Pumps' Perplexities

This holiday is a big city "thing" which have large Catholic
populations....I guess there are still a few little towns which
will have a small parade but, in large, the bigger the city, the
bigger the bars and the bigger the parade.....

Years ago there was a section of New York City that had
at least 6 bars on a "block".....Block after block......Reason,
New York had a parade for everybody - Irish, German, Polish,
Hispanic, Italian.....(St. Pat's, Steuben, Pulaski, Puerto Rico,
Columbus.).....

The parade started in the 40's on Fifth Avenue.....Preceded
up Fifth to 86th Street and turned East.....The parade "broke
up" in "Germantown" at 86th and 2nd Ave......

Now each "block" between 82nd and 90th on 2nd and 1st
Avenues each had 6 bars.....One on each corner and one in
the middle on both sides of the street......

When that parade "broke up" there were a lot of thirsty
people with tired feet which wanted to take a sit down......
The bar owners paid their monthly rents just on the beer
money spent on parade days......(Needless to say all bars
do have toilets and it was also a long march.).....Pumps