Strangers and Standing Orders

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(From NASA/Jim Grossmann, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Some of America's new citizens at the Kennedy Space Center. July 1, 2010.)

...The Irish and Other 'Threats'


Some of my ancestors were none too pleased when one of those Irishmen came sniffing around their daughter. When asked about her daughter's suitor, one of my foremothers said, "he doesn't have family: he's Irish." (November 13, 2008)

I can understand her attitude. Quite a few 'proper' folks were convinced that those Irish were violent, indolent, and chronic drinkers: hardly the sort one would want marrying into the family. The daughter of a decent family and that Irishman got married, anyway. I think we earned our reputation for being garrulous and charming, and that's another topic.

When my father's father died, my father received a small inheritance from his maternal grandfather. My father figured that his grandfather didn't want 'that Irishman' to spend the money on whiskey and horses. Not that my father's father would have done so: but ethnic stereotypes often outvote reality....

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