Large crowds grace St. Patrick's Day parade
Memo to parade organizers: separate the dachshunds and Harley-Davidsons next year. Aside from that, Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade — number 67 if you’re counting — proved to be a doozy.
The weather? Better than anyone expected. No rain or snow and a high well above 50.
The crowd? By all accounts, huge. Sometimes six or seven deep along the parade route.
“This is one of the top three, no doubt about it,” said John Blest, a founding member of the Town O’Tonawanda Irish-American Club.
Blest should know. He’s seen at least 40 parades and ranked Sunday’s installment as one of the best ever.
On a day when the sun was shining, the crowds along Delaware, from Niagara Square north, grew larger and larger as the 2 p.m. start time grew near.
To the uninitiated, a few things became immediately clear.
One, virtually everyone had green on. The choices ranged from garish green pants, popular with men in their 70s, to green Dr. Seuss hats, seemingly a more suitable option among the younger crowd.
You also learned quickly that the only color more plentiful than green on this day is blue, as in Labatt’s.
“Let’s hear it,” Dave Evans yelled to the crowd as he and the rest of the Blackthorn Club, one of the first groups in the parade, began their march down Delaware.
Wearing black coats and top hats, this is a social club serious about its Irish heritage, but willing to have fun while promoting it.
And on this day, with the big crowds and springlike weather, Evans, a 50-year member of the Blackthorn, found it hard to remember a better parade.
“This is the best,” Evans said with a huge smile. “Listen to the crowd. This is great!”
The crowd varied in size as the parade moved north along Delaware, but it wasn’t unusual to see people standing on rooftops or watching from second-and third-floor balconies.
“This is unbelievable,” said Jack Regan, a Buffalo firefighter marching with the Police Emerald Society.
Like so many, Regan marches because it’s a way to honor his Irish heritage, not to mention the Irish who took on the task of walking into fires, not away from them.
“It’s important we celebrate this day,” Regan said.
It was, indeed, a day of celebration.
Along Chippewa Street, the bar crowd spilled out into the street and it was here where the crowds were biggest.
But the party didn’t stop there. It wasn’t uncommon to see a dozen or so neighbors who live near Delaware gathering outside to party.
One of those in the mood to celebrate was Mary Bruning of Amherst, a member of the Daughters of Erin and a woman with a reason to march.
“This is a chance to celebrate your Irish heritage,” she said as she walked down Delaware. “It’s important to continue this for our children.”
Like every other St. Patrick’s Day parade, there was an entire section devoted to organized labor.
Among the favorite floats? The green girder with the 12 ironworkers sitting on top waving to the crowd.
There was even a dose or two of the non-Irish.
The Queen City Roller Girls, the local roller derby team, was on hand and so was the Buffalo Dachshund Club, a group formed just one year ago to help promote dachshund adoptions.
“I just thought it would be great to walk in a parade with a bunch of wiener dogs,” said Jamie Rexinger, a member of the group.
Rexinger’s only regret?
Marching behind a local and, through no fault of its own, loud motorcycle club.
Even the roller derby girls would have been better.
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