It's days like today that I want to thank...
...The Chicago Plumbers Union for coming up with the idea in 1963 to dye the Chicago River bright green for St. Paddy's Day. 60 years later, the skyline has changed but the green river is still iconic.
Always fun in high school to march over the State Street bridge in the parade (and it was always held on 3/17 no matter what day of the week it was so there was always a crowd of workers and shoppers). Those were the days when the Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade was probably a 1.5 mile trek down State Street (the main shopping street at the time) from well north of the river down past Congress to the bottom of Grant Park, maybe Balbo. Rain or shine (or snow!). Not so true today but damn Chicago could be cold on cold in mid-March.
I think today the "parade" runs for a couple blocks through the north end of Grant Park. Not even sure if they have to stop traffic for it but there ya go. I think the South Side parade out in the Beverly/Blue Island area has transcended the Chicago parade as the place to be????
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