Irish Dancers Celtic Nations Festival down here in the Bayou

Oct 12, 2007

What a wonderful weekend we had! Friday We took the family to a delightful children's show at the Celtic Nations Festival. The little ones really enjoyed the puppet shows!! Later we all met for lunch. As usual the food at Classic Cafe was good. Matthew especially liked his desert which he seemed to be wiping all over his shirt (oh yes there was some on his nose as well). I asked him "Do you think you have to wear it?" to which he replied, "What my pants?" Once again done in by the cute remarks of a 3 year old!







Later we saw a performance of Irish Musicians. Very nice evening
indeed! I didn't know many of the songs they sang as many of them were not the ones Mom would sing to me as a child, but they were very lovely. There were jokes and storytelling as well. Here's a short clip of the evening.







Today we picked up Mom and brought her over to the Festival. She had a great time. Mom is 95 and has hearing and seeing problems. Since she can't see well, she touched lots of things, oh it did her good, bringing back memories and making her feel as though she was out shopping like she used to do. Being so elderly and in frail health she doesn't get out too much at all. We communicate with Mom using a white dry erase board. If it was Irish sayings, I'd begin it on the board and she'd repeat the remainder from memory. She wanted a Claddagh Ring for a friend who is very good to her and we did find that. She wanted 'turf' so we could burn it and she could then smell the old familiar smell of a warm peat fire from her youth. Sorry to say no one had a piece of the bog with them. Perhaps I can order it off of the internet. Did you know that you can order Irish Dirt on the internet? No joke. I ordered some and it came with Shamrock seeds.

Mom especially liked the kilts that were for sale. She'd put the material close to her eyes and try to remember what tartan it was. Lots of memories flooded back to her. Happy memories. She kept going back to the Stewart Tartan which looked like one she used to wear. She then started talking about all her family surnames in Northern Ireland. We stopped by the Coats and Arms booth and had some family crests printed up.


We saw Irish Dancers and of course her vision was poor but she could hear the heavy tapping as they danced. She commented that she once could do that too. How well I remember, especially when she thought at the age of 85 that she could still dance. (Broke more bones than we could count). But this time she resisted the urge to get out of the wheelchair and join them. Thank goodness!
The dancers were good. They are from the Metairie, Mandeville and Baton Rouge areas.

We saw a performer in the hallway and asked him to pose with mom for a picture. She asked where he was from ... Oban I wrote on her white board. Oban is on the West Coast of Scotland. She saw him opening his sporan to get out a business card for her with his photo on it. Her hand went towards the sporan and she asked if he was wearing a kilt. Thankfully she didn't pull the material over to inspect it as she'd done the others earlier! He was kind and generous with his time even though his time was limited and he was due to perform again shortly. He knelt beside her to pose with her for a picture and he began singing to her. I wrote on her board "He's singing Danny Boy" and she began to cry... tears of joy.

Outside I saw some pipers. Again I asked if they'd join her in a photo. The two of them decided before the photo op that they'd play for her. They began to play "Scotland the Brave" (which has always been one of her favorites) and another piper joined them. She was thrilled.

We took her home. She climbed right into bed with a big smile on her face, but claiming that she'd had a big day and was too tired to go eat dinner. So I tucked a scone and butter beside her incase she got hungry and kissed her 'good night and sweet dreams.'