St Patrick's Day
Automated Dancing Leprechaun
Those of us who enjoyed holiday window displays in the downtowns of our youth seldom saw mechanical displays for holidays other than Christmas, but a couple of display companies tried to market for the rest of the year. This is a leprechaun made by the Harold Gale Display Company (defunct) of Kansas City. I believe that it is not too old - probably from the 1980s - based on parts made of plastic rather than composition. He originally would have held a different green hat in his left hand.
By the way, I can seldom spell "leprechaun" without spell check.
Unlucky Sign
I passed through Joplin, Missouri, the other day and noticed one of my favorite old neon signs was down and damaged.
A bartender at Murphy's Irish Pub at 2214 Main Street told me she threw a kid out of the bar, who subsequently decided to hang from the sign, bringing it down. I didn't ask if the young man was hurt, but I did ask about the sign. She said the owner plans to fix it and have it back up. I applaud his decision to do.
Here's Ace in his St Pat's finery with the sign last year.
I even had to get into the act.
Ace paused with Ryan and Ann of Roy's Hickory Pit BBQ in Hutchinson, Kansas. Ann favored springy antennae that day.
And here's Patsy Terrell and Sharon Scott, wearing the green.
Yesterday I ran across this festive metal bison on a lawn at 30th and Adams streets in Hutchinson. He is often decorated for holidays. I envy his Lucky Charms boxers.
I've always enjoyed blogging St Patrick's Day; maybe because I'm of Irish extraction but don't like beer, I have to celebrate the holiday somehow. Tonight I'm going with friends to Hutchinson's Memorial Hall for a concert. Uncle Kracker is playing; I don't know much about him but someone bothered to bring entertainment to my town, and inexpensively at that, so I'm going.
Here's the obligatory selection of links to previous years:
In 2006 we looked at the historical St Patrick, the Texas town of Shamrock...and then I threw some blarney into Things Irish, and Then Some.
If you really want to see a lot of things Irish, and Irish-American, check out 2007's St Patrick's Day Megapost, which takes you from a neon sign in Phoenix to the Irish town of Chapman, Kansas (since devastated by a tornado), to Joplin, Chicago, a flight over Ireland and on to London's Celtic cemetery crosses and back to the US for a few sites on Route 66. I'm really proud of that one, and it was fun to put together.
In Happy St Patrick's Day, 2008 we added more pictures of Shamrock, Texas, visited a cool Irish pub in a historic Tulsa Route 66 building...
...and we cavorted with Doxies.
Last year I found A Shamrock in Kansas in the hand of St Patrick himself at a lovely church in Great Bend.
As always, may the road rise to meet you!
Those of us who enjoyed holiday window displays in the downtowns of our youth seldom saw mechanical displays for holidays other than Christmas, but a couple of display companies tried to market for the rest of the year. This is a leprechaun made by the Harold Gale Display Company (defunct) of Kansas City. I believe that it is not too old - probably from the 1980s - based on parts made of plastic rather than composition. He originally would have held a different green hat in his left hand.
By the way, I can seldom spell "leprechaun" without spell check.
Unlucky Sign
I passed through Joplin, Missouri, the other day and noticed one of my favorite old neon signs was down and damaged.
A bartender at Murphy's Irish Pub at 2214 Main Street told me she threw a kid out of the bar, who subsequently decided to hang from the sign, bringing it down. I didn't ask if the young man was hurt, but I did ask about the sign. She said the owner plans to fix it and have it back up. I applaud his decision to do.
Here's Ace in his St Pat's finery with the sign last year.
I even had to get into the act.
Ace paused with Ryan and Ann of Roy's Hickory Pit BBQ in Hutchinson, Kansas. Ann favored springy antennae that day.
And here's Patsy Terrell and Sharon Scott, wearing the green.
Yesterday I ran across this festive metal bison on a lawn at 30th and Adams streets in Hutchinson. He is often decorated for holidays. I envy his Lucky Charms boxers.
I've always enjoyed blogging St Patrick's Day; maybe because I'm of Irish extraction but don't like beer, I have to celebrate the holiday somehow. Tonight I'm going with friends to Hutchinson's Memorial Hall for a concert. Uncle Kracker is playing; I don't know much about him but someone bothered to bring entertainment to my town, and inexpensively at that, so I'm going.
Here's the obligatory selection of links to previous years:
In 2006 we looked at the historical St Patrick, the Texas town of Shamrock...and then I threw some blarney into Things Irish, and Then Some.
If you really want to see a lot of things Irish, and Irish-American, check out 2007's St Patrick's Day Megapost, which takes you from a neon sign in Phoenix to the Irish town of Chapman, Kansas (since devastated by a tornado), to Joplin, Chicago, a flight over Ireland and on to London's Celtic cemetery crosses and back to the US for a few sites on Route 66. I'm really proud of that one, and it was fun to put together.
In Happy St Patrick's Day, 2008 we added more pictures of Shamrock, Texas, visited a cool Irish pub in a historic Tulsa Route 66 building...
...and we cavorted with Doxies.
Last year I found A Shamrock in Kansas in the hand of St Patrick himself at a lovely church in Great Bend.
As always, may the road rise to meet you!
posted by Ace Jackalope at 8:30 AM
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