Parade Is a Splash

Yet there they were, hundreds of Irish men and women and others who adopted the nationality for the day, marching through the streets of Scranton for the 39th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Saturday's messy weather thinned the crowd of spectators, packed downtown pubs and restaurants and drenched children and adults who marched, danced and rode along the parade route.

"One thing's for sure about the Irish," honorary chairman Eugene Hickey said with a tinge of bewilderment. "They don't give up."

The three-hour parade, reputed to be the third largest in the United States, lost only about 10 percent of its participants because of the weather, parade announcer Pat Murphy said. Most who dropped out were members of the Irem Temple Shriners, whose plumed outfits would have been ruined by the rain.

Organizers considered postponing the event because of the weather, but a postponement would have created other problems -- confusion over rescheduling and inconvenience to the units that traveled a distance to participate.

"We decided to go ahead with it while we were inchurch this morning. The spirit moved us," said Mr. Murphy, a member of the St. Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County.

Association members and others nearly filled St. Peter's Cathedral for a 10 a.m. Irish Mass celebrated by Bishop James C. Timlin.

The bishop, acknowledging the region's custom of turning St. Patrick's Day into a week-long celebration, urged the crowd to honor another tradition -- the strong faith of their Irish Catholic ancestors.

"They came here with little on their backs but faith in their hearts," he said. "Let us be true sons of Ireland by living our faith to the hilt."

The bishop and the priests from the Cathedral led the parade on a 13-block route through the downtown.

BALLINA VISITORS

Mayor Jim Connors and other officials followed close behind. Two men at the mayor's side came all the way from Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland. Ballina, with a history of poverty and a recent upswing in economic fortune, is Scranton's twin city.

Lord Mayor John O'Malley and delegate Ray Collins -- both of them accustomed to walking in the rain -- are hoping to drum up interest in some of Ballina's special events, including a new national park, music festival and a salmon festival in the summer. They will be in the area until Thursday.

Behind them, young girls in red-sequined uniforms tossed batons in the air and cartwheeled through the puddles. High school bands from West Scranton, Dunmore, Carbondale Area, Wyoming Area and elsewhere played lively tunes.

Several versions of St. Patrick passed by, as did many Irish stepdancers, members of the Quiet Man Society, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and large contingents from St. Patrick's Elementary School in West Scranton and Nativity of Our Lord School in South Scranton.

Thirteen-year-old Rebecca Baun and 5-year-old Nick Leshinski, both from North Scranton, huddled under a big umbrella at the corner of Wyoming Avenue and Linden Street. They spread a garbage bag on the sidewalk to sit on, shrugged off the rain and said they would stay for the duration.

OUT OF THE RAIN

Scott and Rose Oakley and their children, Scott, 7, and Robert, 2, found convenient shelter under the awning at the Oppenheim Building on Lackawanna Avenue. The spot offered a good view, a roof over their heads and room for their lawn chairs.

The Oakleys, from Lehman Twp. in Luzerne County, have been coming to Scranton's parade for years.

"This is a real parade," Mr. Oakley said.

The Oakleys and others had a close view of some creative floats, including award-winning ones of the Titanic, an enchanted forest, an Emerald Isle version of the Wizard of Oz, a Mardi Gras-themed paddle boat and a float with an anti-violence theme.

While the floats and performances drew hearty applause, the parade's vendors were virtually ignored.

Sixteen had come from York to peddle Irish hats, buttons and other souvenirs. For the most part, they had to keep their goods under plastic wrap.

"It's a slow day for us," vendor Joe Johnson said, "but you have to take the good with the bad."

This year's parade was dedicated to the memory of Patrick Bewick, a parade association member and popular Dunmore businessman who was killed in an accident at work in December. Mr. Bewick's family joined parade officials for the march.

The parade association awarded 14 plaques based on the decisions of judges Sharon Golden, Cathy VanNorth and Dorothy Jones.

The biggest award of the day, the John J. Corcoran Memorial Founders Award, went to the McCauley Center for its enchanted Forest of the Fey float.

Other winners and the categories are:

Murray and Kelly's Pub, St. Patrick's theme; Syracuse Scottish Pipe Band, professional performance; Friends of the Poor, patriotic theme; Young Democrats, historical theme;

O'Malley & Langan, P.C., Irish cultural heritage theme; Jordan Towing's Mardi Gras paddle boat, most beautiful; New York City Sanitation Emerald Society Pipe Band, Irish music;

Irish Cultural Society, Irish costume; Lions Club International, Irish smiles; Emerald Isle Step Dancers, Irish dancing;

Ancient Order of Hibernians J.F.K. Division, participation award; Green Ridge Assembly of God, scholastic award; Friendship House, photographer's choice.

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