Denver supposedly has the biggest Saint Patrick’s Day parade
west of Chicago, however biggest is defined . Is it the physically longest, the
most marchers, the largest number of spectators, or the drunkest crowd. Anyway,
I’ve always wanted to go to a Saint Patrick’s Day parade but never have before
this despite growing up in the New York area, living in Chicago for a year, and
long living in Denver where many years I’ve been around in March I’ve said I’m
going to go once. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for a parade come Saturday
morning after Friday night festivities because each time I made tentative plans
to attend I ended up backing out.

I guess this time I stuck to my commitment to attend because
my cousin Deb was in town from Montana with an exchange student from Hong Kong
named Pascal who was staying with her. Although Deb was staying with a friend
in the ‘burbs, I told them I’d join them to watch the parade. We managed to meet
up in the crowd and find a place along crowded Blake Street to spectate.

My friend Tim calls Saint Patrick’s Day “Irish Pride” in
that it kind of resembles a gay pride parade in that it’s less about Irishness
than wackiness, drunkenness, and fun . Everyone is Irish for a day – cowboy,
politicians, firemen, juggles, flag-twirlers, gymnasts, dancers, Germans,
Italians, Mexicans, Bolivians, Indians, Hare Krirshnas. You name it and it
probably joins in the now all-inclusive parades. Like at any big civic event the
politico types were out in force, waving from the back of cars, trying to
pretend that they really are actually liked by the people who elected them.
Everyone is entitled to fantasy, I suppose.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated by many as a big
drinkfest, and I suppose Denver is mild by standards of New York or Boston or
Chicago, but I did run into some of my more juvenile acquaintances (juvenile in
antics rather than age, since they’re mostly almost as old as I am), armed with
hip flasks and bottles of booze in their backpacks. I might have accepted their
invitations to partake had I not driven downtown and swore to be good in my
cousin’s presence. Ha! And for those who didn’t bring their own the bars and
brewpubs along the parade route in LoDo (Lower Downtown) were all open early
for those who wanted to start their revelry before the parade began . It’s so
nice that Saint Patrick’s Day hasn’t degenerated yet into one of those “family-friendly”
booze-free events in America’s ever more restrictive police state. Saint
Patrick’s Day is, of course, family-friendly and full of kids marching in the
parade and watching it from the sidelines, and they’re not being traumatized by
the fact that the grownups are having fun too!