Saturday's Old Photo

This is a photo of my father at his home in Tribune, Kansas, when he was a baby. My mother’s notes on the back say he was eight months old and the year was 1927. Yes, that’s a dress he has on. Back then, in the days of cloth diapers and no plastic pants, little boys wore dresses until they were potty trained.

I have a white baby dress worn by my father hanging up in my bedroom. I don’t think it’s this dress, because the sleeves seem different on this one.

That looks like a little mission style (or arts and crafts) rocker he’s sitting in. If you know about old furniture, you’re welcome to correct me. And someone else will have to tell us about the car in the background, too. Furniture and automobile experts are welcome to click on the photo for closer inspection.

I love that my dad is more interested in whatever it is he is holding in his hand than he is in the person holding the camera. Do you suppose they were trying to get him to look up and he was ignoring them?

Within a few months of this photo, my dad’s father died after his appendix ruptured, leaving my grandmother a very young widow with two sons, aged 3 and 1. There’s more to that story, but I’ll save it for another day with another photo.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: St. Patrick's Day Round Up

On the life and faith of St. Patrick

• Patrick’s Bequest at Historia Ecclesiastica
• St. Patrick’s Day Deja vu at The Upward Call
• A quote from his Confessions at Finding Direction

Irish hymn, blessings and poems

• Breastplate of St. Patrick at IMD2.0
• An Irish blessing at A Sparrow’s Home
• A blessing and a little art work at Blogotional.
  

Irish recipes

• Corned Beef and Cabbage, with bonus information on St. Patrick’s life, at The Happy Wonderer.

Miscellaneous things Irish

• Feelin’ a Bit Irish Are Ya? at Shook Foil
  

I’ll continue to update throughout the day, so give me your links to St. Patrick’s Day posts, please.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Preparing for the Big Day

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Are you ready?

The Galway Piper

Every person in the nation
Or of great or humble station
Holds in highest estimation
Piping Tim of Galway
Loudly he can play or low
He can move you fast or slow
Touch your hearts or stir your toe
Piping Tim of Galway

When the wedding bells are ringing
His the breath to lead the singing
Then in jigs the folks go swinging
What a splendid piper
He will blow from eve to mourn
Counting sleep a thing of scorn
Old is he but not outworn
Know you such a piper?

When he walks the highways pealing
Round his head the birds come wheeling
Tim has carols worth the stealing
Piping Tim of Galway
Thrush and Linnet, finch and lark
To each other twitter “Hark”
Soon they sing from light to dark
Pipings learnt in Galway

—-John Renfro Davis

• Kim from Hiraeth goes all out for St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s her St. Patrick’s Day menu. She has also posted recipes for many of her menu items, like this one for Oatmeal Currant Scones, or this one for Corned Beef Hash. Check out her blog for many more Irish goodies.

• Check your knowledge of things Irish with these quizzes: Irish English or general Irish knowledge.

Would you like to join in the Everything’s Coming Up Irish fun? Post anything related to Ireland or Irish things and send me the link (You can email me, or leave your link in the comments to this post.), then look for a link to your post in one of the upcoming ECUI posts. No blog? No problem. Email me your contribution or leave it in the comments and I’ll post what you’ve contributed in one of the Irish posts.