deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

Ireland. An island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.

With a human history dating back to 10,500 BC, it has always had a contentious relationship with Britain. It has also had a geopolitical division for hundreds of years. Ireland is divided between the larger Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which remains closely related to the United Kingdom.

The flag, which is a good representation of the division is known as the Irish Tricolor. The basic design has been in existence since 1848. It is the hoped for union of the Catholics and Protestants. The green represents the Roman Catholics with the orange standing for the followers of William of Orange, the Protestants. The white in the middle is meant to be the peace, the hand shake, the union of these two groups.

So, says I, it must have been back in 1970, couldn’t have been 1969, because 1970 was a leap year it was, as I came home from work driving in my 1964 Pontiac, a gold color it was, a good car, perhaps my best automobile so far, the sun was still shining but it was starting to go down, being a leap year and all, I see out of the the corner of my left eye, had to be left eye because I was driving into the court at a slow speed, says I, look, a person carrying a box into the neighbor’s house, they were, says I, Gary, looks like a wain with that box…

Well, as it turns out, it did, ‘twas not a wain, it was a brilliant Irish Lass, she was…

So, wouldn’t ya know it was less than 3, must have been 3, because it’s was starting to become darker earlier, months, yes it was months not weeks, the one I thought was a wain, she became my wife, she did…

If you have never watched The Derry Girls on Netflix, you have missed a fun, delightful story of kids growing up in Derry Ireland.