“Norman” is here today, gnome tomorrow
“Norman” might have been Lexington’s earliest winter casualty.
During the city’s first significant snowstorm a couple of weeks ago, a car jumped the curb in front of 203 South Limestone Street “and just hit him and killed him stone dead,” said Liza Hendley Betz. “Everybody was just heart-broken.”
You see, Norman is the 3-foot tall wooden leprechaun that has stood in front of Failte, The Irish Shop, since Hendley Betz opened the imported-products business in 2001.
Norman is one-of-a-kind, created especially for Failte, which means “welcome” in Gaelic, the native language of Ireland. Hendley Betz is Irish, having emigrated from Dublin in 1996.
Norman — “my little fellow” to Hendley Betz — has become “a bit of a landmark,” she said.
“The kids used to come around and kiss him as they came into the shop, and you could look out the window and see people getting their picture taken with him.”
The problem now is that customers assume the shop is closed because they don’t see Norman on the sidewalk near the front door.
Norman has been on duty every day since 2001, except for a brief time a couple of years ago when he was “kidnapped and stolen,” Hendley Betz says. He was recovered and “we have had him chained up out there ever since.”
Norman is now in the care of a carpenter who is making repairs while saving as much of the original wood as possible.
It’s a long process because of the extent of the damage, holiday delays and so forth, Hendley Betz said.
“We are trying to get him fixed as quickly as possible, but he was hit pretty bad. … He got cut off right at the legs.”
