The time is upon us to celebrate Ol' St Patrick. Chicago does this the best of any town I have ever lived in. This is truly my favorite thing to do in this city. I grew up in the south burbs and was extremely surprised when I went to High School in the heart of the South Side Irish and realized what an Irish last name got you. Truth be told I held reservation to a lot of it but I did take a healthy understanding of what it meant to be Irish in Chicago. I had classmates that were first generation and two that were off the boat. Heritage was held in high regard. All month long my friends would come to school and share the mother's soda bread, one cafeteria lady made enough to pass out for here entire shift. The culmination of all this pride was the South Side Irish Parade. Know affectionately as "Parade day", as if there are no other parades all year long not to mention the "official" St. Patrick's day parade donwtown.
As a young adult I ended up on the south side to finish up college and reintroduced my self to the culture that some of the Irish exchange students found amusing. I drank on Western Ave. and still do. I can't order a Guinness with out wanting "Irish Steve" to be siting across from me. I've had an honest to goodness "tru a lou a lou" night with an Irishman named Marty after the pub closed and the barkeep just didn't want to go home.
Into adulthood Irish Chicago has put its mark on me I attended the Young Irish Fellowship Ball this year, I'm a regular at Old St. Pat's Parish, and I now run into my kid sister at my old watering holes and tell her stories about the pubs that have closed down. I had know idea how deep in this culture I had become until the local PBS station did a story on Irish Chicago this month. I recognized or talked to just about everyone of the people they had interviewed. Every year the parade means something different to me. Last year was the first year I was able to go in a long time so there was nostalgic feel to it and this year I think it will be a nice celebration. So make your plans and come on out for all the good fun next year I haven't shown off the parade to an out of towner in a long time.
