The St. Patty’s Day parade is really just an excuse to drink

South Boston holds a parade every St. Patrick’s Day. Drawing somewhere around 600,000 people each year, it’s known to experience troubles. Alcohol troubles. Also known as drunk people everywhere.

My sister was visiting the weekend of the parade and decided that sounded like a good time. She declared that we should go to the parade. And go we did…

Slowly.

The reports weren’t exaggerating about the size of this parade. When my sister and I took the T, it was incredibly crowded. I’ve never seen the subway that packed in my life:

Boston knows how crazy it gets on St. Patty’s Day, though, and had the foresight to increase train service that day. So we moved through the pack relatively quickly.

And when we finally reached our stop, we found that it was just as crazy as the T:

Southie is historically a working-class, Irish-American neighborhood also known for its long record of organized crime. In recent years, however, Southie has changed drastically: The Boston Redevelopment Authority targeted Southie for redevelopment and property values have increased. And certainly, the day of the parade, there was no signs of Southie’s turbulent history. Rather, there was

…and, of course, the elderly, kids, and their parents. But in a city that has tons of Irish-Americans, and tons of college kids, and tons of people who just want to party, what else can you expect on St. Patty’s Day? We passed by houses full of college parties, tons of people toting their open containers of beer, and plenty of bottles littered on the ground.

Because the parade has had problems with drunkenness before, the police were out in droves:

So my sister and I, along with my suitemate, were content to perch up on a hill to observe. Unfortunately, the T could only drop us off at the latter end of the parade. We ended up waiting two hours before the parade actually reached us, by which time we had to leave anyway. At least the weather was nice.

And we did manage to get a peek at some cool floats.

Darth Vader waving like a boss from a truck. He was accompanied by a squadron of stormtroopers and jedi.

Ghostbusters.

People went crazy for this tank. BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME!

Although I think I’ve had my fill of bagpipes.

Though drunk people never get old.

4 thoughts on “The St. Patty’s Day parade is really just an excuse to drink

  1. Oh, good pictures. I laughed at the Ghostbusters.

    “I have an exam, I have an exam, I have an exam…” That was a funny picture too. And it really says something about modern pressures stopping us from enjoying life.

    But that’s the thing. Just earlier today, I was lamenting the amount of holidays/birthdays we have to celebrate every year (my mum’s birthday is in a couple of days, and I still haven’t gotten her a present. Plus there’s the next two birthdays, and mother’s day…), but I think maybe that’s why. Most of us are so worn out by work that we have to unwind any way we can…

    Still, I’m glad we don’t celebrate St. Paddy’s like that here; you know, with all the drunks. For all I know, they do that in the city. But my only experience of St Paddy’s is having to dress up in green every year, and that’s it. And that was only as a child. I don’t think we celebrate it at all, anymore.

    • It definitely feels like we have too many holidays to worry about sometimes. Scrambling to buy presents and plan parties during the holiday season is the worst! Still, I always appreciate an excuse to have a good time. But a good time shouldn’t mean stress!
      And I totally agree that the little pleasures in life are often overshadowed by our busy society. I wish I had more time to unwind, but I’m always so busy. Well, it’s not too bad!

  2. VVVYYYY…… I know your not twent-one… O_O Just kiddin’ And be less stressful. Use that knowledge you learned in Japan about meditating and meditate. Meditating is good, very good.

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