A Great Day for the Irish

St. Patrick's Day was a wild extravaganza in New London yesterday. I spent most of my day at the Tavern doing this:
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Serving Guinness. Okay, okay, and drinking a few too.
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I served happy, if gigantic, leprechauns . . .
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. . . and gave out cool t-shirts like this one to my pal Johnny Slips . . .
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The Paul Brockett Roadshow band was in the house; Paul and Meghan and Dave successfully fortified themselves before their gig.
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Meghan was festooned with every shamrock and bead and sticker that beeped and blinked and twirled.

I served a lot of Guinness.

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Mistah Schleckah, meanwhile, made it outside to watch the world-famous New London St. Patrick's Day parade.

Obligatory Parade Marshall with babes.

Obligatory unicycle juggling man.

And, of course, the obligatory bagpipe and drum corps, made up of none finer than New London's own Firefighters.

Including Dan, our own little Firefighting friend, and (Bill's New Year's Day co-swimmer.)

Up State Street they went.

There is nothing like the excitement on the faces of children . . .

. . . nothing like the unmitigated joy and anticipation . . .

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. . . as they eagerly and hopefully wait . . .

. . . for the Paul Brockett Roadshow band . . .

. . . to march by.

The New London High School Marching Whalers showed everybody how it's done.

I love a trombone.

And I love these two old dears.

Self-portrait of Mistah.

The crowd loved it.

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Meanwhile, back at the Tavern, we were going full-throttle. Martha never stopped. Cooking corned beef in the Tavern and in the apartment upstairs. And washing glasses for me. And washing dishes while the dishwasher was doing a load. I bet Martha will be happy to get back to her job today. Where she can get some rest. She was amazing.

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As was Peter. He never stopped moving either. He's like a green flash. Like the Green Flash. A Corned Beef Super Hero.

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Our lovely neighbor Miss Keri even stopped by. It was so busy at times I wouldn't make eye contact with customers, because I couldn't get to them.

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Bill enjoyed himself a corned beef dinner. Corned beef sandwiches on delicious rye, and Guinness beef stew were the other menu items. Peter and Martha kept serving until 8 or 9 p.m. But Chris was on duty by then.

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All day, the place was joyfully full with great peeps.

Owen and Tommy Ships . . .

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. . . Saint Francis and Maddy . . .

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Mister Dibble – in his Bridgeport F.D. finery – with his sister Jane . . .

. . . and his mom Sharon . . .

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. . . who kept us all entertained.

And my favorite, my Customer of the Day, Angela Moore. Angela never needed anything but a couple of Guinnesses, she was so pleasant and smiley and pretty and lovely, sitting there with her green shamrock ring blinking, and she helped me keep track of my tips.

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Now that's a good customer.

Oh, and Mistah Schleckah was a pretty fun customer, too.

It was a great day, and I hated to leave one side of the bar for the other . . . .
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. . . but my little Irish friend helped.