Dublin Ohio Parade

I was a part of a prestigious celebration today and wasn't aware of it until eight hours later. In checking out the website for The Quad-Cities in Iowa I saw an article about how the communities of Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport Iowa, according to "The Dublin Society", have the 13th best St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world. Hey, I thought. That's sort of neat considering I used to live in Davenport, one of five communities in the Quad Cities. Don't argue with me about 'Quad'. Five into a Quad makes about as much sense as The Big Ten having eleven teams. Just get over it. The point for me was my family lived in Davenport for fifteen years and I didn't even know we had anything to do with St. Paddy's Day.
Regardless, I continued reading and lo and behold, Dublin, Ohio, our current burg of forty thousand, is considered to be #8 on the list for great parades IN THE WORLD. I had the grand kids enjoying all the festivities and was not aware that our town was a big-timer. I have never been a huge fan of parades. Seriously, who except a three year old, gets excited about fire engines with sirens, marching bands, pre-teen girls with batons, two or three politicians waving at the populace---like we care, kids on stilts and an array of Shriner's clowns ? Not me, anyway. Unless, of course, they gave out great candy which these guys didn't. What surprised me most and I mentioned this to my son standing next to me, "why would the parade committee have a group of 12 horses stationed in the very middle of the parade? Either give 'em a diaper or put 'em at the end. And, for God's sake, give shovels to adults not ten year olds.
If you're interested, the top ten St. Paddy's Parade cities are: Chicago, Dublin, Ireland, New York City, Savannah, Ga., Hot Springs, Arkansas, Boston, Philly, Dublin, Ohio, New Dublin, Wisconsin and San Francisco. Bet you'd see some real freaks in that side show.