This weekend’s newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
The WISCH LIST
By Dave Wischnowsky
You may be able to freeze the Chicago River, but you can’t freeze out its traditions – not on St. Patrick’s Day Weekend, at least.
With all the ice and snow that’s plagued the Windy City this winter, there had been concerns as recently as last week that the river might still be frozen over today, denying the city its ability to dye the water green as has been the March tradition for more than five decades.
However, Kevin Sherlock, an event organizer with the Journeymen Plumbers Local Union 130 that oversees the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade and river dyeing, said everyone should chill.
“There’s no need to worry,” Sherlock told the Chicago Tribune on March 4. “The ice is never that thick that we can’t break through it and make it work. They will get the water moving and get the dye in there. They have never had a problem before.”
And won’t today, either, as the weather has at least warmed up a little bit this week. To get things flowing for Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade – which you can watch live at noon on ABC-Ch. 7 (the river is dyed at 9:30 a.m.) – here are a few things you may not know about the holiday and Irish in Chicago.
A surprise to dye for
While it may turn the Chicago River green, the dye that the Plumbers Union uses to do so doesn’t start out that way. Rather, it’s orange – and its “emerald effect” was actually discovered by accident.
Back in 1961, local labor leader Stephen M. Bailey reportedly was watching a plumber trace a leak in the Chicago River using orange dye when upon its placement in the water, he saw it instantly turn green.
A proud Irishman, Bailey immediately got a bright idea about a new way in which the city could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Bold waters, bold words
As a pal of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Bailey held a press conference in 1962 announcing that he’d use his new trick with the dye to launch a new March tradition.
Known for being a bit, well, flamboyant with his words, here’s what Bailey declared, “The Chicago River will dye the Illinois, which will dye the Mississippi, which will dye the Gulf of Mexico, which will send green dye up the gulf stream across the North Atlantic into the Irish Sea, a sea of green surrounding the land will appear as a greeting to all Irishmen of the Emerald Isle from the men of Erin in Chicagoland, USA.”
It didn’t, of course.
But, you know, why let facts get in the way of a good speech?
The Green Mile
Sherlock says the amount of dye that the Plumbers Union will use this year should keep the river green for about six to 10 hours.
The first time, it lasted just a little longer.
In 1962, the city dropped 100 pounds of dye in the water, which kept the river green for an entire week. Today, they’ll use just 40 pounds of a secret-recipe, vegetable-based concoction that the city says is safe for environment.
Irish ayes
Not every city would go to the trouble of dyeing its river green. But it’s really no surprise that St. Patrick’s Day is such a big deal in Chicago.
After all, there are more citizens of Irish descent than any other ethnic group in the city. And over the decades, mayors of Irish descent – thanks in largest part to the Daleys – have ruled Chicago for more than 80 of the city’s 177 years of existence.