By C.C. White
Sometimes a town just needs a good excuse to party. Leadville – the self-proclaimed “Parade Capital of the U.S.” – certainly had yet another one this past September. Being too cold in March to formally observe St. Patrick’s Day, each September, at the halfway mark, the citizens hold what they call a “Practice Parade.”
Like the traditional holiday, it features police car escorts, candy-throwing children, dyed green dogs, revelers sporting green hair and sparkly hats, Irish dancers (“Last year, they were Scottish,” grumbled my friend Cecilia Ogasawara, who took Irish dancing lessons and knows the difference), and of course, a dynamite Irish band. There’s a delightful difference with this event, however: often, Leadville tourists have no idea what’s going on. “Why are you dressed up?” one of them curiously asked our group of seven, which included Cecilia’s sister, Mary Carey. “Why is Harrison Avenue getting blocked off?”
“We’re having our St. Patrick’s Day Practice Parade,” explained Mary (a well-known citizen who owns a second home in town). “There’s usually too much snow for us to have a real one on March 17.”
“Cool, where does it start?”
“At the upper end of town,” she says, pointing towards the mining museum. “There’s a reason for that. The parade must go from north to south because if you start at the south end of town,” she shifted her finger to the opposite direction, “everyone will divert into the saloons and there will be no parade!”
Lasting only five to ten minutes (actual walking time), the Practice Parade is held on the third Saturday of September. The band, which consisted of some incredibly good-looking, ponytailed men (why is it males look better in long hair, kilts and knee socks?), not only played during the actual march, but at the courthouse, they formed a half-circle and put on a mini-concert for the highly appreciative crowd. Afterward, they marched into the closest bar where, much to the delight of astonished lunch-goers (who could have been alerted by the daily special, corned beef and cabbage) they gave another concert … and then yet another at the place next door. The sound of the drums, flutes and bagpipes was deafening inside of the narrow buildings, but no one seemed to mind. “What’s going on?” I heard patrons yelling back and forth to each other over a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace.
“It’s the St. Patrick’s Day Practice Parade,” a busy waitress yelled back.
“The WHAT?”
“There’s too much snow to celebrate in March, so we have ours six months later!”
“Oh! Great!” The patrons nodded and their cameras started flashing.
“Leadville definitely likes its small parties,” said Janice Fox, a librarian and local historian. “This one has been going on since 1978. It was the brainchild of our own Judge Neil Reynolds.” And although it’s just one of the many yearly events sponsored by this historic town – including the Crystal Carnival, Horse ski-joring, the Broom Ball, dogsled racing, and Boom Days – it is one of the best … in part, because just the name of the parade is outrageous.
C.C. spends a lot of time in Leadville. It’s one of the few places in Colorado that is so small she can’t get lost there.
