The records were Irish tunes which I heard mostly when my aunts and uncles and cousins were over on Sundays, when we’d have a big, early dinner that ended with music and dancing in the living room. The rug was thrown to one side, and heels clicked on the wooden floors. I remember the smells from those days, the cigarette smoke, beef roasting, the icy whiskey in the big glasses and a smell that I didn’t like, but was getting used to, beer. Those smells flew out the windows when the dancers got warm.
Many years later, when my four kids were growing into teenagers, I found an LP at some discount store that I snatched up for a dollar. It was Paddy Noonan’s Grand Irish Party. A short time after that, Aunt Della and Uncle Jim, frequent visitors on Sunday afternoons, dropped in. It was close enough to St Patrick’s Day that I brought out the new record.
There was singing and dancing in the house that night. Della and Jim, though they had passed middle age some years earlier, kicked ass dancing. And, they would flirt with each other while doing it. Great fun –
If you’re Irish, come into the parlor, there’s a welcome there for you. If your name is Timothy or Pat, as long as you’re from old Ireland there’s a welcome on the mat….
My children loved it and joined in, and I realized that they had never known that part of life that I had grown up with. To this day Grand Irish Party holds a spot in our hearts. It became a tradition to play on what came to be known in our family as St. Paddy’s Day.