St. Paddy`s Pickle Parade
LSR participated with nine Chevys in Mansfield’s second St. Patrick’s Day weekend parade.
The event was a big hit last year, and there was a large turnout again this year thanks to beautiful spring weather. Advertised as The World’s Only Best Maid St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade & Palooza, the parade rolled through historic downtown Mansfield on Saturday afternoon, March 16. The Pickle Queens were out there wearing their red hair, tiaras, and green ball gowns – very colorful. The origin of the parade honors Best Maid’s heritage in Mansfield. Founded in 1926 by the Dalton family, Best Maid makes about 50 million pickles a year. The link between St. Patrick’s Day and Best Maid pickles with the color green was the obvious basis for the theme.
It was a warm, windy day for the parade, and we taped green decorations on our Chevys with layers of tape to try to keep them from blowing off, and we had to “just dill with it.” Clay & Judy Perrine drove their ’27 touring car that was previously owned by Bill Sells of Mansfield. The car was coming home to participate in another hometown parade as it had done for many years and was always a crowd favorite. Also driving Chevys in the parade were Dwayne & his son, Stephen Allen ‘66 pickup and Wendell & Rosie Allen ’70 with a bunch of the Allen Family (sorry we didn’t get their names), Elmer & Barbara Anderson ’57, Chuck & Sheila Kinsey ’57, Danny & Janet Jordan ’55, Dave & Kay Putney ’37, Glen & Eileen Rogers ’68, and Wayne & Betty Wilshire ’54 pickup. After the parade, our group kept on driving out East Broad Street and headed to the Ray’s Pharmacy building and Suzy Q’s restaurant where Floyd & Wanda Blakeley also joined us. There we enjoyed hamburgers and ice cream. It was an enjoyable day and being in this parade was a fun thing to do – and something we had never done before.
Saturday, March 16 – Starting at 2:00 PM – Mansfield, Texas
Our club will participate in the St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade to be held in the historic downtown area of Mansfield. We will meet at the Braum’s located at 1711 Hwy. 157 North, Mansfield (we’ve met at this same location for tours). We will need to leave there no later than 12:30 PM and drive as a group to our assigned line-up position for the parade.
Our club has been registered as decorated vehicles, so we need to decorate our old Chevys with a few green balloons, streamers, etc. or anything green. We started a sign-up sheet at our February meeting, and we have a few spaces left. If you are interested in driving your old Chevy in the parade, please contact me by phone at 817-473-4178, or cell 817-437-1853, or E-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
If you can’t drive your old Chevy in the parade, come out and watch the parade. For more information about this event, check out www.PickleParade.org.