St. Patrick's Day Memoryyy

When I was growing up, my mother would make St. Patrick's day special for my brothers and I by creating elaborate "leprechaun scenarios." She would wake up very early and make mischief around the house, in the form of scattering pennies aka "gold," toppling over furniture, and just making a general mess. Then she'd blame it on the leprechauns. One year in particular comes to mind, however, because some might say that that year, my mother really went over the top with her scheme.

In addition to the usual scattering of pennies alllll over the house, she knocked over the kitchen table and chairs, along with some furniture in our bedrooms, and then spilled a pot of coffee in the kitchen, and I'm pretty sure she broke the pot as well...Point being, she truly trashed the house.

When we all got downstairs to have breakfast, she was fuming, and muttering things like, "I can't believe those damn leprechauns made such a damn mess..." and really just alternated profanities/leprechauns for awhile...we assume for dramatic effect.

This was the last year she did this, mainly because my brothers and I were at the age where we didn't believe in leprechauns, but also because her "pretending" and "make-believing" had the same effect on us that, say, genuine anger and frustration would have had. A morning that was supposed to be cheery and magical turned into a gloomy and annoying one...

We finally left for school, all of us in terrible moods, walking out the back door as my mother continued to pretend to be pissed off. Maybe there were some actual underlying feelings of resentment towards leprechauns. Or us. Or maybe she just didn't want to have to clean up all of that shit... She should be a professional actress.