I'm back

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Had a wonderful time and have lots to share but before I do I want to tell about sometning that happened before we left.

This story started when I was in high school. I was a Junior and my sister was a Senior. Unlike me she was definitely unnerdlike and was secretary of her Senior Class. One of her duties as Senior Class secretary was to put on the Senior Girls Prom. She worked very hard at this for several weeks and them the night before the prom, her boyfriend split with her. Here she was promoter of the Senior Girls Prom and she didn't have anyone to go with her. Where could she turn? You guessed it, little old nerdy me. I dated my sister and we have a prom picture together. And yes, it was the only prom I went to.

Go forward many years until week before last. I have been going to AA for a while and this is only mentioned because it is central to the story. I knew I would be going in some Irish pubs and went to a meeting to get a little "fortification" for the trip. I got to the meeting here in Johnson City, Tennessee and had not said a word to anyone about why I was there or where I was going, I just showed up. The first guy to speak was of all things an Irishman. He starts off this way: "You know, there is a saying in Ireland that a man who wouldn't drink in an Irish pub would date his sister to the prom." It was downhill from there.

[WateringHole]

When I was going through high school, had a part-time job at a gas station that was owned by two Italian brothers. As everyone is aware, when you 16/17 years old, you have to take a lot of stink from your employers because there isn't too many jobs for someone who's unskilled and so young. There was no breaks, constantly had to stay busy. If you got a coke out the machine, you couldn't let one of those Italians see you drinking it because they would dock you an hour. You had to hide it and take a sip now and then.
Anyway, when I quit, I said "I'd rather take a horse whipping than having to work for an Italian again." When I was going through Light Wheel Mechanical school at Ft Lenord Wood, one of the guys in my barracks said he worked at a mechanic shop that was owned by an Italian. I almost flipped when he said "I'd rather take a horse whipping than having to work for an Italian again."

[Packo]

Can't wait to hear about the trip!

I wondered about those pubs!

What's so odd about Tennesseeians dating their sisters???????

Pack

[DMZ-LT]

Welcome back Fred !

[Keith_Hixson]

I understand that in South Carolina you may be your own Grandpa.

Keith

[Gimpy]

Welcome back!

Did you get to kiss the Blarney Stone?

Gimp

[sn-e3]

Welcome home Fred. Hope you had a nice trip, My wife wants to go to Ireland was it worth it? My wife is a mick. one of the Flarerty's from Galway, she wants to go see where her people came from. so I guess we'll have to go see it. maybe next year.

[goodnessgracie]

Sounds exciting, especially to a wee Irish lass like me!

Will you be on the Mtn. in November? Hope to see you!

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Yep, kissed the Blarney Stone. Chris, whatever you do, go to Killarney and do the Ring of Kerry. That is the most beautiful place I have ever seen and as you know, I've seen some pretty places. I found myself trying to figure out how to swing moving there. The place smells so good. Everywhere you go they are cooking Irish food so the smell is everywhere. Irish cuisine is comfort food. Meat and potatoes for the most part but I saw very few fat people and they were probably Americans. There were very few fast food restaurants, mainly in Dublin and everyone ate three hearty meals a day but did not eat between meals. Connection? They destroyed a lot of my stereotypes. The population is young so every where you go it looks like you are in a college town. Since joining the European Union they have gone from being one of the poorest in Europe to the richest per capita second only to Luxembourg. They did this with free education at all levels and investment from the EU in Irish infrastructure. Roads are bing improved and even the 100 mile Ring of Kerry road is now widened to two lanes. Used to be kind of hard to drive a bus on. I saw no poverty but did see a couple of homeless. Each had a dog sleeping with him. New houses are being built but the credit crunch has hit all of Europe. Everywhere there are the stone remnants of famine houses. They are protected but you can only tear them down to build a house. Most new houses had a famine house with a tin roof as an out building. We passed a whole village of ruined famine houses. Everyone in the village starved to death. The Irish are always the first to raise money for famine relief anywhere in the world. Gas is $8 a gallon over there but traffic was congested. No big cars or SUVs to speak of but I did see one Hummer. It was for sale. The priest molestations hit Ireland the hardest and they have left the Church in the hundred thousands. A few years ago it was 70% practicing Catholics and now it is 20%. That is still better than the rest of Europe where Christians are at 2%. We passed a field with a huge 100 ft cross. Our guide told us that is where Pope John Paul spoke for the first time in Ireland. Close to a million people stood in that field that day. One Irish Bishop introduced the Pope and another, the "Singing Priest" sang to him. Then the sex scandals broke and it turned out both the bishops had illegitimate children and one had used church money to silence one of the mothers. You got to understand Ireland only has two million people so roughly half the country stood in the field that day. Ireland doesn't have a history, it has a tragedy. The only thing that sustained them through that was their Catholic faith and now at the moment of their liberation from a thousand years of this the Catholic Church betrayed them beyond all forgiveness by molesting their children.