Although St. Patrick’s day is not quite here yet, we went to the Brookside St. Patrick’s day “Warm Up” parade yesterday.  It is ostensibly a neighborhood event covering about 2 miles of local streets through the middle of Brookside. We live on the border of Brookside and Waldo and so had to walk about 3/4 mile north to get to the parade route. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had seen neighborhood parades before – our old St. Andrew’s used to do one on the 4th of July – but this was something else.  There were thousands of people lining the streets, lots of little kids with front row seats and shopping bags.  Lots of parents in lawn chairs with keg cups and cans in koozies.  Police shut down the streets along the parade route.  Our new St. Andrew’s was at the start of the route and they had a lawn party for kids with face painting and a bouncy castle.

We picked a spot between St. Andrew’s and the Baptist church across the street and waited for the festivities.  At 2 p.m. the Grand Marshall came marching by  and the parade began.  Every local politician, every candidate, everyone
who had ever believed they had Irish ancestry was marching in the parade.  The local businesses had floats, as did all the local charity groups, the car clubs, the dog breed clubs, the mom’s groups, and so on.

And the candy!  It became apparent early on why all the children had shopping bags – every float, group, dog, car, entity of any type had bags and bags of candy to give to the kids on the curb (or not on the curb – the police had to keep moving the line back out of the street as the urchins tried to be the first ones to get to the outstretched hands.)  The grownups weren’t completely ignored: there were wooden nickels for free pizza being throw to the taller folks along with hot dogs (Yup, the Knights of Columbus launched frankfurts, buns, and all), can koozies, vegetable and flower seeds, plastic beads, and heaven only knows what else.  I can now get started on my zinnias and bush beans (I wasn’t going to plant zinnias but I have the seeds) and I have a coupon for free cheesy bread from the local pizzeria!

What was missing?  High school marching bands!  Although we were but a block from a local high school, and there are others not far away, there was not a single marching band.  Nope, not one.  There were two pipe bands – including one that started the route with the stirring tune “Scotland the Brave”.  (I’d post the video but I haven’t paid WordPress for the Premium plan so no videos here.) Not very Irish…  And there were marching drill teams.  At least 6 of them, all African American dancers and drummers, all hugely talented and entertaining.

And our favorite float?  Why KC Bier of course! They had their mascot pulling a keg in front of the float, and many kegs on the actual float.  In fact, one lucky person standing just next to us got a keg cup of pilsner delivered!

For nearly two hours, we watched our neighbors march by and we could hear the drums long after we got home.  My biggest regret?  Our spot for viewing was fabulous except for the fact that the ugliest condo complex in all of KC is in the background of every photo.  😦  Frank hates the blue monstrosity but it’s a handy landmark to know when you are almost at our house.