No doubt there will be gobs of people, all sorts of folks in fact, celebrating here at Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub in downtown Portland. Here's the link to info about their Annual St. Patrick’s Irish Festival, March 15-18, 2012.
I did celebrate in March, 2005, when I got to march in the Mal's St. Paddy's Day Parade in Jackson, Mississippi. I was what is known as a Sweet Potato Queen Wannabe Wannabe. That's me in vintage SPQ green sequins and pink satin, plus the requisite long, curly red wig, cat's-eye-rhinestone sunglasses and the tiara. I think the ladies with me were from somewhere in Missouri--exactly where escapes me. Oh, and I should say that Boss Queen Jill Conner Browne spells pink p-a-n-k, just for fun. The SPQ now participate in what's known as the Zippity Doo Dah Parade. Both parades raise money for the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center which is located in Jackson.
Click on the link that is her name to read my 2004 interview with Jill, published in the Jackson Free Press.
P. S. Believe it or not, in the mid to late '70s Mama and Jill worked together at the Sears credit department in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. I discovered that glorious fact in 2005 when I reviewed Jill's non-fiction book “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Wedding Planner/Divorce Guide" for the Jackson Free Press. Once I read the name of the person to whom Jill had dedicated the book and verified immediately with Mama that, yes, when she was at Sears she had worked with a tall young woman named Jill, back when Lamont was a little bitty boy, I called Jill right up on the phone. She and Mama reminisced for a while about the good ol' days--so cool!
