Happy St. Patrick's Day Everybody!It just isn't St. Pats without the goofy-assed hat. Let me tell you, I have had quite a few of them through the years. Most of these hats came to me by way of drinking way too much Guinness. This particular St. Pats pimp hat was bought along the parade route in NYC last year. Gotta love it!
For as long as I can remember, my mother has waxed poetic about her Irish heritage and how proud she is to be an O'Connor. The strange thing is her lineage probably has more American Indian. When I was a child and was frequently hearing about the IRA and the almost daily terrorist attacks and killings in Ireland, I had no idea why anyone would want to claim their Irish heritage. It seemed to me that the Indians are a more proud people and more worthy of such respect.
(sarcasm on) Of course at that age I didn't understand the true subtleties of killing over religion, etc. (sarcasm off) But to this day I still don't understand why people (Americans in particular) cling so hard to their Irish heritage while ignoring their heritage from less "exotic" countries. I mean, how sexy is it to say that your great grandfather was Norwegian? Or for that matter... German?
Eh, what do I know?
Thinking about that, when I was telling my American friends that I was going to leave America to live in Germany, it was astounding the amount of people who immediately responded with something similar to, "Hey, I'm German... cool". Um, maybe your great great grandfather was German, but trust me, you are no more German than I am Irish.
Side note. Mom's maiden name had the initials BO (yup, she stank).
She married the first husband... BM (yeah, ask a nurse or a mom if you don't get it)
The second husband... BS (yup, full of it)
and now she's just plain BO again.
Enjoy the holiday... Irish, Norwegian, or German. Or alternatively you just accept your Heinz 57 mixture and be done with it.
5 comments:
As a Belgian....I actually have to get used to people who find such mixed heritages from all over the world a natural thing.
when I went as an exchange student to Canada I thought it would be really special if I could tell that I actually had relatives in Canada ....until I noticed everybody there was half English/Scottish/Norwegian/Italian/.... big deal to have cross-atlantic family. :(
So I am very special: for centuraries all my ancestors seem to be Belgian. How cool is that huh.
(Pssst I did not understand the BO, BM joke :( ...don't think my mom would explain me either )
Pimp hat...I get it now! (Sorry I am a little slow..) :)
@ goofball
BO- body odor
BM - bowel movement
BS - bull sh--
LOL!!!
Great post. I too always wonder why Americans are so obsessed with being part Irish. I haven't figured that one out yet, but still dying to know!
hahahaha!
I just about died laughing at the BO/BM/BS thing.
Thanks for this bloog post
Post a Comment