Missouri Towns

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Posted at March 12, 2008 11:07

 

At the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17, Blue Springs residents will carry their St. Patrick’s Day floats in their hands.

In 1978, Pat Mayers commenced what is dubbed the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade. Officially sixty-six feet in length, the parade grew from Mayer’s simple wish of town pride. He felt Blue Springs should have its own St. Patrick’s Day parade, so he grabbed two fellow Blue Springs residents and marched from the historic Lowe’s Drugstore across the street to the Gridiron Lounge. The parade route has not changed in more than thirty years, and plaques on each side of the street mark the beginning point and the ending point.

“People just kind of followed,” Donna Swope, owner of the soda fountain, says, and they still do. An explosion in green fireworks, green floats, and green soda, the parade takes off at 9 am, as residents gather for this long-lived tradition.

Everyone has an amazing time “for about thirty minutes,” Swope jokes.  

 

—Lauren Foreman

March 2008 MissouriLifeLines

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