(Post by Tracy)
Has anyone else ever heard of being pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day?
Granted, growing up in Chicago, it's near impossible to forget the day coming up and even harder to forget to wear green the day of. But I'd never heard of the pinching thing until about an hour ago - after being pinched!
I completely forgot that today was St. Patrick's Day (actually, I haven't really been aware of what day it is even, let alone the date, since probably March 2nd - it's been a busy March!) So today I am sporting a white sweater, dark pink skirt, tan boots. Oops - no green in sight.
A junior walked into my classroom, said hi, and then pinched my arm. Sometimes students are just weird, so I simply asked, "What are you doing?" She said, "Pinching you." (Ok, I thought, fine I guess.) Then she said, "You're not wearing green." I said, "I completely forgot." She goes to pinch me again. "No more pinching me!" I said. And she recoiled.
I came into the faculty dining room for break, and most of the teachers are sporting some shade of green, and when I said I forgot all about St. Patrick's Day, one of my coworkers asked, "Have you been pinched yet?"
Until this point I had no idea that my student's pinch and her comment about my attire had any relation to one another. When I told my coworkers I was pinched, and how weird that was, I was suddenly singled out as the strange one for never having heard of that tradition before! Everyone at the table was surprised that I didn't know the punishment for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day was a pinch! Personally, I think this should be filed as "cruel and unusual."
So my question to you - Did you remember what day it is? Or do you deserve a St. Patty's Pinch?
