An Irish Beach in the American Midwest
Here’s something I forgot to mention on my list of homesick cures for the Irish in America.
It’s actually the one I do the most. Not that I’m homesick you understand, but over time this is what I have done the most to remind me of being in Ireland.
Get yourself to a car park. That would be a parking lot if you are American or incapable of lateral thinking. Or both.
This actually works better on the Kansas side, in Johnson County where their car parks are bigger, but you can do it here too in Kansas City, Missouri. Even in Waldo.
Johnson County’s car parks are bigger because from what I can tell, they have more money, bigger cars, and bigger backsides.
Whether you arrive in the car park by car (and we’ll include SUVs so as not to exclude people who need a vehicle that large because they presumably have enormous kids who don’t fit in normal size cars), by bicycle, or on foot, please pay no attention to the shop or business the car park is for.
Instead head straight for an island that is used to separate sections of the car park. I’d call them traffic islands but that doesn’t seem right. Non-traffic islands? They’re not traffic calming devices because a car park full of sleeping cars couldn’t be calmer.
Anyway, some of them are strips; many are just little islands. They will be full of stones. I always seek them out and don’t just walk on them but I stand on them, and for a moment I am on a stoney beach somewhere in Ireland, looking out at the sea or the ocean.
Try it. It really works. The feel of those stones under foot.
When I worked in Overland Park (note for Irish readers and the odd Welsh one: OP is in Johnson County), I drove, and for years, every morning on my zig-zag walk from the car to the building, I walked across and paused on two stoney islands.
(Footnote: if you do arrive in a car park on foot be aware that such behaviour in Johnson County will arouse the suspicion of every single car driver, and probably the police)
(Footnote eile: this homesick cure does not apply to the east or west coast of the US)
Look, There’s More:
• Homesick Cures for the Irish in America
• How to Stay Irish Whilst Away from Ireland
• Kansas City from an Irish Perspective
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Some festivals you may not be aware of:
Southern Maryland Celtic Fest in Prince Frederick, MD
Celtic Fling at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire grounds
Frederick, MD Celtic Festival
Granted, they feaure Irish, Welsh and Scots, but there’s a good lot of Irish dance going on!