Rowdy St. Patrick's Day

Last year for St. Patrick's Day, we all piled into the "L" and headed into the city to watch the Chicago river turn green.  I had heard all about it, and wasn't about to miss out on an age old tradition here in Chicago.  The weather was cold, but manageable, and the kids were delighted to see the fluorescent green river, and eat our Garrett's popcorn.

We had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year.   We arrived at the "L" around 10:00 this morning and claimed our prize front seats so that the kids could see through the front window just like the driver.  The train was empty.  The first few stops were uneventful.

I heard the trouble before I actually saw it.  Throngs of drunk (and still drinking, I might add), boisterous, rowdy, college age kids, clad in green everything (and not much of anything in some cases), singing at the top of their lungs.  When the train stopped, hundreds of them crammed into the train.  My kids definitely had an eye, and an ear, full.  The train plodded carefully along because of the crowd, and loading and unloading was painfully slow.  We were treated to drunken renditions of "America the Beautiful" and other songs I can't repeat, along with chants of "USA" (what that has to do with St. Patrick's Day I still haven't figured out), and "Go Green, Go Green," and once again, other chants that I can't repeat.  The warm weather had definitely brought out the best of Chicago. 

An hour later, we finally arrived at our stop, but couldn't even make it to the door with our crew to get out.   We got off two stops later when the rest of the crowd got off.

At that point, John and I made an executive decision.  We had already seen the river green.  Once would be enough.

We turned away from the crowd and headed toward the financial district.  We did get to see green fountains in the city square, and that was enough green water to appease anyone who was disappointed.  Then we had a quiet lunch at Wendy's, grabbed some Garrett's, and rode the Metra (commuter train) home to avoid another rowdy ride.  

Talking with the kids, I realized that they had learned from what they observed on the train.  Avery felt uncomfortable.  Isaac thought they were rude and disrespectful to everyone else on the train.  Brady said that he couldn't believe they were that loud, and it gave him a huge headache.  They all said that it was not the group of kids they would choose to hang with.  Avery also said that she felt sad for them.  She couldn't pinpoint why she felt sad, but she just did.  Kids are very observant.