Since
I have a fair amount of Irish blood in my ancestry, St. Patrick’s Day has
always been one more fun thing that happens in March. Dad started a tradition years ago of giving
me a card each year on St. Patrick’s Day, and now that he’s 91 I treasure each
and every one of them, with only one duplicate so far.
Because
many of my books are set in the Wild West days, I was curious to know if Saint
Patrick’s Day was a big deal in the time of my characters. It was no surprise to learn that, given the number
of Irish immigrants who settled in the US, St. Patrick’s Day has always
been a time for revelry and parades. Green
beer on St. Patrick’s Day has been in existence over a hundred years, at least
the quaff-able variety. This popular
beverage achieves its green tone by the addition of blue food coloring, which
mixes with the natural yellow tinge of the beer.
Back
in the late 1800’s green beer was not a beverage to be celebrated, but referred
to a beer that was not fully fermented and would make the consumer sick. These days, the expression “green beer” is
still used by distillers in reference to beer that is not yet ready to drink,
but you won’t find that type in your glass.
If anyone gets sick drinking green beer today, it’s simply because they
didn’t know when to stop.
Today,
my heart is heavy, knowing St. Patrick’s Day parades are being cancelled all
around the globe, along with many other large-scale events and gatherings, as the
world struggles to contain the Covid 19 virus.
I pray for everyone’s good health.
As
an author working on a series, it’s sometimes difficult to reach the end. I’m releasing BENJAMIN’S BRIDE this week,
Book 7 of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but I already feel Book 8, a
sequel, nagging at me.
For now, I’ve
settled for writing PERCY’S HOPE, a free novella for my VIP Newsletter
Readers. Percy is a much-loved secondary
character in the series who is off stage for more than 3 books. It should be fun for series readers to learn
what Percy was up to during that time.
Sign up here to receive your free copy.
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love to hear from my readers. You can
find me here.
Website: www.kathleenlawless.com
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1 comment:
Nice blog, Kathleen. I'm not a beer-drinker, but back when I was young, my parents took us on a tour of a local brewery. At the end, was an old-time saloon where adults sampled a free beer and kids had free root beer. In the saloon was an old player piano. I miss that place, since it's now gone, but enjoyed learning about 'green' beer. Thank you!
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