St. Patrick's Day Baby – 1969

Well, St. Patrick's Day is on Sunday, so if you've been reading this blog for years then you know what that means to me. I'll have a nice corned beef sandwich for dinner, watch my Quiet Man DVD and contemplate my Irish heritage a bit.

Back on St. Patrick's Day 1969, the Journal celebrated the holiday with a front page photo of a baby born that very day at St. Joe's: Timothy Patrick Higgins.

The photo caption reads, "BEGORRA, 'TWAS a foine day for Timothy Patrick Higgins to arrive at St. Joseph Hospital. What with his daddy born on St. Patrick's Day too and his granddaddy born in County Derry in the Old Sod, St. Paddy himself must have been smilin'. Even Mommy has a drop of Irish blood. The rest of her ancestry is traced to a country which shall be nameless on this day, it being associated with a color not generally mentioned among the sons of Erin. Timothy is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Higgins, 2779 Cleveland Boulevard, Lorain. It's their second son. The first is named Thomas, after John's late father, the gentleman from County Derry. (Journal Photo by Terry Thomas.)"

The Higgins family moved to Amherst in the early 1970s, where Timothy's father enjoyed a fine political career as a city councilman, council president and two-term Mayor.

Here's hoping Timothy has a Happy 50th Birthday and St. Patrick's Day as well.

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And a Happy 21st Birthday to my nephew Matthew Brady, also born on St. Patrick’s Day. Matthew is one of the Texas Bradys!

More Vintage St. Patrick's Day Ads

St. Patrick's Day is one of those holidays – not unlike Cinco de Mayo or Fat Tuesday (with its obligatory eating of paczkis whether you're Catholic or not) – that grew over the years, getting bigger and bigger in the public consciousness that it became easy to get swept up in the celebration.

But it wasn't always like that. 

Looking at vintage Lorain Journals, I came to the conclusion that in our area, St. Patrick's Day was often only acknowledged by holding a dance. Here's an ad from the Lorain Journal of March 16, 1944.

Morrie Alexander and his 13 piece orchestra provided the dance music. (We met Mr. Alexander before, back on this post.)

Here's another ad from a few years later, running in the paper on March 17, 1951.

Very slowly locally in the 1950s, St. Patrick's Day began to be used as a theme for sales, and perhaps promote St. Patrick's Day as a big event. Here's an ad for the well-known Faroh's Candies that ran in the Journal on March 11, 1955.

As the 1950s progressed, companies such as the Harry Volk Corporation began to make available various collections of illustrations and photographs that could be used for advertising purposes by whoever purchased it. These collections were issued on a regular basis with themes related to holidays and the time of year. Thus it became very easy to assemble an ad with a theme of St. Patrick's Day. However, some of the pieces of artwork were memorably odd, like the art in this ad for Crystal Clear Dry Cleaners that ran in the newspaper on March 14, 1958.

That smirking, bowler-hat-wearing guy just doesn't look very Irish to me. Maybe a clay pipe would have helped. And Begora, he turned up again in a weird ad (Operation "17"?) the following year, for Lorain's Downtown stores.

Going into the 1960s, you can see that the Journal's art department was fully onboard with clip art. This ad from March 16, 1964 uses a huge piece of banner art. Unfortunately, the art had to be cut back to fit – leaving the thumbs of the Irishman hanging out in space by the letters.

Finally, here's the equivalent Downtown Lorain ad with a St. Patrick's Day theme from two years later. Once again, a leprechaun presides over the proceedings. 

Hey, that leprechaun kind of looks like Barney Phillips, the actor! I wonder if he has an extra eye under that green, buckled hat?

St. Patrick's Day Ads – 1965

 

And a top o' the morning to you! Here's hoping you have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I started my day the way I do each St. Patrick's Day – with a bowl of Lucky Charms. I know, it's a wee bit goofy. But they are magically delicious, you know.

Speaking of Lucky Charms, here's what is supposed to be the very first commercial featuring Lucky the Leprechaun. He's kind of sadistic in these early TV commercials. 

Lucky's goading the two Lucky Charms-loving kids to come after him reminds me of Captain Kirk's old Irish academy classmate Finnegan in the classic Star Trek episode "Shore Leave." Finnegan kept Kirk on the run for a while, popping up here and there and teasing him to chase him, until Kirk finally catches him and beats the crap out of him. Maybe that's what those kids should have done to Lucky.

But getting back to my St. Pat's schedule. Lunch will be fairly light, because I know I'll be having a nice corned beef sandwich for dinner. The sandwich has been an annual ritual for decades. Starting in the 1990s, I used to pick up sandwiches (usually reubens) for my parents and drop them off, so Mom and Dad didn't have to go out on the holiday. After Dad passed away, I did it for Mom for another 15+ years. So I'll be a-thinking of Mom tonight.

The evening will reach a feverish Irish pitch when I pop in my DVD of The Quiet Man. Once in a while I postpone it for another night, especially when I'm tied up doing something else (like working on my blog).

Anyway – finally – here's a not-so-ample sample of St. Patrick's Day-themed ads from 1965. As you can see, dances were a longstanding St. Pat tradition.

March 15, 1965

March 16, 1965

March 16, 1965

March 17, 1965

For more St. Patrick's Day fun, feel free to visit the vast archive of posts with that theme, as well as my post in which I reflect on my Irish heritage.

St. Patrick's Day – 1926, 1936 and 1946

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day – another holiday that, like Groundhog Day, adds a little fun to our lives.

I've already shaken up my normal St. Pat routine by cooking up my own corned beef this year for a change. It turned out perfect in my o'crock pot so I know I'm going to have a good sandwich. (I already had some of it with cabbage and it was great.)

I'm also making Slow Cooker Guinness Beef Irish Stew for a potluck luncheon at work. I just hope I don't get pulled over on the way home and fail a sobriety test – or it'll be a ride in the Paddy Wagon for me.

Anyway, it's always interesting seeing how the holiday was celebrated in the past. Some years there's hardly any acknowledgement, other years there's dances galore. 

So here are some Lorain Journal ads and clippings from St. Patrick's Day 1926, 1936 and 1946.

March 16, 1926 - Page 1

March 16, 1926 - Page 1

March 17, 1926

The holiday was observed a little more ten years later.

March 16, 1936

March 17, 1936

March 17, 1936 Editorial

March 17, 1936 Editorial Cartoon

March 17, 1936

March 17, 1936. Gee that's not exactly
an illustration of a leprechaun! 

By 1946, the infectious fun of St. Patrick's Day apparently had resulted in many more dances and parties. All the ads are from Saturday, March 16, 1946 since the holiday fell on Sunday that year.

Next: Sure and there's more St. Patrick's Day fun

Vintage St. Patrick’s Day Ads – 1967

Well, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s time to post some vintage ads from the Journal with that particular theme. These three ads all appeared in the Journal just in time for St. Patrick’s Day 1967 – 50 years ago today.

Since I’ve spent most of the week blogging about car washes and auto dealerships, it’s appropriate that the one at the top of this post is for Si Gary Dodge. The ad uses an unusually pie-faced leprechaun and some nice headline type.

This ad for the Reidy Scanlan Company (below) has great typography too. But it also has a leprechaun that (to me, anyway) seems to hearken back to the 1800s when Irishmen were depicted as ape-like in editorial cartoons. (But I’m not offended; besides, I was working on a bunch of bananas from the grocery store earlier in the week.)

Lastly in this 1967 St. Patrick’s Day Parade of ads is this one for Casey’s Drive-in. In this case, the ad steers clear of leprechauns and just plunks a shamrock onto the layout so as not to take away from Casey the mascot.

Like me, you might be wondering what “Faith an’ Begorra” means. Apparently it is a cliché, a sort of mild oath that evolved from “By my Faith” and “By God.” 

One online source said that real Irishmen never say it without a tongue planted firmly in their cheek, as it is an example of a stereotypical Irish expression.

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick’s Day Grocery Ads – March 1970

Today’s grocery store circulars that come with your mail or newspaper are beautifully designed, and crammed with full-color photographs of the featured sale items. There’s very little left to the imagination as to what's being advertised (except that some of the photos are only slightly larger than a postage stamp).

Decades ago, however, most supermarkets ran black and white ads in the newspaper to advertise their sale items, usually on a specific day of the week. And the ads relied on illustrations and listed the products that were on sale.

Often the ads featured seasonal decorations, such as these ads with a St. Patrick’s Day theme. They both ran in the Lorain Journal in March 1970.

Here’s one for the well-remembered Pick-n-Pay, which ran on March 11, 1970. Although there’s some nice clip art of a leprechaun, the Clydesdale Horses are the main attraction since they were going to appear in the parade that year. (I’m assuming it was a Budweiser tie-in, although there’s not a mention in the ad of the King of Beers.)

On that same day, Fisher Fazio ran their own ad in the Journal, also featuring a leprechaun – smoking yet! Here’s the ad header.

Strangely enough, the big meat specials were ham and pork – hardly suitable for the day honoring the sons of Erin!

Anyway, here’s hoping you have a great St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow.

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For more fun, you can revisit these previous St. Patrick’s Day posts, as well as this one about corned beef.

St. Patrick's Day – 1956 and 1966

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Continuing my look back at the holiday as reflected in vintage editions of the Lorain Journal, here are some ads and clippings from 1956 and 1966.

The Hoop had a nice half-page ad in the March 16, 1956 newspaper promoting its special menu of Irish Stew and Corned Beef and Cabbage. 

The front page of the March 17, 1956 Journal included this look at the various observances and celebrations around town.

As was the custom back then, the Journal managed to slip in a typical 'pretty girl' photo, but with an Irish twist since it ran on the holiday.

Ten years later, the Journal ran this small ad for Lorain Novelty on March 5, 1966 so that its readers could pick up their St. Patrick's Day decorations and other doodads. It used to be fun walking around in the store on Broadway. It was filled with little party favors, wall decorations that you might see in a classroom, etc. I remember buying old time straw hats in there that a few friends and I wore when we performed as a hillbilly band and competed in an Admiral King "Gong Show."

On March 17, 1966 the paper included this great reminisce by its General Manager, James Lonergan, about his trip to Ireland. It's a nice story that might get you choked up if you ever contemplated visiting Ireland to see where you came from (like me).

Two businesses – Sandy's Hamburgers and Sweeney's Buick & Opel – had special promotions that day.

 

And of course the day would not be complete without at least one party.

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For a wee bit more St. Patrick's Day fun, be sure to visit some of my past blarney-filled posts from this day.

1972 St. Patrick’s Day Restaurant Ads

The restaurant ads in the Journal on St. Patrick’s Day 1972 weren’t exactly overflowing with corned beef and cabbage. Maybe Lorain just didn’t have a very big Irish population, except for those O’Brady’s on the west side.

Elberta Inn in Vermilion was promoting its upcoming clambake.

And Amber Oaks was thinking even further ahead to Easter. (BTW, I haven’t made it out to the ‘new’ Amber Oaks yet.)

Presti's of Oberlin did a superb job of ignoring St. Patrick’s Day too.

In North Ridgeville, the fabulous “Songsations” were performing at Harrish’s in the Ridgeview Shopping Center on U. S. Route 20.

And over in Avon Lake, the Tropicana was featuring The Vengeant Fox for everyone’s dining and dancing pleasure.

The Ponderosa Pines Park Ranch House out on Diagonal Road had Ernie Nichols (morning personality on WOBL) and the Nightbeats. Plenty of Lake Erie perch but no corned beef and cabbage. 

At least L-K Restaurants were thinking of beef. But not corned beef; it was their L-K Tender Steak, “1/2 pound of satisfying goodness.” Love that crooked logo in the ad!

But, Dan (you might be thinking) – where are all the St. Patrick’s Day ads? Well, me boyo, only good old Sherwood Inn was catering to the sons of Erin that day, with a corned beef and cabbage dinner for only $2.50.