LAOH? That would be the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, of course!

Last week, we received some serendipitous misdirected mail (to the prior occupant) from the "LAOH." I am not on a first-name basis with LAOH, so I had to open it to find out that it referred to the local chapter of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (i.e., an Irish-Catholic fraternal organization). As if they had known of my love for kitschy ethnic festivals, they wanted to announce their 2nd Annual Broome County Irish Festival. I was intrigued- we had gone to Ireland on our honeymoon, so we know the "real" Ireland- what the Upstate New York version be like? What do the New York Irish do for kicks on a rainy Saturday?

They Gamble: I don't know what it is with the gambling around here, but it seems that every event we go to has a "50/50" raffle where people buy tickets and they pay out 50% of the money as a prize, keeping the rest for the charity du jour.















They Eat: Thankfully, the American version of Irish food was corned beef & cabbage, and shepherd's pie, and not McDonald's (I had feared this, truly).































They Dance: It was actually very cool to watch the young girls with curly bouncy hair do their Irish folk dancing. I was telling John that I hadn't seen that kind of dancing before. That is, until I realized that it was the same thing as . . . RIVERDANCE. Ugh. I now have yet another reason to hate Riverdance- they ruined this otherwise cool ethnic dancing for me.
















They Sweat: Despite the rain (which I thought was appropriate, given that it was an Irish festival), there was plenty of sweating going on.















The festival program was very helpful, indeed. It indicates that LAOH (we're buds now, so I like to call them LAOH) is hosting the "5th Annual Half-Way to St. Patrick's Day Hooley" on September 12, 2008 at the KoC (that is Knights of Columbus, for all of you under 60 years old and/or those of you who have never lived more than 30 miles inland from either coast.) Apparently, they cannot wait an entire year for that blessed day so they have to do it semi-annually. Good that the advertisement reads "No alcohol under 21" (lest people assume that Irish drinking laws - i.e., none- apply at the KoC that crazy night). They are also going to have a "Chinese auction" (huh?) I'm intrigued, on so many levels. See you at the hooley!!!