a criminal in your family tree? How do you feel when you uncover someone's scandalous past? Guilty? Ashamed? I suppose it matters how close they are to you in that stuff we call wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey**...

My husband's family tree seems to be drooping from its load of "perps" and suspects*** while I have only unearthed one scoundrel in my family history so far -- the son of a crofter who shot a gun into the face of a servant girl while participating (inevitably inebriated) in a wedding parade one jolly night in the early 1800s of Scotland.

My one and only reaction to all of the above? EXCITEMENT!

I imagine this is from a movie but I found it here:
http://imgur.com/gallery/xihg38M

Huzzah! So many documents to find! New avenues of research to consider! Out-of-the-ordinary details to scrutinize, glean inspiration from and incorporate into the family history narrative! Another hopefully tantalizing tidbit with which to interest disinterested family members! And above all, another challenge!

I can't be the only one...........






Yes, The Asterisks Mean Something

*WoW = World of Warcraft, an online multi-player role-playing game created in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. You may have seen William Shatner, Mr. T and Verne Troyer et al on some of their television ads a few years ago...

**wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey = A Dr. Who reference. I don't watch the program but do accrue points with Hubbly-Hubbard (hubby) for such geekery.

***Okay "drooping" is probably an exaggeration. Simmer down! But one side of his tree IS predominantly Italian.... Just sayin'. (hehehehe)


Reference List

Alcatraz History website, http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud.htm; Ocean View Publishing Company, 2014 [accessed 07 Jan 2015; 4:30pm EST].

IMDB website, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055798/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 [accessed 07 Jan 2015; 4:30pm EST].

Wikipedia website, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_of_Alcatraz_%28film%29 [accessed on 07 Jan 4:45pm EST].