Dear Reader:

Walsh and Mollie decided that this was the year they wanted to introduce and infuse Lachlan with his Irish heritage… customs, foods, music and stories. After all he’s the St Paddy’s Day baby… born on the 17th of March.

…But between the St. Patrick’s Day downtown parade and heavy traffic congestion we decided to skip Tommy Condons, most famous Irish pub in Charleston, (two blocks waiting line) and simply find a parking place and let fate take its course… and it did.

On the way to a parking garage that still had a vacancy sign… Walsh dropped all of us off at another Irish Pub-Bumpa’s . Little did we know the surprises inside.

By the time Walsh joined us we had worked our way inside and the lovely ” seater” found us the best table in the place. We could watch all the pedestrians in green walk by…

And the food… we ordered several plates and divided it up… so everyone got corn beef hash, mashed potatoes, cabbage, beef stew and all kinds of fun interesting appetizers!

It was such a festive atmosphere inside with a guitarist singing a mixture of old and new tunes. Then Rutledge told me to look out the window next to him and there was a bagpiper… and then two, three… so many I quit counting…they were playing upbeat ballads and military songs, along with drums and flutes! And then they entered the pub and just blew us away.

A quick history lesson -We were so thrilled with the marching band but the bagpipes were throwing me off.. I think Scots with bagpipes, not Irish musicians -so when I got home I looked up marching bagpipers, drummers and flutists… and guess what music is the great unifier!

On the first St Patrick’s Day parade in Boston March 17, 1737, the Scots-Irish ( descendants of Ulster in Northern Ireland ) all gathered in their kilts, bagpipes, flutes. and drums to perform. From the start America’s ” Melting Pot” blended once sworn enemies into friends… diversity… the core behind American democracy.

After the performance one drummer came over to our table -after chatting with us and discovering it was Lachlan ‘a birthday-he returned with a ” fellow” bagpiper who played Happy Birthday to Lachlan on bagpipes! A memory for the ages!

The whole place erupted into applause and sang Happy Birthday to Lachlan!

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Eloise went to her pre-school since they were open yesterday… ( teacher workday for Rut and Lachlan’s teachers) so this St Patrick’s day was even more special!! No School!