Two Times St. Patrick's

On Saturday, the floats for the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Parade lined up once again in front of our house and down our street. This year, however, we were prepared and had no errands we needed to do in our cars -- which were of course blocked up. It was a gorgeous day, much prettier than last year's parade day. It was in the 70s with a clear blue sky, a light breeze -- a perfect day. The lovely weather encouraged St. Paddy's revelers toward green sundresses and kilts and shorts.

Around 12 noon, we left our house and walked the parade route, greeting the other celebrants and the folks on the floats as they prepared for their ride, nailing huge spikes to the sides of the floats to hold tons of beads, stowing bags of cabbages, carrots, and potatoes high up on the floats, and of course lubricating themselves with beer (some of it green, but lots of regular-colored stuff as well).

All of the Irish Channel social groups had floats (a few more than one), and there was a contingent of really good-looking New York City firemen (are they all that handsome??), whose presence at the New Orleans parade is a post-9/11 thing. There were two different bagpipe groups in kilts and high socks, a big red fire truck from Ionia, Louisiana, and an all-girl marching group, in Caledonian garb. Nearly everyone we saw, nearly everyone on the route, white, black, Latino, Asian, old, young, and in-between, was wearing shades of green in one form or other. Except for Big Man, who claimed he had nothing green in his closet.

A young woman on a float noticed his lack and clobbered him on the noggin with a felt hat in the shape of a giant mug of green beer. He gamely plunked it on his head. I think the hat helped him obtain our next throw, a large head of cabbage. Unlike last year, when we caught so many we were giving them away, this was our only cabbage.

We bought street burgers and sodas from a new place on Sophie Wright Place; the burgers were really good, and their menu was intriguing (lamb burgers??). Plus, they deliver! I folded up a menu and put it in the canvas bag I was using to stow our cabbage. That'll come in handy some time in the near future. We sat in little Sophie Wright Park at the base of the Alvarez statue of Miss Wright to eat and enjoyed watching all the people. An older man sat by us and asked if we were from the neighborhood and we said we were. He pointed across the Magazine Street and said, "See that pink building? I lived there when I was a kid. My dad owned a store on the first floor, and we lived on the second floor." I said I bet the house wasn't pink then, and he laughed and agreed. He no longer lives in the Channel, but always comes back for St. Paddy's. I imagine he isn't the only one.

At the Chinese grocery/buffet on the corner of Magazine and St. Andrew Streets, a group of young Asian-American women wearing green had gathered on the extension above the front, just below the roof. A few looked unsure of their footing; others were venturing near the edge to look down at the parade below. We figured they would have no trouble getting throws up there, and we were right. (When we saw them a little while later, they had solved the "will this hold our weight?" issue by sitting on the roof edge and dangling their legs and feet toward the street.)

After we had had our fill of sights and sounds and throws and food, we walked back home and found a group of Irish-themed men sitting on the stoop next door. Since the parade was hardly moving, they weren't bothering to crowd onto their rather tiny band wagon until they had to. They were drinking beers (of course) and politely disposing of their empties in our trash can. We offered them the use of our bathroom, but they said they were fine.

The Irish Channel St. Pat's Parade was close to an hour late getting started, and Magazine Street was blocked until about 6 pm. I don't think traffic got back to normal til even later. The neighborhood was jumping all right, and a good time was had by all the Irish-for-a-day.

Today, Wednesday, St. Patrick Day itself, dawned cloudy, but still our neighborhood filled up quickly with cars, lining our side the street, the other side, and both sides of the side streets. While we are approximately a mile from the ground-zero of New Orleans St. Patrick's Day, the famous Parasol's, there has developed another St. Pat's tradition of an "Irish" Fair at Annunciation Park to benefit St. Michael's School, and that is exactly in our neighborhood. Luckily for all the Irish and would-be Irish, the day warmed and cleared as time went on, all the better to celebrate in.

So from around 10 am to about 6 pm, once again we were surrounded by folks wearing green and celebrating the Day, making it two times St. Pat's.