Silly Little St. Patrick's Day Skit

Had I removed myself from the bed a little earlier than I did, or if I had not brought the mail in, I could have quite possibly arrived at McDonald's before 11 am and thereby purchased Lori a breakfast steak bagel. It felt good to sleep in and I only wanted to get up in time to shower, shave and dress in time to arrive at the Holland Civic Center at 11:30.

I was extremely surprised to discover that we were out of We were out of coffee, so I had an iced tea and two Excedrin then I ate my grapefruit. Lori suggested that I go to McDonald's and get us each a coffee. I showered, shaved and got dressed, then I got the mail and then I went drove to McDonald's. They stopped serving breakfast and I didn't want the homemade cookies that were being offered. I purchased a large coffee for Lori and a carmel cappuccino for myself.

I drank my cappuccino, used the restroom and drove off to downtown Holland. I parked the rusty Blazer at the farthest point from where the rest of the parade marchers were. I didn't plan that; I parked in the first place I found. I walked up and down the road looking for my group for at least 10 minutes before I found my group.

On a normal Saturday, I wouldn't go to the Civic Center nor would I even consider leaving the house before noon. Today was the St. Patrick's Day parade and skit day. I have never participated in a St. Patrick's Day parade or any parade for that matter. I have never seen a St. Patrick's Day parade except for some clips of the one in Chicago. I really don't care for parades, but these are hard times so silliness goes a long way.


I pulled into the Civic Center and walked around for awhile looking for the Finnish Group. Yes, the Finnish. I am not Dutch. I am not Irish. Holland doesn't have a parade for those like me of the German, English and French decent. However, Peace Lutheran has members that are from Finnish decent and it was for them that I boldly walked in a parade wearing a funky costume.

Parades are really for kids. In addition to walking up 8th Street I had to hand out fliers telling everyone about our skit at the Knickerbocker Theater. The children would wave as the parents would smile. I did see two people that I knew and they waved at me. Our sign said St. Urho saves Finland Grapes from the Grasshoppers. One woman said, "I like grapes, I had several glasses of grapes last night."

We walked to the Knickerbocker Theater and found our way backstage and took off our silly costumes. Then, Paul, Carol, Carol and I went to the New Holland Brewery and had something to drink. Paul had Chardonnay, I had a Dugan's Red, one Carol had hot cocoa, and the other Carol had pressed coffee.

We walked into the Knickerbocker to the sound of children singing. We were told that we were on next. We were told we had to whisper. The children finished and walked passed us neatly in single file. As they passed by us we gave them our best golf gallery applause. I told their director that they sounded good.

We thought we were next, but a man in a kilt walked to center stage and, well, I really can't say he played the bagpipes. He blew into them and an atrocious sound was produced. He finished one song, and then proceeded to play another which sounded a lot like the first song. He finished his set, if you can call it that, with something that sounded like Yankee Doodle. The audience applauded when he was done, I think because they were happy they didn't have to listen to it anymore. I told Gail that I now know why Bugs Bunny attacked Scotsman's bagpipes in that cartoon.

We performed our silly skit. I moved around the grapes in a blowing fashion as the Kitchen Band played Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" What else would I do as my character was The Wind? The play ended and I rode with the two Carols to the Leaf and Bean for soup and a salad. I had some great conversations about the Kingdom of Air and the Holy Breath--the Greek words for Heaven and Spirit respectively.

I went home to restless children, so I took Evan and Nathan to the DeGraff Nature Center. I drove Lori's car. Evan wanted to buy a walking stick, but the building was closed, although we were there during their business hours. So, we spent an hour walking, I walked they ran, on the nature trails.

We got back to find that Lori took the rust Blazer to the store. I helped Adam unload the groceries and we ate Shepherd's Pie around 8 pm.