There may be some people in the world who don’t know that Chicago dyes its river green for St. Patrick’s Day. Thousands of people line the bridges and Riverwalk to watch the small boat trace broad circles in the river, a stream of bright green in its wake. It’s one of our quirks and I hope it never, ever goes away.*
Chicago has two parades. The South Side Irish Parade is legendary. More than 75,000 people descend on the residential streets. Neighbors put port-a-potties in their yards (if they don’t the results are ugly). The North Side parade travels down State Street and is quite a bit more tame.
Back to the Chicago River’s dye job. How did this come to be? Back in 1956, the city was using an orange dye to trace leaks from the sewers into the lake. The story goes that a man named Stephen Bailey, business manager for the Chicago Journeyman Plumbers Local Union 130, noticed a colleague’s white overalls were stained emerald green. Turns out, the orange dye turned bright green when mixed with water. What more perfect representation of Ireland could there be than that?
In 1962 the plumbers dumped 100 pounds of the dye into the river…and it stayed for a week. The tradition has stayed ever since.** Why would we dye an already dark green river bright green? Because it's there. Yet another reason Chicago is and always will be the first city of my heart.
*Like when they did away with having our 4th of July fireworks on July 3rd. But that’s another story.
**Except in 2020, when the world had just shut down. Imagine our elation when the city surprise-dyed the river in 2021! They didn’t want the crowds, but they did want the tradition. I’m okay with that.
Comentarios