Hi neighbors. If you haven't been out on your porch for coffee yet, don't despair. Spring is just around the corner.

For those impatient for spring's arrival, there will be lots of green on display this Thursday, March 17. That is St. Patrick's Day and you have to wear green or get pinched.

Of course, if not getting pinched isn't incentive enough for you, there is always the hope that the bright color green will bring delight to some Irish heart and maybe even create a happy gleam in some Irish eyes.

I don't think there are any area events going on related to St. Patrick's Day directly. My daughter said the town where she lives in Iowa is having their courthouse Easter Egg Hunt for children that day. Some times I wonder about our northern neighbors.

As a child growing up, I remember always wearing some little bit of green on the holiday (St. Patrick's Day -- not Easter) to keep from getting pinched at school.

I grew up wondering why people celebrated the event at all. At one point I thought it was a holiday to celebrate liquor like Thanksgiving is one to celebrate food. Well, grain is grain I suppose in whatever form one ingests it.

I know little about the Irish drink commonly referred to as mead. I've heard people say it is like drinking watery oatmeal -- and to think people pay good "green" money for that! All things considered, I think I like my oatmeal served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. And I definitely like my "green" to be in the ground and growing, or folded neatly in my billfold.

Even if I do little to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I am glad we still remember it here in the United States. The Irish have always been a sturdy, hard working bunch of people. But with all their work ethic, they like to have fun.

Whether it's with music, singing, dancing or playing a fiddle, or telling a tall tale to wide-eyed youngsters, no one celebrates life quite like the Irish!

They also do a good job of celebrating one's passing from life as well. Surely we've all heard of an old fashioned Irish wake? I've never actually been to an Irish wake. I hope my children have one for me. Unfortunately, I probably won't be in attendance at that one either.

Today is my daughter's birthday. I won't tell you her age because it might make me look older as well and I have enough birthdays of my own to conceal. Although I can't be with her today, we will certainly tie up the phone lines for quite some time.

It's difficult to imagine a world without a telephone now. When I was young we didn't have a phone. When we did get one it was on a "party line" and tying up the phone was, some felt, reason enough to start a feud.

People didn't talk long though, because most business messages didn't take long and because if you were on the phone very long spreading gossip about someone else, everyone on the party line would soon be listening in on your conversation.

With the advent of cell phones, text messages, e-mail and instant photo sharing, hardly any one can be considered "out of the loop" these days. Although information can be transferred and shared so quickly, the quality of the information so spread might not hold up to close scrutiny. I'll bet a lot of it is gossip and idle chatter.

So I've found just having a lot of ways to communicate doesn't necessarily improve the quality of the communications. Like having a lot of calendars doesn't help some people know the difference between St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

One big difference is Easter offers rainbow colored chicks, ducks, rabbits and eggs. All nice things in their own right.

But St. Patrick's Day offers leprechauns, real rainbows and pots of gold!

Even as much as I like eggs and admire poultry and bunnies, I have to admit I'd much rather find a pot of gold at the rainbow's end than a basket of chocolate rabbits or plastic egg filled with jelly beans.

I'll admit I don't know if keeping a leprechaun is more time troublesome than keeping Easter bunnies and chicks. I'm pretty certain the leprechauns would be much more difficult to catch!

Until the next time friends remember, the wearing of the green would be a good thing to do this Thursday. And don't forget that whether your rainbows are painted on an egg, or painted across the sky, look under each one for they all contain a wee bit o' treasure.