Summer of the Lepreuchan King

My parents struggled, as so many others did, to pay bills and raise us six children. I can’t recall feeling without, though, and they did every extra for us that they could. (Can’t imagine how they managed all those Christmas gifts, and on our birthdays, we were treated as an only—except for my twin sisters!)

Still, movie theaters were out of reach for our family, between Dad’s afternoon work schedule, and Mom balancing from pre-teens to infants with laundry, meals, and housework.

One summer a Disney movie about leprechauns came to the theaters. My brothers and I watched the previews on TV intently, so that images of ghostly carriages, wailing banshees, and magical pots of gold became the topic of most of our conversations.

I was especially fascinated with the King of the Leprechauns. My brother Dave, my friend Kay, and I debated the reality of such beings, but reality never hampered my imagination. I decided that there was such a King, and there was no reason why, if I couldn't get to the theater, he shouldn't come to Caroline Street.

"Oh? So where is his throne room, then?" my brother demanded.

I pointed at the locked shed in our backyard, off limits by more than parental commands.

"There," I said. "That's his throne room."

I couldn't understand why Mom and Dad found that so funny, not knowing at the time that the mysterious shed was an outhouse, and that “throne room” was another moniker for such a structure. They did, however, buy a bird fountain for our middle yard garden, with a crowned concrete leprechaun to stand in the center of the stone bowl. The summer of the Leprechaun King became a testimony to a sense of magic and wonder.

Our Leprechaun King oversaw his realm of children and box elder bugs and flowers. Mom grew tea roses, bleeding hearts, lilacs, roses, and peonies.

We were charmed by the sight of a peony floating in a glass bowl, but there was no way of shaking out that last ant, and we either had to give up the idea, or spend the next few days squashing ants as they surfaced and marched across the table during dinner.

Our magic King reigned over his summer world and left behind, for me, a legacy of wishes coming true. Years later, when I did see the Disney movie, I was disappointed by the lack of leprechaun magic in comparison to what had been created in our backyard.

Thank you, Mom and Dad!