Savannah's St. Patrick's Day Party-Week Three

“Turn out the lights, the party’s over…”

—sung by Willie Nelson and also by Don Meredith on “Monday Night Football”

I decided to delay my third blog until the end of the weekend because of Savannah’s annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration which began on Wednesday night and didn’t seem to end until Sunday. More about that in a minute.

My third week in Savannah began with a couple of cloudy and very cool days. Overnight low temperatures were in the 20s the previous weekend, so I spent most of the evenings indoors watching college basketball conference tournaments. 

On Sunday afternoon, as I read a book in Chippewa Square, I had a very pleasant surprise. At the other end of the square, I heard someone announce the playing of a recording of the national anthem of Ukraine in solidarity with that country under attack from Russia.

I walked over to see what was happening and found that members of the Savannah Philharmonic were beginning a concert. A group of about a dozen orchestra players and chorus members proceeded to perform a free hour-long set of Broadway show selections for a crowd of several hundred spectators. The singers and musicians were very good and the crowd was very appreciative.

I was sorry Pam missed this because a soloist sang “Summertime” and that is one of Pam’s favorite songs. 

Pam arrived Tuesday night and we spent Wednesday sightseeing. On Thursday morning, we walked a couple of blocks over to Oglethorpe Street to watch Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade that has been held since 1804. 

It wasn’t held the last two years because of Covid restrictions and officials estimated that about 400,000 people viewed the parade. It was well over two hours and featured several bagpipe and drum corps, high school bands, floats and more. My AirBnB apartment was near the parade route and my aching back and legs led me to return to my apartment before the parade ended.

There is a bar about a block from my apartment and a couple of other open-air restaurants nearby. For four days, there was almost continuous music from mid- morning until well past midnight. If I were in my 20s, I would have gladly joined in the partying. But, I am older than that (by a lot!) and the noise and music were too much.

So, the day after St. Patrick’s Day, Pam and I decided to head for the beach at Tybee Island, which is normally about a half-hour away. But, the drive out there took over an hour because of heavy traffic and an accident on the main highway to the beach. After cruising through the beach parking lot twice, I was able to get a parking spot and Pam and I headed for the beach. 

We were there close to an hour and a half, but thick clouds rolled in and I noticed the sky to the west was very dark. I looked at weather radar on my phone and figured the storm would hit about 5PM. We made it to the car with a few minutes to spare and headed back to Savannah. 

On Saturday, we got a welcome respite from the noise and heat when we attended a Bach marathon at Ascension Lutheran Church across from Wright Square. The event was scheduled to last from 11AM until 4PM and we listened for about two hours. Many of the players were under 17 and some were very good.

Revelers are allowed to carry alcoholic drinks outside in the historic district of central Savannah and St. Patrick’s day and the next couple of days resembled a cross between Mardi Gras and a SEC football pre-game tailgate party. After the concert on Saturday, Pam and I went down to the Riverwalk area along the Savannah River and observed thousands green-clad revelers imbibing under the watchful eyes of Savannah’s PD and Chatham County Sheriff deputies.

The sidewalk and park were jammed with thousands of people, many carrying plastic cups with their favorite beverage. There were long lines outside a couple of bars and a continuous stream of cars and pickup trucks—with windows open and music blaring—snaked their way down the cobble stone street. It was, in the words of my late mother, “…a seething madhouse.”

Things finally began to calm down on Sunday and we decided to drive up to Beaufort, SC, a charming coastal town about an hour north of Savannah. We ate lunch at a bar cafe that featured numerous types of tacos—shrimp for me and ahi tuna for Pam— and then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at a wonderful park on the bay. The skies were clear and there was a mild, cool breeze coming off the water.

The relaxing afternoon was the perfect way to end this noisy and chaotic week.