St. Patrick's Day

My mother was the queen of Hallmark Cards. No matter the holiday, the occasion, the celebration, my mother would make a trip to “up the street”, colloquial for the shopping area of my neighborhood, Squirrel Hill, go to the Squirrel Hill News Stand and purchase that weeks Hallmark Card or cards.

“People like when other people acknowledge a holiday or a birthday or an anniversary or any occasion to celebrate”, she would insist, “and sending a card lets them know you care.” “If it is a birthday never be insulting, if it is an anniversary don’t hint at marital problems, and if it is Hanukah or Christmas be respectful but never too religious”, she would add. But when it came to St. Patricks Day, my mother had a whole other standard for card selection.

Squirrel Hill was a predominately Jewish neighborhood, and I suppose the maker of Hallmark Cards back in the day, thought it would be good business to create St Patrick’s Day cards with Rabbi’s of all shapes and forms delivering St. Patrick’s Day greetings on the card. There must have been a market of consumers very much like my mother who loved to let their Irish friends know that Jewish people could also celebrate the holiday. So, at the Squirrel Hill News Stand there was an entire selection of cards wish a Mazol Tov for St. Patricks Day instead of Erin Go Bragh. The usually green cards were decorated with blue and white and a touch of green. The actual calligraphy on the card looked more like the ancient Hebrew script seen in some Temple.

Being my father was a policeman in Pittsburgh we were lucky enough to have met people from a variety of nationalities and ethnicities and my mother felt it was necessary to let all of them know that our backgrounds may be different, but our respect for one another could and should be the same. And for my mother one simple way to demonstrate this philosophy was to send a Hallmark Card. “It may be a small gesture, my mother would lecture, but it goes a large way. You got to let people know you made an effort.” Then she would get her serious voice, a little deeper and much more breathy, and say, “Hallmark Cards help people understand that we basically are all the same”.

Amazingly we would receive about two dozen St. Patrick’s Day cards every year, many very Irish and none with a Rabbi’s picture on them.

I miss my mother for millions of reasons. When St Patrick’s Day arrives every year I smile as I try and look for at least one card with a Rabbi on it and some message written from a Jewish perspective. Alas, alack, there are none, but I still laugh and remember how important it was for my mother to let her Irish friends know she cared.

Mazol Tov and Erin Go Bragh as my mother would say, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!