The small items - my keys, cellphones, eyeglasses, slippers, my favorite pair of jeans - started going missing last week.

After searching and searching, and tearing the house apart looking for them, each would suddenly turn up in a completely unexpected location.

The latest to vanish are two graham cracker pie crusts that I purchased last Friday to make a cherry cream cheese pie.

While frantically looking high and low in the refrigerators and freezers, the cabinets, the car, the empty shopping bags, the cause of my problem became clear - St. Patrick’s Day was just around the corner and the mischievous leprechauns were up to their annual antics.

These bearded little men, famous in Irish folklore, were making their presence known.

You may be wondering why someone with my last name would be visited by Emerald Isle fairies.

My maternal heritage is Irish, and oh, on the day I purchased the pie crusts, I also bought corned beef and cabbage - a traditional Irish-American dish eaten on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

This was also the favorite dinner of my husband, who just so happened to have died eight years ago - on St. Patrick’s Day.

I could try to capture one or two of these tiny beings, in the hope that my personal items would stop disappearing and to obtain a wee bit of luck, three wishes and their pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Legend has it they are attracted to shiny items, and an earring or gold coin placed inside a box put in a corner might do the trick or get them so angry that they tinkle in my toilet water, turning it green.

But, wishes, missing pie crusts and gold aside, I think I will let the naughty little sprites have their fun and I will sit down and enjoy my corned beef and cabbage dinner on Sunday.

After all, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

Erin go Bragh!

Deb Palmieri

editor

Parkland Pres

Northwestern Press