Luck of the Irish

Residents and visitors indulged in green beer and watched as he annual St. Patrick's Day parade made its way down Beale Street.

Who even knew there was a St. Patrick’s parade on Beale Street, much less ever been in one. Pub crawls, of course, but not a parade. And not on St. Patrick’s Day but the Saturday before. But at our last meeting Carey Cummings, our connection to all things Beale, revealed that not only is there such a parade but DNA could be in it if we dared. Now what better way to dispel the notion that DNA is just a club for old folks griping about this and that than to strut our stuff in goofy green attire along with the Boll Weevils, Gay & Lesbian association, some kind of pirate clan, high-steppin’ majorettes, and a Klingon stuffed into a motorized wheelchair? So we put the word out and most of you lived up to our image. But a few nut cases showed up and had a fabulous time. Kudos to Carey and her friend Tim, Bob and Heather Lundy, Cindy Montgomery, Ken Hudson and Barbara Standing, yours truly, and a special thanks to Joey Hagan for bringing our ride, his beautiful white BMW 330ci convertible.

We had been told to meet at Beale and Fourth at 2:15 for some reason, perhaps to get properly liquored up, but the parade did not start until 4. Everyone was, of course, dressed in green - green shirts, green hats, green beads, a green clown bowtie, green socks, and Barbara even had a hint of green in her hair for the day. Like Halloween, St. Patrick’s is a time that you can get away with looking absolutely ridiculous, let your hair down, and act the fool without permanent repercussions. Cue the Klingon. Indeed, it is a requirement. However, representing DNA and all, we kept it clean and relatively sane. Hopefully, just our being there was a positive image-builder.

Anyway, after numerous trips down to the beer booth outside Coyote Ugly, and their bathrooms, the parade got underway in a most orderly fashion. Participants were backed up all down the south of Fourth and east of Beale, and we were just north of Beale on Fourth. That turned out to be a good place to be because we were toward the end of the line and got to watch almost everyone pass by. The thought in all ours minds was, “Wow, there really are a lot of units in this parade - probably more will be in it than watching it.” Finally they cued us and five piled into the Bimmer with four walkers looking like some kind of secret service from the “Land of the [ho, ho, ho] Green Giant.” We were not prepared for the stunning sight as we rounded the corner - the sidewalks were absolutely packed eight deep as far as we could see! It looked for all the world like New Year’s. We threw beads, candy, and gold coins to pleading kids and frantically waving parents. We were rock stars. For three blocks. Then we went to Ferraro’s for pitchers of beer and the 28" pizza. And people looked at us like: “Don’t they know that St. Patrick’s is next week?”.

To a person we caught parade fever. Next year we want to really do it up big - a real flatbed trailer float with decorations, music, and room for dozens. In fact, we don’t even want to wait for next year - we need to start planning for the Christmas, uh, Holiday parade, of which  DNA was a big part for many years. These are fun events that show DNA in a different light, a light that we need to shine from time to time.   

- Bill Denton