Happy St. Pat's Day

I've got my green underwear on...how about you?


You just got to love a country that has a patron saint like Saint Patrick that can induce the public to drink zillions of gallons of green libations once a year.

Let's all turn in unison, face northeast across the Atlantic, and give our Irish friends a nice salute.

Meanwhile, I’d like to point out that the second largest celebration in the US outside of NY City will be happening in Savannah, Georgia, just up I-95 from us today.

They’re expecting about 300,000 revelers to attend. This, in a city of about 130,000 according the 2000 census.

Can you say Gridlock?

I last visited Savannah (only about 70 miles north of me now as I write) on St. Paddy's Day in 1983 with my college friend Randy.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

We drove down in his roommate's VW Jetta and when we got to town there wasn't a motel room to be found. Of course anyone with any sense knew that in that day the rooms were all booked up at least a year in advance.

Today I think you would be making reservations for 2010 at best.

Any way...we ended up sleeping in the car that night, parked on the curb of one of Savannah's famous "squares." Besides having street sweeper trucks driving past endlessly, we were also awakened about 2 AM by a female cop that ended up feeling sorry for us and let us sleep un-rousted until daylight. She even stopped back by a couple of times to check on us (I think she liked Randy.)

The second night was spent in an old fleabag hotel out on Tybee Island that had a shower that came preloaded with beach sand and where you picked up your black and white TV with a set of "rabbit ear" antenna in the office when you checked in.

It only cost a couple of bucks extra, so we splurged on the TV in order to be able to watch the news.

The parade, even back then, was a monstrous affair that lasted three or four hours in total, and the downtown streets were packed with participants wearing funny green hats and ties and with nubile young girls sporting body parts that they were willing to show in public in return for beads and other trinkets.

I saw the best "cat fight" I've ever seen that day. These two little 100 pound girls beat the shit out of each other, presumably over nothing, and when they got through they were both bloody and half naked...with hand full size hanks of hair laying on the ground at their feet.

The crowd was quite happy to cheer their progress on, and a couple of sideline fights erupted among some of the spectators and the "gentlemen" that were enduring the lonely task of escorting these two lovely young ladies.

In the end, we staggered up and down River Street in the crush of the crowd, bumped into a few other college friends, tried to drink all of the green beer, found ourselves to be unsuccessful, and slithered back home with a hangover the next day, never to return except for any day except St. Patrick’s day.

I’ve visited Savannah and Port Wentworth many times since, and I can actually drive around the city without needing a roadmap, but I’ve never been back for St. Paddy’s day. I feel the same way about New Orleans now, except that Katrina may have made the Big Easy endurable again as a side effect.

Any hooooo…I hope that you have a lovely day there in your green garments.