I went to Church today. I was surprised to see one of our regular ministers there because on the online Church calendar the sermon was supposed to have been preached by the visiting minister from California who was there last week.

After Church I could not help but notice that Charles Street was beginning to become lined with people wearing green. It appeared that I had walked smack dab into the start of the St Patricks Day Parade. Well, the parade had not actually started it was just people lining up to see the parade. There were also some who were there to participate in some kind of a St Patricks Day marathon. I could tell that they were runners because they had very official looking green and white numbers attached to there backs.

I started to feel a bit claustrophobic from all the people so I decided to go to the Inner Harbor to the book store. I spent quite a while in Barnes and Nobles and ended up buying a book called, How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends by Don Gabor. I bought this book because I do not know how to start conversations and I have no friends. This friendless condition I understand is common for adult autistics like myself.

As I was leaving the store I noticed that the parade was going on. I had no idea when it had started or when it would end. So I decided to take out my camera and snap pictures. It turns out that I was there just in time to catch the tail end of the parade.

Overall, I did not find the parade to be very exciting. I suppose this might have been due to race and culture. All the bands I saw at the tail end were white. They marched stiffly and there was no effort to entertain the onlookers. I am black and am used to seeing a more exciting display of showmanship in parades. In our parades there is rhythmic dancing and a real effort to put on a show. A good movie to rent to get an idea of how black marching bands differ from white ones would be Drumline. OK, I admit the marching in Drumline is a bit jazzed up. But it does give you the general idea that we expect to see a little more effort in our parades.

Almost every Sunday when I was a kid there would be a big neighborhood parade. At the end of the parade which was always in front of the Prince Hall Masons Lodge on McCullough Street they would hand out trophys to the three best marching bands. The best neighborhood marching band when I was a kid was the Baltimore Westsiders. A few years ago The City Paper wrote an article about The Baltimore Westsiders. The online article includes a brief video of the Westsiders in action.

Anyway, since I had my camera out below are pictures of the stiff white St Patricks Day marching bands. The best band I saw that came close to what I was used to seeing was the band from my old semi-alma mater, Towson University. I think this was due to the fact that the mostly white band appeared to have been led by a brother.