St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Sunday was the annual St. Patrick’s day Parade in South Boston. A tradition that’s been running since 1901. It’s the only day of the year when any South Boston bar can get away with charging a $20 cover. And of course, they all take advantage of this rare opportunity. Even my neighborhood bar, a bar with free pool that charges $1.50/beer and didn’t have a sign for thirty years until the police forced them to put one up last year, charged a $20 cover. It’s the type of bar where there’s never a line. Except Sunday.

Even though I’ve been to the parade four times, this year was my first time seeing the entire thing through. This wasn’t intentional. It’s usually a house party sort of a day, starting around 10:00am. Typically a group of people ventures out to the parade in the mid afternoon only to either (1) realize the house party was more fun and turn back, or (2) realize the parade had already passed and turn back. This year I was lucky enough to find myself at a house party with a perfect view of the parade route. So I got to see it.

In prior years, the small bits of the parade I did see usually involved fire trucks, smiling police officers (as part of the parade), and a few kids smiling and waving. It was never clear who the kids were, but they definitely made it feel more like a community event. Now that I’ve seen the whole thing, I can add Strorm Troopers, Darth Vader, Ghost Busters, mini 18 wheeler trucks, three marching bands, and a bag pipe procession to the list. It’s not really the type of parade with floats, although there was one with a leprechaun (or maybe St. Patrick?) on it.

Here are a few highlights.

Thomas Park packed with people:

The police showing off their SWAT vehicle:

A long line of police officers marching up Broadway:

Darth (courtesy of southbostonparade.org)

Bagpipes (courtesy of boston.com)
The Boston Police Gaelic Column played bagpipes while they walked in the parade.

And a short video of the motorcycle police squad:

Good times.