By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
“Merry Christmas,” Jim Welsh called out while giving an enthusiastic wave to Mayor Leonard Desiderio.
Breaking into a big smile, Desiderio returned the wave and shouted “Merry Christmas” to Welsh.
It was all a bit of good-natured malarkey as Desiderio and other marchers began Sea Isle City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade amid gusty winds and snow flurries on a late-winter day that seemed more appropriate for Santa Claus and his elves than Irish leprechauns.
Indeed, it was a day for the wearing of the overcoats and the long underwear as well as a day for the wearing of the green.
“We were all born and raised in Alaska. This is balmy,” spectator Tom Murphy joked as the parade was getting ready to start at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in frigid temperatures.
Murphy and his wife, Margie, live in Drexel Hill, Pa., and have a vacation home in Sea Isle. They were joined by their friends, Bill and Pat Hamilton, at the corner of Landis Avenue and 83th Street, the parade’s starting point.
They were bundled up in parkas, scarves, gloves and hats to try to keep warm. Yet they insisted they were determined to watch the parade – even in the bitter cold.
“Absolutely. We’ve got to support the community,” said Bill Hamilton, who lives in Sea Isle with his wife, Pat.
Welsh, another Sea Isle resident, makes it a tradition to watch the parade. His late father, James “Pop Welshie” Welsh Sr., would dress up as a leprechaun in Sea Isle’s previous St. Paddy’s Day parades.
“This was his parade,” Welsh said of his father, a local legend who was 83 when he died in December 2019.
Mayor Desiderio and his family have sponsored Sea Isle’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for 30 years. They also host the town’s Columbus Day parade.
Despite the snow, blustery conditions and chilly temperatures on Saturday, Desiderio emphasized that he never considered canceling the parade.
“It wasn’t even a thought,” he said. “We missed the last two years and I wasn’t about to miss this year.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing requirements in 2020 and 2021 forced the parade’s cancellation the last two years.
With mask requirements and restrictions on large crowds now a thing of the past as the pandemic has waned, hundreds of spectators were able to line the sidewalks along the parade route to savor a sea of green clothing, shamrocks and Irish flags.
The lively procession rolled down Landis Avenue between 83rd and 63rd streets, accompanied by the blaring sirens from Sea Isle fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles in the parade.
Dressed as “Irish princesses,” sisters Victoria and Abigail Morrison were wearing their shiny crowns while sitting in a pickup truck driven by their father, Tim Morrison, in the parade procession.
“I’ve been in parades before. I love it,” 8-year-old Victoria said.
“I love it, too,” 6-year-old Abigail added. “It’s a lot of fun.”
As the parade neared its finish at 63rd Street and Landis Avenue, the snow flurries let up and the gusty winds seemed to diminish a bit, finally giving the marchers and spectators some relief from the cold weather.
No doubt it was the luck of the Irish.
