The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
150 YEARS AND COUNTING
Weather cooperates for Cleveland tradition
Thousands of onlookers lined the route of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Cleveland on March 17.
The 150th renewal of the parade went off on time and without a discernible hitch.
As for the proverbial luck of the Irish, the aforementioned onlookers and scores of people who marched under the banners of hundreds of organizations represented in the parade were graced with weather that while cold did not produce the rain or snow called for in some of the forecasts.
In all, it was a splendid day for the parade that serves as a harbinger of spring in winter-weary Northeast Ohio while celebrating the Irish in all of us.
Katelyn Kinyon of Sheffield took in the parade from the curb on Superior Avenue, the parade’s main route. Mother and daughter were dressed to the nines in outfits that accentuated the color of the day, green.
“We love everything about St.
Patrick’s Day and this parade. It’s such a happy time,” Katelyn Kinyon said.
That was a sentiment shared and expressed by many of the onlookers stationed on the parade route.
“It’s such a glorious day,” said Lori Faust, a Willowick resident who was part of a group of 12 Lake County residents who wore big smiles as they cheered for and interacted with
people marching in the parade.
Chris Aune of Eastlake arrived at Shoregate Shopping Center in Willowick at 10 a.m. to catch the Regional Transit Authority’s 39F bus for the ride to downtown Cleveland.
Aune said this would be “somewhere between the 20th to 25th straight year” he would be in Cleveland for the parade. It was the third straight year he’d march in the parade as a member of the International Order of the Blue Gavel, a club comprised of former commanders of the
Chagrin River Yacht Club in Eastlake.
“I have some Irish in me, so what better way to celebrate that heritage?” Aune said.
Aune said he loves the universality of this parade and the holiday bearing the name of the patron saint of Ireland.
Sharing the ride downtown on the 39F with Aune were Matthew Hink of Willoughby Hills and a group of his twentysomething friends, all from Lake County.
“This is something we look forward to every day.
We’re all part-Irish today,” Hink said, smiling.
Jen and Bob Schuler of Avon were stationed on Superior Avenue with their four daughters — Katie, Abby, Bridget and Alexandria. All of the girls wore costumes heavy on the green, Katie’s horse head being the most striking.
Mom and dad were dressed for the day, too.
“This is an experience we look forward to sharing as a family every year,” said Jen Schuler, who remembers attending the parade when she was growing up in Painesville.