The "Good-Luck Charms Growing Right Under Your Feet" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Except for the fact that today is St. Patrick's Day.  So, exactly who is this guy we call St. Patrick and why did he wear green?  St. Partick was a nobleman who was born about 400 A.D. in Britain and kidnapped by Irish pirates at the age of 16.  He was born into a religious family, but became an atheist early in his life.  Eventually he changed and discovered his faith while enslaved in Ireland.  He spent the next 17 years as a slave until he was able to escape Ireland and returned to Great Britain.  After becoming a missionary he returned to Ireland so he could die in Ireland in order to make his mission successful.  Whether he died in Ireland is not known, but he did die on March 17.  In the United States, St. Patrick's Day was first celebrated with banquets at elite clubs in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, S.C. and Savannah, Georgia.  New York hosted the first St. Patrick's Day parade in 1762 and by the mid-19th century parades were common in many cities.  As far as the shamrock, or three-leafed clover goes, St. Patrick was said to use it to explain the Christian Holy Trinity.  Only problem is that historians say there is no evidence that he ever did that.  People did wear shamrocks on their coats and closed the day by "downing the shamrock" by placing it in a glass of whiskey before drinking it.  Guinness seems to be the drink of choice on St. Patrick's Day.  On a typical day, Americans drink about 3 million pints of the Dublin-based beer while on St. Patrick's Day they will down 13 million pints of Guinness.  Now...as far as the Leprechaun...seems that today's leprechauns, which are rosy-cheeked little men in green attire, come from Irish folklore.  The first leprechaun was mentioned in the 8th century.  The name comes from "little body'.  As for what you should eat today...well corned beef and cabbage is actually more American than it is Irish.  Irish Americans in the 19th century were mostly poor and corned beef and cabbage was an affordable meal they could easily find.  Now, getting back to the clover.  You're going to need some luck if you hope to gather a few shamrocks since for every four-leaf clover, about 10,000 three-leaf clovers sprout.  But don't tell that to my wife, since she can be walking along a grassy area, tell me to wait a minute, and walk about five feet from her, lean over and pick up a four-leaf clover.

Carol found this five-leaf clover about a year ago.

 She gave our grandson, Caden, a small box of preserved four-leafed clovers for Christmas this year.  He usually keeps one in his back pocket when he plays baseball.  Probably the reason he is such a great player.  We recently paid a visit to his home to drop off some cookies and he reminded Carol that baseball season begins next week and he could use a "fresh" new clover so he doesn't have to ruin his collection she had given him at Christmas.  She told him that her favorite clover field is now in the process of having a new nome built on it and there is a fence around it.  May take a bit longer this year to find a few more for  him.  She does have a ways to go before she can come close to the world record for largest collection of four leaf clovers which is 111,060 discovered by a guy in, of all places, Cooper Landing, Alaska.  She is trying hard to catch the fellow since she is up to about 375 by now.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!