Wearing O' The Green

St. Paddy's Day brings back a memory from almost 35 years ago when I lived in Richmond for a year attending school. Two famous stores back in those days were Thalhimers and Miller & Rhodes; they have since closed their doors as most downtown Richmond stores have moved out to the malls. A shame.

But one of the store owners (and I can't remember which store it was) would always dress in a bright green suit on St. Patrick's Day and ride the escalator up and down to the different floors giving out "greenbacks" to any customers he ran across.

I went downtown that year trying to be in the right place at the right time to grab one of those bills he so willingly gave away. Funny how I still remember the generosity of that man, and I didn't even come away with anything.   ~Deb

Anyone know how the St. Patrick's Day tradition of pinching people who don't wear green got started?  I certainly don't have a clue. Certain persons *cough* in our family love to wear green today, but I'm not one of them. I guess you can call me a St. Patrick Scrooge! Looks like I'm doomed to lots of pinching today. :)  But I will be serenading the family with some Irish music.  ~Jonathan

Does anyone else have Irish ancestry? Dad's mom was Irish and his dad 1/2 Irish. On my mom's side all I know is there's English, Irish, and Scottish somewhere in the family. It would be interesting to find out more about my family. ~Sarah

Comments

[jon]

No one in my family knew about our ancestry a few years ago. Everyone thought "Trainer" was probably just an Anglo name, and that "Trainers" probably trained, and hence the name.

I had a great aunt who died and someone found a hand-written geneaology in her home that went back a couple generations. Well, that got me going!

With so many tools available today, the research is quite doable. Of course, it helps if you live near the places of origin (county court houses, etc).

I discovered that "Trainer" is actually totally Irish. It comes from the gaelic words : threin and fhir meaning strong man or hero. Though the name sounds common, it is actually quite rare and easily traced to a couple counties in Ireland. I am almost to the generation that came over on the boat, but I haven't discovered them yet. Someday!

So I would encourage you to dig in! Sounds like a great homeschool history project!

[Sarah]

Thanks for the interesting comment, Jon! It is really neat knowing where your family comes from...I'll have to try to research a bit more. :)