The Savannah streets are brimming with tourists, jockeying for 3-5 days of hedonism on the coast before the return to the normalized complacency of a scheduled lifestyle. The wafting urine scent filters out of the alley as I drive around in the throngs of people flocking… grouping and diverging, with a sort of frenzied need to ‘throw down’. A militant celebration.
While I usually do end up having fun on St. Patrick’s Day, the build-up is kind of ominous. Maybe it’s a survival trait or a throwback to some negative experience from my infancy, but large groups milling about (moving at varying rates in random directions) unnerves me. I have always felt that most random violence (whether gang, riot, war, etc.) occurs in this setting, so a fair dose of apprehension may be healthy.
Also, any event like this now has a built-in security component that stretches beyond police… and too much of that in your city is always a bad thing, so hopefully both personel and monitoring levels will be down afterwards which is good for everyone involved. Were it not for the revenue spikes I’m sure gatherings would be discouraged by the powers that be. Most people will spend less-wisely on the road for ease, and that will inevitably be exploited.
Thankfully, by the time the drinking starts tomorrow it will evaporate and by Sunday I probably won’t even recall the eireeness of it all. Cheers.