It was a long, long time ago, let’s just say.

I had driven to Marshall from Fairmont to talk about the open editor’s position at the Independent. As someone in the newspaper business, it only made sense to take a look at a phone book — you read that right — to get a sense of the surnames and glean more information about who lives in Marshall.

I perused the phone book, talked to a few locals, and made a call back to my wife, Mary. The conversation was short, and, paraphrasing, went something like this: “I looked at the phone book. There’s as many ‘V’s’ as there are ‘S’s. And a lot of people are related to one another.”

Another, more formal interview would follow before packing up the clan and venturing to Marshall, knowing virtually no one. It wouldn’t be long, however, before we would meet some of these ‘V’s’ … VanKeulen, Verkinderen, Vandendriessche,Vandeputte, Vandelanotte, VanMoer, et al.

There were very few ‘O’s’ in the book. And it surprised us that St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t a big deal in Marshall. There was a one- or two-block parade once, I recall, led by the late Dick O’Connell, but that was a one-time event. After a few years, and meeting some Irish, a small group met and started what would be a more substantial parade, which lasted for several years and was embraced by the community.

Those early organizers included Bob and Brenda Byrnes, Pat Foley, Pat Carmody, and Jim Culhane.

Planning and organizing would pass to the Chamber several years later and the parade survived, sort of. There were several years where there was no parade, but, generally speaking, something was fairly regularly held to mark the holiday, a religious and cultural holiday held on March 17, the traditional death date of St. Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Our interest in the holiday stems from our upbringing in Emmetsburg, Iowa, a very Irish community of 3,700 in northwest Iowa.

How Irish? There were two Catholic parishes, two Catholic grade schools and a Catholic high school.

It is the sister city of Dublin, Ireland, and home to McNallys, Murrays, Brennans, O’Dells, Molloys, and Dunigans. You get the picture.

And St. Pat’s is a big deal there. Its St. Pat’s celebration includes, of course, a green stripe on the street for the parade route; a huge parade that passes the town’s statue of its namesake, Robert Emmet, and the Blarney Stone; minting of an Irish dollar; a Miss Shamrock and Little Miss Shamrock pageants; O’Round the Loch Run; the hosting of an Irish dignitary; and canning of Blarney, and, more importantly, Blarney Repellent.

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish. In Emmetsburg, and Marshall.

It’s nice to see the parade return to Marshall this year, and it will be held at 3 p.m. this Saturday, March 16, through downtown Marshall. Earlier in the day, there’s the YMCA Shamrock Shuffle starting at 10:30 a.m.

Lucan, which has had an annual St. Pat’s parade since 1987, will have its event on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Granted, the St. Patrick’s Day parade pales in comparison to the SMSU homecoming and Sounds of Summer parades, but it’s a fun event, an opportunity to celebrate local Irish heritage for those with Irish blood and especially those who wish they had some.

May you be in heaven, a half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. Happy St. Pat’s!

— Jim Tate is the former editor of the Independent and communications director at SMSU