Saint patrick's Day In Butte

[greynotsoold]

Butte, Montana, is the city in the US with the highest percentage of residents of Irish descent. Something like 25%, higher than Boston, etc...St Paddy's day has long been a hallowed holiday here. For much of the 20th century, it was known as the biggest holiday celebration in the Northwest, drawing well over 100,000 people to Butte.
Of course, that was when prostitution and casino style gambling were legal here, but the last openly run brothel shut down in 82, and you can only play slots in bars now. But the Saint P's party still draws, they say, 30-40,000 people to a town with a population of 30,000. This year, I decided to attend the festivities.
I didn't go on Saturday night; that, apparently, was the time to go. I live a mile away from "party-central" and could hear the bands and the fireworks. But I went this evening, and hanging out with something well well less than 40k people (I'd guess maybe 2000), half my age and ridiculously drunk, wasn't as much fun as it might seem. It was also 26 degreesF, very windy and snowing.
So I ended up in a biker bar near my home, good jukebox, nice people. Are any of you familiar with the "Car Bomb" as a drink to celebrate an Irish Holiday? You take a shot of Bailey's and put it in a mug of beer then slam it down. Girls seem to like them. I had a few, a shot or two, and the jukebox had not only uriah Heep but David Allan Coe and Black Sabbath. Can't beat that, not at $2.50 a pint.

[Mars_ax]

Sounds like you had fun, I had no clue that Butte, Montana had such a large Irish population, i'm about 1/2 Irish American on my dad's side of the family. So I generally have a few bottles or pints of Guinness like I did yesterday, on St. Paddy's day.

cheers

[GOAT]

This thread is nothing without pics...

[Master]

Birmingham has a high Irish population and is the biggest ethnic minority in England.

[Beanz]

I went a watched my friends band who are a bit like the Pouges. Twas a proper knees up.