Stealing a March on Saint Patrick's Day

As you probably read (I'd hope) in Friday's Bulletin, Norwich's Saint Patrick's Day Parade returns to a downtown corner near you a week from Sunday, March 6. I'd think you'd agree that we could all use a little something to cheer about as the last couple of years have been challenging in more ways than words can describe and if some wearing of the green, sampling the bubble and squeak, or sipping a Guinness helps lift spirits, let's have at it. 

Weather permitting (a phrase we use a lot in everyday conversation in these parts this time of year), the Parade steps off at one on Main Street in front of Otis Library and will go up Franklin Street with a left at Artspace onto Willow Street, and another left onto Chestnut Street past the Chestnut Street Playhouse, with yet another left down Broadway before a final left turn (kinda like NASCAR but with shillelaghs?) back onto Main Street. The best place to find out about everything going on before the parade, and most especially afterward, is here. 

The parade, like many of the events staged in our downtown in recent years, isn't just about walking around sort of in a circle (I do that most weekdays now), nor is it just putting 'feet on the street' which we all say is important but saying and doing are two different things. 

To me, the most important aspect of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade and ALL the Norwich Events we have in Global City Norwich is creating and deepening a sense of a place we can call our own. Having a downtown and supporting the spaces and places that make it a living breathing part of our lives must become second nature. 

Parades and unique events that help us develop the routines that draw us to the businesses and establishments in Chelsea on a regular basis can go a long way to growing our downtown and making it a destination every day of the year.  

The Parade, if nothing else, is another reason to stop and visit somewhere too many of us far too often simply drive through on our way to someplace else often while we complain about how ‘there’s never anything to do in Norwich.’ Which, I agree, can be true except when it’s not, such as next Sunday (or, quite frankly, many if not all of the days between now and then).

One of the delights, if not outright surprises, for me every time I've watched the Saint Patrick's Day parade is the number of people I've met who do not live in Norwich but heard about the parade and the family-oriented crafts festival that follows it, together with authentic food and beverages (both adult and the unadulterated) who decided to try it on for size and were very pleased that they had.      

Everyone is welcome to march, or mush depending on how much (more) snow we’ve had by the 6th, and let's be honest here, it’s really more of a brisk walk than a march in terms of distance, so you can smile and wave without breaking a sweat.  And you won’t be by yourself.

All kinds of organizations and both private and public groups will be striding with pride and if the past is prologue, pipes and drums, as well as marching bands will join our elected city leadership in helping celebrate this year's Grand Marshall, Angela Adams, the executive director of the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce, 

Let's face it downtown is a pretty cozy place to spend the first Sunday afternoon of March with your Irish Eyes smiling, along with (I'd hope) some friends you've just met. 

So even though March 17 is, and will always be Saint Patrick's Day, please find a space on your calendar and a place on a Down City sidewalk, next Sunday, March 6, for the Norwich Saint Patrick's Day Parade. Sláinte!
-bill kenny