Hundreds celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Healdsburg

<p>Healdsburg's St. Patrick's Day Parade, which began as a whim in a local tavern 16 years ago only to steadily grow every year, may be one of the few processions with more participants than onlookers.</p><p>Before sunrise on Wednesday, about 300 people gathered for a short march around the Healdsburg Plaza led by a bagpiper, a parade queen and assorted costumed participants with lime-green hair.</p><p>The eight-block walk, which began at 7 a.m., may be the shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade around, if not the earliest in the morning.</p><p>“It's a great community event. It's the only St. Patrick's Day parade north of the Golden Gate,” said parade queen Jennifer Pitkin, dressed in a swirl of green polyester, with sash and white gloves.</p><p>Irish-born Healdsburg resident Maeve O'Sullivan said “it's an opportunity to celebrate our heritage.”</p><p>“Instead of tickled pink, we're tickled green,” said her companion Mary Madden, originally from County Cork, Ireland.</p><p>With a green costumed, snake-haired Medusa at the front of the parade, the revelers departed the B&B Lounge for a short two-block walk on Healdsburg Avenue before circling the Plaza.</p><p>Organizers said the parade is held early to cut down on traffic disruption.</p><p>“It gets bigger every year,” said Bill Moore, a retired merchant seaman who came down from nearby Fitch Mountain to watch. “I like seeing them take over Healdsburg Avenue."</p><p>It may seem strange that a town more closely identified with Italian immigrants would hold a St. Paddy's Day parade, as opposed to a Columbus Day event.</p><p>“All of us have a little Irish in us, that's what they say,” Moore said.</p><p>Bagpiper Hal Wilkes of San Francisco, who was participating for the 12th time in the Healdsburg parade, has played in many other of the Irish patron saint's celebrations, including the massive event last weekend in San Francisco. He said The City's parade has a two-mile route and draws 10,000 people.</p><p>“It's smaller in size, but just as much spirit,” he said of the Healdsburg parade.</p><p>The early morning celebration, Wilkes said, is a perfect warm-up for the other festivities that he was booked for later Wednesday, including a large Hibernia lunch in San Francisco.</p><p>“It's a good primer for the day, for both pipes and spirit,” he said.</p><p>Some participants headed to work before returning for the free corned beef — 300 pounds worth — that B&B served for lunch.</p><p>The Healdsburg parade is held without benefit of permits and typically draws a few city council members and other city officials.</p><p>“It's Healdsburg's answer to civil unrest,” joked Councilman Gary Plass, who marched in Wednesday's event. </p><p>“It's real spontaneous. Everyone shows up and does a lap,” said Councilman Mike McGuire, who donned a green, mullet wig and an Irish derby cap for the occasion.</p><p>A good-sized contingent of Rotary Club members were also on hand in lime-dyed hair, seeking donations to fight polio.</p><p>Virgil Teague, a retired electrical technician, said it all began on the morning of St. Patrick's Day in 1994, when he had the day off. He and the late B&B bartender Bobby Carroll told arriving patrons there had been a parade, but they missed it.</p><p>They were joking, but next year a parade actually started up. “We went out the swinging doors, walked about 50 yards and we came back,” he said.</p><p>Each year attendance has increased.</p><p>At the conclusion of the parade in the tavern parking lot on Wednesday, Healdsburg resident and tenor John Ballachey sang a moving rendition of “Danny Boy” as the crowd hushed to hear his voice through a megaphone.</p><p>Ballachey said it would be the first of at least three appearances throughout the day where he would warble the tune, filled with bittersweet lyrics of falling roses, hushed valleys, sweet graves, and love.</p><p>“"When he sings Danny Boy, he makes people cry,” said Neal Cronin, who owns John and Zeke's, another bar where Ballachey was set to appear.</p>