St. Pat's in the Sun

Well, I can honestly say that this was the very first St. Paddy's Day Parade that I ever attended, and how nice it was to still have things to discover at almost 60 years of age! And a helluva parade it was, begorrah! The newscasts said there were 13,000 marchers of which 1000 were Boy Scouts. At least six groups of pipers and marching bands from Collinwood (those were some drummers with rhythm), Ignatius (Go Wildcats!), Benedictine, Padua Franciscan, St. Peter Chanel, an academy for the academically-challenged, and those are just the ones I saw, not the ones I missed. At least four different Irish dancing schools, gobs of firemen and police, lots of folks trying to save St. Pat's (?), a number of unions (pipefitters, welders, elevator constructors), hospitals, politicians (I yelled a howdy to my high school classmate, Judge Nancy Fuerst, in an old green 30's vehicle), a school unicycle club, the Paschal Baylon Clown Club, some very fine old vehicles including an old police car (sweet!), an Asian Society (Chinese ribbon dancers and one Sikh in a turban), and the weirdest float of all by the Cleveland Feis Society, which was an imitation Irish wake, complete with mourners and a live dead body! Oh, yeah, and the DeathMobile, what was THAT about!


The parade took almost two and a half hours to complete, and the weather was fantastic, in the 60's with plenty of sun, talk about everyone being in a good mood! Lots of wearing o' the green, cheesy as can be and of course, that included yours truly! What a perfect day to be in McCleveland, O'Hio! Two more days of sun to look forward to, then a brief hiatus of rain and/or snow, spring is in the air!

I left a Top O' the Morning posy of green carnations for Mumsie and Paw, and the birds were singing sweetly in the blue, blue sky. A peaceful spot for eternal rest with the angels and the saints....