Oh ye Dublin

Saint Patrick's Day! I remember a day when there were no kids involved, just a great day of chugging beer and enjoying music and getting burned by the scalding sun. 

Now, it's full of tweens and total chaos and beauty and nerves and gas mileage and kids and arguments and family...

My little sister was the main even this weekend, she was competing in our hometown's Jr. Miss Dublin.

She's only 12, but from the pictures and her gown, you'd guess otherwise.

All I can say is that I'm proud of her for her efforts to do what she set out to do. She was committed and humble and I couldn't have been more proud of her. 

Dawna endured about 5 hours of beauty torture and took it like a trooper.

Secretly, I think she enjoyed every minute of it! 

With proud parents. Although she didn't win the title, she received a sash for Most Ticket Sales---over 500!!! And the roses were from our sister, Caren. They were absolutely beautiful!

Somewhere in there, Moomie found time to get Andrew to help with cookie baking.

The next day, we headed early to the parade downtown and Dublin's St. Patty events...

And I was there too! Seee? Always with my best friend, my Nikon.

The weather almost ruined our good time--it was so overcast and windy!!!

We found a playful 9 month old Mastif...so friendly!

Our beauty queen was soon arriving in the Chamber of Commerce float. It drove by with Dawna "spreadin' the butter"....waving back and forth.

She was in sheer heaven!

Kisses from the nephew!

Watching this green truck was so bitter-sweet this weekend...it's been in Dublin for as long as I can remember. And no, they weren't handing out free Dr. Pepper's--just shirts :)

Although Dublin is still trying to keep its head above water (more on this at the end of the post), this parade was the largest it has ever been. 

I remember waking up my siblings that morning and saying, "wake up or you'll miss the parade, it's never more than 30 minutes long"...

HA! This year I felt it would never end. Everyone was up to their eyeballs in GREEN.

Even the Cowboy Capital Roller Derby Girls were celebratin'!!!

And leprechauns and their queens roamed the streets...

Rancheros attended the parade too. 

They took about 1 mile of parade, you just can't exclude the Mexicans in Dublin--they're EVERYWHERE!

Once it finally ended, people started making their way around town and the park. 

We headed to Doc's Shop and it was FULL of PEOPLE from all over the place...

In previous years, they would give you free Dr. Pepper, but not this year!

And of course, we had to enjoy a delicious cola float while the others enjoyed their Dr. Pepper one.
(Disclaimer:  I am not a Dr. Pepper addict, I prefer my Coke).

Melody work[ed] at the shop and served us! She made her tutu too! 

Sugar high sweetness!

Then we headed to the City Park where the carnies were and had to ride some rides...

His first big-boy ride with Gary. He did SO good, but mentioned at the end, "ugh, my tummy hurts." 

Luckily, no vomit was spewed.

Dublin is so Irish, it even has clover grass!

For the first time, there was a Dog Show and we just had to enter the poodle, Scrappy.

And matching hats to make the judges "oooh" and "ahhh" 

 There was Tinker Bell who rolled in on her own Hummer and blinged the event off! Poor dog...

 And the Highland Games where all these Irish/Scottish events take place there at the park also.
This year it was better organized and had a lot more competitors.

And finally, we had to go home...we were so exhausted!

 

And the next day, I found this in our Abilene paper! It's so awesome to see the article and with our family friend, Melody, on it too! 

 

Now, if you know Dr. Pepper, then you probably know about Dublin. Many people only know of Dublin because of the famously addicting soda. They bottled Dr. Pepper in its original recipe for about 120 years and the unfortunate outcome of the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant made headline news earlier this year. The shop still sells Dr. Pepper, they just had to change their signage and stop bottling the original recipe. They even bottle their own stuff now! But they're still making do with a Dr. Pepper Museum and still going strong with tours of the facilities. But news came to me recently with plans for a new "loop" completely bypassing Dublin, and that's when I realized that our tiny little town is in peril!!!

All I know is that Dr. Pepper is what Dublin is famous for. 

That's what you do when you come to Dublin; you drink pure cane sugar Dr. Pepper. 

You go to the museum. You buy stuff. You learn its history.

After what happened earlier this year, there's been a gloom over the entire town. This parade, in a way, lifted people's spirits. It was full, it was happy, it was the best it's ever been.

Seriously, Dublin has been my home for more than half my life. And although there's nothing there for me, it will always be home away from my real home in Durango.

I remember always wanting to get the hell outta that place, it's so small and I'm such a city girl. It drove me nuts. But there's that feeling that you know the townspeople are so proud of this place and still want to keep it going and keep it going strong--it's all they have and all they've ever known.

So I really want to encourage you to visit my friends' project on Kickstart to see what a beautiful place Dublin is and how important it is to support its cause. It also supports local and small businesses that are owned by close friends and are crucial to the growth of Dublin.

As always, please share and thanks for reading!!!