Today's the annual South Side Irish parade.
The one day a year when parents don't seem to care where their kids are, public intoxication is not punishable, and I'll witness some high school kid relieving himself in the alley behind my house at some point.
Need to admit it up front - I'm old.
I'm old, I have a toddler, and I did not grow up here.
So I'm probably not the right person to ask about the parade. Those who've grown up with it, will tell you how much fun it is. The pre-parties, the kids all having a good time, etc.
I just know that it's hundreds of thousands of people, majority of whom are drunk by 11am on a sunday, milling about, getting drunker, in tight confined places.
If I was 19 again, and didn't have to see my parents at some point in the day, I'd look forward to the parade, for months on end.
But we go every couple of years, living within walking distance of the parade route. This year the weather was great, and my daughter's old enough to appreciate the fire trucks and marching bands and such, so we were looking forward to it.
And when we finally waded through the beer scented mass of humanity, met up with some folks we knew, and staked out our tiny little piece of sidewalk, it was fun for a bit. Then it was time to go. everyone stopped to let us through, everyone on the sidewalk were nice, being physically AT the actual parade was fun.
We cut down an alley, to avoid the largest part of the crowd, past rows of minors, relieving themselves. Then down another alley, where we watched one high school girl stumble up to another, and exuberantly greet her with " You f*cking whore!" as she gave her friend a hug.
Out of the alley, down the street 1/2 a block to the big park. Fiona was excited about the park.
There's a great playground at the north end of this pleasant, one square block large park.
We made our way across the playing fields to the playground, ignored the casualties passed out on the grass nearby as their friends continued to party, and were really enjoying ourselves, probably for a half hour or so, until the screaming started.
We looked up, and one large older guy, mid-20's probably, was screaming at 3 highschool age guys, who wanted nothing more but to get back to their friends, the large group that had set up shop near the playground.
Apparently, from what I could discern from the yelling, one of them said something snide as they passed this guy, and his friends, one of whom had dropped her pants and was squatting by a tree. nice.
"keep stepping motherf*ckers" this guy was yelling.
"better yet, start running!"
"we'll keep stepping" one of the younger guys said back.
"but we're not running."
They made it back to their friends, probably 2 dozen kids in all, at least 12 of which were guys.
a minute later, the violent guy started toward the crowd of high school kids, with two other guys in tow. We were already getting ready to leave, thankfully.
"It's going bad fast" I tell my wife, who had already started to put the baby in the stroller.
"we'll put her in in a minute. we gotta go right now."
We walk away, and I'm on the phone to the police, as I walk backwards, watching the fight start.
I'm surprised that other parents continue to sit and watch their kids play on the playground, while things are going south behind them. All the sudden, they all start herding their kids, picking them up, calling them away from the playground, leaving.
I see a body fly out from the crowd, and know that the fight had officially started.
Police cars pass us as we approach the end of the block. half of Chicago's police force is within a mile of the park today, so not surprised by the quick response.
My daughter's oblivious of course, happily munching pretzels as we put as much space between us and the park as possible.
We pass many house parties on the way home, everyone's having a great time. We see no fewer than 4 young guys p-ing in alleys in the 7 block walk back to our house.
We're very glad to be home. And oddly enough, look at the parade as a good day, overall.
Great weather, Fiona enjoyed herself, got some quality playground time in on the way home, until things went bad.
I expect we'll continue to take Fiona to this parade as long as we remain here. She'll be old enough to ask to go, by next year.
She'll be mad, 13 years from now, when we tell her she's not allowed to go to the parade all day without adult supervision. I expect it won't be the first time she'll be upset with us.
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