Front and center at the South Shore Frolics

Anyone who has been to the weekend-long South Shore Frolics knows that the late morning parade, which winds down much of Kinnickinnic Avenue in Bay View before heading ceremoniously east to South Shore Park (where the party continues for another nine hours), is not normal.  It isn’t unintentionally hokey, like so many of the neighborhood seasonal parades can seem to the butterfly chair-bound sightseer.  Instead, there is a revelry of unbounding joy and wackiness to the whole thing.

We were disappointed there was no Rhythm Chicken this year, but glad to see the Fez-laden Shriner men driving miniature cars in daring figure eights.  The politicians were there, sure, but if you weren’t throwing candy in this one then you aren’t getting a vote.   The best part of the popular Frolics parade is the feeling that anyone with a talent–gymnast, unicyclist, drumline, whatever–can march down the street and wave at their neighbors.

We asked TCD regular Nickolas Nikolic to take an impressionistic look at the event.  He was directed to one hub of Bay View at KK and Potter Road, where he planted himself in the middle of the action.  View our slideshow below, or visit the set at our flickr account here.