Participants merely have to follow the green line through downtown Syracuse for today’s St. Patrick’s Parade.
The organizers put up a special street sign, to posthumously honor the longtime chair of the Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade.
The happy times will roll down Syracuse’s Salina Street this afternoon.
The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade is a really big deal.
For hours and hours, bands will march, floats will be pulled, vintage cars will roll slowly so dignitaries can wave from inside, fire companies will show off their shiniest truck.
Dance schools will Irish high step, rock bands will jam on truck beds, veterans will throw candy to scurrying children, social clubs will give members one more reason to socialize.
So many people march, I always wondered how there were enough people left over to join the festivities by lining the sidewalks dozens deep and crowding the bars in the neighboring blocks by the hundreds and basically making it seem like enough people to fill the Carrier Dome have squished themselves into that downtown stretch.
This year, there will be a big balloon pulled down South Salina Street by volunteer workers from the Syracuse Media Group. Kermit the Frog will signal a triumphant return for the words-and-photos bunch.
It’s been eight years, as I can best figure, since the balloon squad made its rounds.
Back in the day, Babar the Elephant or Woody the Woodpecker or one of its cartoon cousins were annually sponsored by the big daily.
I remember those parades well.
I proudly held my rope and marched.
It’s not as easy as it looks on TV as you watch those hot air characters paraded down the streets of Manhattan every Thanksgiving Day.
Sure, it’s filled with a gas lighter than air.
But the skin, that polyurethane shell created in the shape and color of so many favorites, is heavy.
When you’re one of the dozen or more folks holding on to the ropes attached to it, you feel like if half the crew bugged out, that baby would pull the rest of you up into the sky.
You must wear gloves because the rope burns bare hands. You must pay attention to the rope and those walking around you because it’s easy for the tethers to tangle.
The owners of the balloon will bring it deflated on a truck, fill it up with the helium-air mix and instruct the rope crew in how to haul it.
The Syracuse parade route has several traffic lights and pedestrian bridges. Lowering and raising the balloon is a carefully orchestrated maneuver akin to Dancing with the Stars.
My best memory is the year we guided Babar the Elephant down Salina Street.
My dear wife Karen was part of the crew, before she was my dear wife, before we had gone on our first date.
Her rope got tangled during the parade and she let it go.
This I know because a work photographer captured that crew in a wonderful photo that hung on the wall of the big daily for the 10 years after, with Karen walking next to the hanging rope and me among those still latched on.
When the big daily was packing up to move to new offices last year, Karen asked the HR director if she could take that picture home. Alas, when Karen went to collect it, somebody else had gotten to it first.
We have our own memories of that March day nevertheless.
The balloon crew and other newspaper workers celebrated the successful balloon trip with a trip to a bar — well, several bars, actually.
At one place, there were two stools left next to the door.
Karen and I ended up sitting there chatting. Several folks coming in thought we worked at the bar and tried giving us a couple bucks, thinking we were collecting a cover charge.
We laughed.
We knew each other better as part of the gang.
By the end of that year, we’d gone out on our first date.
It’s supposed to rain today. The parade will be on TV. We’re taking a pass. But we’ll never forget being part of the marching horde in the Syracuse St. Patrick’s parade.
Mark Bialczak 
Aw, how lovely! I’ve never seen a proper parade like this… and only on TV when that TV is on a movie or something. I’ve never thought about the fact that they could just float away like that… has that ever happened? Don’t you think it would be a tad bit tempting to orchestrate it amongst your fellow float holders– like at the corner of X and Y street, let’s all of us let go except for Jane. Perhaps that’s just my wicked mind over here…
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That would be the best damn balloon crew move, ever, Aussa, and the very last one for all that let go of the rope. And probably for Jane, too, for that matter.
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How fun! We have nothing like that here. I can see you guiding Babar, wearing gloves. What a great memory.
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It is in the priceless category, Kerbey. Loved that day.
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Neat story Mark. And a great story of a meeting leading to marriage. Sounds like you really celebrate the showing of the green in Syracuse. Around here it largely goes unnoticed except for sales on corned beef and cabbage. I’ll have to make mine later in the year, but I’ll definitely wear my shirt and hat my sis brought back from Ireland for me. Well, actually she brought me the shirt, I kinda grabbed the hat off her head in a snatch and run back when I could still run.
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Fast moves for St. Pat’s in Kentucky, Angie!
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You had me at “St. Patrick”. 🙂
And what a lovely story. HOW could a relationship go wrong when it starts out because of a balloon? 🙂
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Thank you, Colleen. A parade and a balloon Babar. It had to be.
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This is gorgeous post. And yes, it has it all.
I love the story of how you met your dear wife Karen. I wish, I WISH you had that picture! But it sounds like you have it stored away in your brain. And now we do, too.
This might be one of my favorite posts of yours. Maybe it’s because I like parades, or balloons, or a love story, or just finding out how hard it really is to command one of those big balloons at a parade. It’s one of those things we take for granted, without really knowing how much work goes into it.
xo,
Samara
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I had fun writing this one, Samara, because I knew where it was going from the very start, a winding route that would take everybody to the point where good things were beginning. Thanks for your kind words. And, for sure, I keep waiting to read the news story about too-light balloon handlers drifting up in the air outside of Macy’s!
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Yes- this was beautifully crafted – not to go all “writer” on you, but I saw your story arc, the beginning, the journey – the conclusion. Which was really a beginning.
Beautiful.
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I do so appreciate your keen eye, Samara.
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This is my favourite blog post. On any blog. Ever.
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It has action, drama and romance, doesn’t it, Rachel? Thank you so much for your so very wonderful praise, my friend.
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It certainly has it all – but i think what I really love is that it about two people finding a happily ever after. Beautifully written .
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Thank you, Rachel.
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Great post Mark!!
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Thank you, Jolene. We drove by on the highway overpass today on the way to the Home and Garden show, and we saw Kermit the Frog’s head sticking up at the parade start!
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This was a fun post. Everyone loves a parade! I am always surprised that roads are closed on Monday, the ‘real’ celebration day, here in Columbus, Ohio. I mean, wish it were held on a Sat. for all to attend! This is a nice partnership that you share with your wife, you give us kind glimpses of the good man you are within posts! Smiles, Robin
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Enjoy the Monday festivities in Ohio if you can, Robin. Thanks!
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Such a sweet story! Who needs a photograph when you have this fond vivid memory.
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Yes, Sandra, but the photo would have been nice, too!
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Nice memories. I love visiting New York through your posts. Don’t know if I’ll ever get to visit.
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It’s beautiful in spring, summer and fall, certainly, laflor. You should try to com to see New York City for a few days, then go the extra 400 miles to see Niagara Falls. It will take your breath away!
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Sounds like a lot of fun! See — many towns celebrate my birthday. 😀 LOL! Wonderful to find out how you and your wife got together.
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Well, happy birthday to you PJ! and many many more!
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Great post, Mark. I’m sorry you’re missing the parade this year, but happy for your memories.
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We chose to go to the Home and Garden show instead, Ann, because it was indoors on a cold day!
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Great choice, Mark!
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Yes,it was, Ann.
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I wanna buh-woon!!
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this is a wonderful st. pat’s story, mark. i love st. pat’s parades, they are always so happy, i love the street sign of honor, the green line, and most of all, your sharing stools by the door with karen part. great post.
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It is a part of our history in a really great way, Beth. Gray today for the long green line here today, though …
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ours is in corktown, an irish neighborhood in downtown detroit. and that is indeed a great part of your history )
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Corktown is a great name for a neighborhood, Beth. And I would call this tale here the preface for Karen and I.
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it is, and i hope that you’ve told your children this story –
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