It was “a horrible cold winter” in 2009 when a group of friends who worked in Amagansett got talking at the now defunct Indian Wells Tavern about “rounding up a bunch of wagons” and doing their own St. Patrick’s Day parade down Main Street, Patty Sales recalled Friday.
An annual event ever since, the Am O’Gansett Parade founded by Ms. Sales, Lee Satinsky, and Joi Jackson Perle happens this year on Saturday at noon.
“Be careful not to show up at 12:06,” Mr. Satinsky jokingly warned, “it might be over by then.”
In telling the parade’s origin story on Friday with Mr. Satinsky, Ms. Sales remembered that “Someone made the fatal mistake of saying ‘nah, you could never do that.’ “
Challenge accepted, the wheels were set in motion and they began to plan the first, and shortest, St. Patrick’s Day parade Amagansett had ever seen.
“Lee is more of a personality but as the youngest I’m stubborn,” Ms. Sales said. Ms. Perle has been “an integral part of maintaining the parade’s fun factor.”
On March 12, 2009, The Star first reported that “the wild and crazy guys at the Computer Shop have concocted another silliness.” Dubbing it the “World’s Shortest Parade,” the organizers promised “Clydesdales, fire trucks, marching, and floats.”
The Clydesdales turned out to be one horse, wooden, with wheels on it. “That first year someone went into Lee’s shop and yelled at him, ‘You promised Clydesdales!’ “ Ms. Sales said with a laugh. “It was my kid’s horse,” she added.
“Yeah, we brought in a guy to weld wheels on it,” Mr. Satinsky said.
“We promised Macy’s balloons too,” Ms. Sales went on, “so we got balloons that said ‘Macy’s’ on them.”
They used green duct tape to mark the parade path and asked Carl (the Greek) Papadopoulos to be their first grand marshal. They thought having a non-Irish grand marshal would add to the hilarity.
And somewhat to their surprise, hundreds of people showed up to march with him.
“It was great, it blocked traffic,” Mr. Satinsky said. “There was so much overflow cars couldn’t get by.”
Even a Hampton Jitney was stuck in that traffic, almost becoming an accidental parade participant, and now a bus is sent every year to participate.
The Amagansett Chamber of Commerce actually grew out of the parade. “We created the chamber to organize the parade,” Mr. Satinsky said.
With social media, the parade has taken on a life of its own. “It runs itself,” Ms. Sales said. People organize online together and groups even use the parade for their own fund-raising purposes. For example the Amagansett Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary previously created and sold its own sweatshirts to help fund its scholarship program.
This year is the 16th anniversary of that first Am O’Gansett Parade, but only the 15th parade, since one was canceled due to Covid-19. “Hey, maybe we should do two this year,” Mr. Satinsky joked.
Those interested in marching in the parade can gather at the parking lot on the north side of Main Street to line up at 11:30. The parade will proceed from the library to the Mobil station and back, with its grand marshals this year being the members of East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue.
“They may randomly save people drowning in the crowd, or do a polar bear plunge in the street,” Mr. Satinsky said. After the parade there will be celebratory cupcakes at the Amagansett Library.
