Parade Day

I wrote what follows below in 2019. Covid has had no sympathy for the Irish since then. A look ahead to Saturday shows nut-numbing cold, howling winds, and 6 inches of snow. Not exactly what the city fathers had in mind. It's possible the thing may yet be postponed. Again.

Luck of the Irish, Scranton style.

But if the parade does happen, it will surely feature some appalling behavior and scattered moments of lunkheadedness, and outsiders not used to our peculiar ways will deride us as drunken coal-town hicks, which of course we are. But that misses the point. Our parade day wretchedness is distinctly our own, and while carpetbaggers are welcome to join in and to try to keep up, know that in doing so you lose the right to judge us.