Former UF administrator hosts annual St. Patty’s Day feast

Larry King spent the morning of his 56th wedding anniversary roasting a nearly 41-pound pig.

He and his wife, Carole, drove down from Mississippi to spend the weekend at his brother-in-law’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party. Jim Ferrer has hosted a party at his house to celebrate the holiday for the past five or six years, he said, but the pig for Saturday’s feast was a new addition.

“Everybody, or at least a lot of people, pretend they’re Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” said King, who is German.

Irish flags hung from the roof of Ferrer’s house, along with pennants in orange, white and green. A 5-foot-tall inflated leprechaun stood grinning by the entrance. A large bounce house sat on the corner for neighborhood kids.

Each square of the sidewalk in front of his home is painted with a green shamrock.

Ferrer, the former assistant vice president of finance and planning at UF, hosts the party with his partner, David Nicholson. The couple has been together for 43 years.

Ferrer said Nicholson is the main party planner. Nicholson used to plan other parties for Christmas and New Year’s. In New Orleans, he started a parade for St. Patrick’s Day and wanted to keep the spirit going when they moved to Gainesville.

“This is tradition now,” Ferrer said. “We lived in New Orleans, and we lived in Irish Channel, and it’s a big holiday there. So we wanted to bring that tradition over here.”

Throughout the day Saturday, about 200 people stopped by, Nicholson said. To feed the crowd, they prepared the pig along with 21 pounds of pulled pork King brought down from Mississippi.

They also set up a keg of Killian’s Irish Red beer and had two volunteer bartenders serving wine.

Nicholson said the party helps them meet other people in the neighborhood. He said they put up fliers and invited everybody around, even welcoming strangers.

It becomes a mob, he said, but he likes it.

“You’ve got to bring the community up with you,” Nicholson said.

Ferrer said it’s nice to get to meet the new residents and see old friends.

“I think that’s what makes this neighborhood special, is people talk to each other, because they’re walking their dogs,” Ferrer said. “They’re not sitting behind closed doors.”

Contact Romy Ellenbogen at rellenbogen@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @romyellenbogen

Larry King, 76, loosens a rack holding a roasted pig as Jim Ferrer, 66, makes a tent out of aluminum foil to keep it warm for a day-after-St. Patrick's Day party at the corner of Northwest 14th Avenue and Northwest 18th Street on Saturday. King and Ferrer roasted the pig for about four hours before serving it.