St. Patrick's Day Parade

In the rest of the country, the colors green and red conjure visions of holly wreaths and Christmas trees. In Cedar Rapids, green and red mean it's March and time for St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Day celebrations.

St. Joseph's Day is popular in Cedar Rapids, largely because of our Czech heritage.

St. Patrick was honored to a lesser degree until August 1975, when Dick Hardiman, then a WMT radio disc jockey, mentioned on his radio show that it was "only" 200 days until St. Patrick's Day. The announcement ignited listeners, and soon a host of people were discussing the idea of a St. Patrick's Day parade.

By March 11, 1976, Hardiman had secured a parade permit for The First and Last Annual International Ecumenical Dick Hardiman one-of-a-kind St. Patrick's Day Parade (TFLAIEDHOSPDP).

First but not Last

Hardiman planned it around the number one, applying for a one-block parade permit, with a starting time of 1 p.m. on First Avenue. The City Council refused to grant a permit for less than two blocks, so the parade had to extend its route from one block to two. The council then pushed the start time to 1:30 p.m. to avoid a peak traffic time. First Avenue was out because local ordinances prohibited interfering with traffic on the street.

Was Hardiman Disappointed?

"I was willing to settle for anything," he said, "but if you were going to do it up right ..."

The parade began at Second Street with men in green suits pulling a cart with a green-clad woman who painted one green stripe down Third Avenue.

The band included a trombonist, a pianist, a violinist, a bass drummer and a spoon player. The band played only two songs: "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" and "The Band Played On." The songs are waltzes, not conducive to marching, so the marchers ignored the band's beat.

A bottomless float, inside of which marched David Bolt in Mickey Mouse ears playing "Lady of Ireland I Adore Thee" on an accordion, was made of wood, chicken wire and crepe paper. Ted Mahoney, proprietor of Ted's Happitime, sponsored a flatbed truck with a representation of an Irish pub.

The animal contingent included a goat with green horns and silver balls on the tip of each horn, an Irish setter, a piglet and a donkey.

Mayor Don Canney estimated the early-afternoon crowd to be about 5,000 to 6,000 people, a respectable number for an unprecedented, two-block-long parade.

One of the parade's high points, at least to people who had lived in Cedar Rapids, was when it blocked a train at the Fourth Street tracks for about 15 minutes.

Hardiman declared that he did not intend to repeat the parade in 1977 but was considering a parade March 18, the day between St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day "for people who aren't anything." Instead, March 17, 1977, saw The First and Last Annual International Ecumenical Two-of-a-kind St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Before Hardiman left town for another job, he banded with seven others and formed SaPaDaPaSo (St. Patrick's Day Parade Society) to keep the tradition going.

The First St. Patrick

The 1978 parade had its first St. Patrick.

Jimmy Duggan, whose great-grandfather left Ireland in 1847 during the potato famine, realized that no one had yet marched in the parade as the patron saint of Ireland. So he had his wife sew some secondhand green drapes into a cape, glued fabric and gold brocade onto a miter fashioned from cardboard and borrowed a white robe from St. Patrick's in Fairfax.

He won the costume contest that year but then was persuaded to be St. Patrick each year for the next 18 years. In his 19th, and last, parade, he was named grand marshal.

The parade, always held March 17, rain or shine, has grown and is met with more enthusiasm each year. It will again wind its way through the streets of downtown Cedar Rapids at 1 p.m. today.

NOT THE FIRST PARADE?

Although the St. Patrick's Day parade in 1976 was billed as the first ever, one other was found. In 1904, Al. G. Field's Greater Minstrels appeared at Greene's Opera House and took to the streets for a parade.

Said the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette of March 17, 1904: "Gaily bedecked with shamrock and to the strains of 'My Irish Rose,' 'Come Back to Killarney' and 'The Tipperary March' ... Al. G. Field's great minstrels touched the heart and aroused a patriotic feeling in the descendants and the sympathizers of the ould sod. By no means hyperbolic is the statement that the pageant was one of the finest expositions of minstrelsy ever displayed on the thoroughfares of this city."