Top of the morning to you! *

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In our family St. Patrick's Day is kinda a big deal.  My great-great-grandfather John Joseph Hayes came from Ireland.  And my great grandpa, Henry Nephi Hayes, who was a judge in Richfield, was very proud of his Irish heritage, and made sure everyone knew it, especially on St. Patrick's day, when he ordered 200 green carnations to be shipped to Richfield and then proudly carried his genuine Irish Cane made from the Black Thorn of Ireland, decked with green ribbons while he delivered green carnations to every teacher in town, making sure that each of his own 10 children also had a green carnation to wear.  My grandmother, Elese Hayes Monson, made sure that green carnations were delivered to all of her family members each St. Patrick's day, and my mother continues to order green carnations for us all each year.  Since my daughters have been at college, I send green carnations to each of them to be delivered on the 17th, and my aunt and uncles that live in Salt Lake make sure that green carnations are placed on my grandma's grave each St. Patrick's day.  But that is not the end of the traditions...oh no...in our family growing up, we had to be decked out from head to toe in green every March 17th. My mom made SURE of this, even making us new green Sunday dresses if St. Patrick's day ever fell on a Sunday.  On the 17th we listened to Irish music and "decked " out the house with shamrocks and other Irish decor. 

John Joseph, Henry Nephi, Elese, and my mother, Ann were/are all great poets, putting all kinds of things into rhyme

(from notes to the teacher: 

"The reason why Grant is so late
He had to mend the water gate.
And while he worked there-planing grooving
The clock hands all the time were moving.
And ere he had the work begun,
The janitor the school bell run.
He was engaged upon my "biz."
Excuse him..the fault was mine, not his."   

----Henry Nephi Hayes excuse note for his son Grant

to letters to children, to stories of wedding courtships)

-my mom, grandma, great grandpa, and great-great grandpa could (and did) put anything into verse.  So one of our other St. Patrick Day family traditions is to read the poem "St. Patrick and the Snake," written by John Joseph Hayes almost 200 years ago...it explains, in verse, why there are no snakes in Ireland.  (I didn't include it here because it is quite long.)

And when my grandma died, we (the grandkids) sang this song at her funeral, written by my mom's cousin (the daughter of Elese's sister) the first St. Patrick's day after HER mother died.  (She said she especially missed her mother on the first St. Patrick's day following her death, and thus sat down and composed this song...in verse...of course....) I can't include the music here (and it's much nicer with the melody attached), but the words are as follows:

"My Irish Mother"
By Sherry Carr Meeks

"Do they sing Irish songs in heaven on St. Patrick's Day?
Do they celebrate the wearing of the green?
And are the Irish eyes still smiling? Do they dance the Irish jig?
Is that Irish bit of heaven ever seen?

Is there the too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra?
Is there a bit of blarney too?
And are the shamrocks growing everywhere
And lakes of shining blue?

Yes, they'll sing Irish songs in heaven this St. Patrick's Day.
Sure the angels will be wearing green somehow.
For sure a little bit of Ireland has gone back to heaven now. 
And the angels sing the Irish songs now.
For my mother's** gone to teach the angels how."

(** we used the word "grandma" here instead of "mother" at my grandma's funeral.)

So from a descendent of Irish heritage..."Top of the morning to you!"  or in other words, "Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!"

*  FYI:  Meaning of the phrase, "Top of the morning to you:" 
The phrase is Irish in origin but now very rarely used in Ireland (except as a sterotypical "Irishism"). It simply means "the best of the morning to you" - perhaps from the idea of unhomogenized milk, where the cream rises to the top. An appropriate response might be a simple "thank you" although the traditional response would be "And the rest of the day to yourself."

St. Patrick's Day 1974-It fell on a Sunday-note our green dresses.  My mom even made one for my "baby Chrissy" doll.  Does anyone remember these dolls from the 70's? -They were the size of real kids (note that "Chrissy" is the same size as my little sister, Jill.)  Chrissy was "way cool" cause she had hair that could "grow" via a hole on the top of her head.  Corinne and I both had these dolls and took them EVERYWHERE-even to church-Thus, Chrissy needed a St. Patrick's day dress as well.  Look closely and you'll see my mom's green carnation pinned to her collar.

Hardy kids Circa 1977.  Matching green shirts made by my mom.  David wasn't born yet, but was "on the way," and my mom had a green maternity top to match.  Dad also had a green shirt to match.  (See... Barlow kids, I'm not the ONLY mom who made her kids occasionally dress alike and take pictures ;) 
From top clockwise: Rex 6 1/2,  Bryce 9,  Clark 1 1/2,  Jill 3 1/2,  Kay 10