In the 20 plus years I have resided in Boston and Cambridge, I have attended the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in South Boston (a.k.a. Southie) nearly every year I've been here beginning in 2002.
I have decided that today's parade will very likely be my last. Frankly, I was strongly leaning into not attending. But I had nothing better to do with myself today.
As I have grown older, I have become more uncomfortable being around large crowds of people. I cannot exactly pinpoint when I started feeling this way. Perhaps a decade or so ago after the Boston Marathon Bombings.
When I first began attending the parade I would walk the entire route of the parade from the Broadway MBTA station to Andrew MBTA station. Gradually, I became more uncomfortable negotiating around thick crowds of inebriated people who didn't give a shit about anyone including themselves. In 2017, I had a near panic attack while crossing from West Broadway onto East Broadway and left the parade early.
Since my return to the area, I usually walk along the back roads and find the spot in the picture above which is right next to Southie Bowl. It's a pretty good view and wasn't too crowded. But getting there is a whole other matter.
To get to the parade one must take the Red Line. If you're on an Ashmont or Braintree bound train, things are OK until you arrive at Park Street. Then the hordes of drunk, young people board taking up the entire train. Then we arrive at Downtown Crossing to pick up even more drunk, young people. Although I was seated, I barely had an inch of breathing room. The young man leaning onto me was gracious enough to apologize. I told him no apology was necessary and reassured him it would be over soon.
In reality, I was reassuring myself. I made a point of slowing down my breathing and did my best to tune everything out. But this is a difficult task when everyone is screaming at close quarters while some bang on the subway windows demanding for the train to move. It was in this moment that I decided I will not subject myself to these conditions ever again. While I realize these conditions only last a few minutes, it only takes a matter of seconds for a tragedy to occur and for the clock to stop ticking.
Fortunately, no tragedy occurred. But once I arrived in Southie, I was just eager to make my way to my spot, take some pictures and get the hell out of there. It felt more it was something I was doing out of obligation rather than out of joy and merriment.
When I lived in New York, I attended its St. Patrick's Day Parade. But all this involved was traversing across Central Park to 5th Avenue. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an even simpler proposition.
With this in mind, the only scenario under which I can see ever attending another St. Patrick's Day Parade in Boston is if I were to actually reside in Southie. Frankly, this is an unlikely scenario although not an implausible one. Southie has too much of a frat boy atmosphere for my liking. On the other hand, if I ever did need to move and am still working in the Seaport District, I would want to stay close to the Red Line. So, who knows? But so long as I am in my present circumstances, I'll avoid Southie on the Sunday closest to St. Patrick's Day from here on out. I'll leave the celebrating to others.
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