Friday, January 01, 2010

pickle drop at Ireland's midnight in Pennsylvania

Sometimes you just get lucky. With “winter mix” forecasted to glaze the evening hours of New Year’s Eve I stumbled across a news item that Dillsburg would be dropping two pickles this year.

Mr. Pickle would be traditionally dropped at Midnight, however Ms. Pickle would be dropped at 7 PM to coincide with Ireland’s midnight celebrations and as an alternative for all those who wish to celebrate earlier.

It seems the original founders of Dillsburg were Irish immigrants.

Yet considering Multiple Sclerosis fatigue this was tailor made, and it gets better. … Ms. Pickle would be dropped “inside” the fire house.

Bring on that winter mix! We headed to an indoor New Year’s Eve pickle drop.

Dillsburg is a small enough town that I could call the home of the pickle drop organizer and ask about accessibility. Her husband’s suggestions for parking and wheelchair access were absolutely perfect!!

Then again maybe it isn’t all about luck. My maternal grandmother was born in Ireland near Kilcully in County Cork. Maybe some Irish DNA at work here? … Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh = Happy New Year’s to you in Irish Gaelic.

It was a hoot! Pickle soup was surprisingly good! We even took a quart to go back for staff at care facility. I boldly tried a chocolate covered pickle, Patti refused. Not bad but not as good as the pickle soup.

Games, activities and a magician entertained while we waited for the countdown to the pickle drop.

The lowering of Ms. Pickle was a classic that is until the rope snapped and Ms. Pickle crashed to the floor.

While I may need psychiatric help to overcome the trauma, Patti on the other hand found this hysterically funny.

All in all, it was a best of possible “living with Multiple Sclerosis” New Year’s Eve. Accessible, weather proof, laugh filled, and Patti was tucked in bed by her preferred bed time of 8:30 PM.

Thank You, Dillsburg!

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer

4 comments:

  1. LOL with Ms. Pickle's rope snapping; I'm sure there's got to be a disorder for this somewhere in the annals of medicine; post-traumatic stress disorder from the unfortunate early demise of Ms. Pickle sounds like a good name for it

    pickle soup; that's a new one; it does sound yummy though

    so glad you found that "alternative" activity to ring in the new year, Patrick! sounds delightfully fun :)

    Happy New Year to all!

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like an awesome time, Patrick! Thanks for sharing. I'm disturbingly interested (dare I say my mouth started watering?) at the thought of a chocolate covered pickle.

    Jennifer and I settled for a quiet evening of movies on the couch, popcorn made in the cast iron skillet, and feeling incredibly old watching Dick Clark on ABC because we had never heard of many of the artists they were flaunting :-(

    Wishing you and Patti all the best in 2010!

    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  3. A pickle drop? What on Earth! I am glad to see the Irish diaspora in the US are as crazy as the rest of the tribe!
    Happy new year to you and yours
    Richie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Patrick
    Please visit my blog and pick up your award.
    Best wishes for this New Year.
    Love,
    Herrad

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive