Colleen & Mark Taber

Last Friday Melinda marched for the last time with the Cathedral High School "Pride of the Irish" marching band. Cathedral closes down every St. Patrick’s Day so everyone can participate in the festivities — and the band is always in the parade downtown.

This year the Cathedral band even lead the parade, so I videoed them along the entire route and even managed to take a few still photos. It was bitter-cold, but crisp and sunny, and all the big limestone monuments and government buildings downtown had a nice bright glow to them.

Although I think Melinda was a somewhat glad to have this year’s band season come to an end, being part of the band was an important part of her four years at Cathedral. And I have to admit that I really enjoy listening to and watching high school marching bands perform more than I ever thought I would (even when they’re just marching straight down the street and playing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" and the Cathedral fight song over and over and over).  I really hope Christopher follows through on his current intention to be in the Carmel High School band next year — it’ll be fun.

More photos are available in our photo gallery. And here’s a video compilation of some of the parade’s highlights:

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