St. Patty's Day Parade Turns Main Street Glorious

By Nicolette Danzy

Hues of green were in every direction. There was singing, dancing and joyful cheering as the floats made their way down a glittery gold Main Street. It almost looked like a scene from the Wizard of OZ, with the amount of little kids running wild it was as if I had entered Munchkinland. The Bay Shore St. Patrick’s Day Parade was as glorious as always.

On Saturday, March 14, Bay Shore held its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Although it was raining and the clouds made the sky look as if it were about to cave in, the show still went on and the crowd was still there. Kids running for beads in their galoshes and frantic parents running after them so they would not fall could be seen from the start of the parade on Union Blvd heading west towards the end of Main Street.

“Every year we take the kids to the parade,” said Sonnett Shirley, a mother of three and Bay Shore resident of 22 years. “They love it. The youngest one just turned 1 so this is her first time and as you can see she is in a trance. As for the other two I can’t seem to keep them still. Going to the parade has become a family tradition.”

All the restaurants on Main Street had out their tents and chairs and there store doors open for the soaking crowds to come inside and grab a bite before trekking back into the rain. Milk and Sugar Café was my choice to stay in to dry off a little bit because of their amazing hot chocolate.

“The best part of the parade is the amount of people we get,” said Allison McCormick, a server at the café. “We make the most in tips today and days of other parades.”

But one place that was packed as always on the morning of, during and after the parade, and also everyone’s favorite bar in town is TJ Finnelys. Due to my age I could not get inside to enjoy the fun drinking games and the Irish karaoke contest they had going on, but I could definitely tell from the stumbling bodies that walked out the door that the events inside were lively.

“It was awesome, I can’t wait to drink some more,” said Shawn Hayes, a repeat parade attendee. “The Nutty Irishman is our next stop.”  Both bars had an array of people going in and stumbling out in nothing but sheer happiness and joy. And a  new bar that just opened, Changing Times, got its first taste of the St. Patty’s madness in Bay Shore.

Appearances in the parade were made by The Bay Shore Fire Department, The YMCA, Thomas O’Shaughnessy Pipe Band, US Navy Band, Bay Shore High School, Bay Shore Lions Club, The Hibernian Festival Singers, the parade clowns, and many more. But besides the parade the most gathered and nicest event for the day was the Parade Mass, which was held at St. Patrick’s Church on Clinton Ave.

“The church mass was so nice before the parade. It gathered all the people up to really start the joy is going to last all day,” said Josephine Demarco, 88 year old. “The parade part is really for the younger people, I like to watch for a little bit because the floats are so fun to look at. I can’t wait till next year to see what else they are going to do.”