Beer in green plastic cups, green T-shirts galore and even green fortune cookies in green wrappers gave Cruz Bay, St. John a greenish glow on Saturday as the town celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a wee parade.

"Everybody’s Irish on St. Paddie’s Day," Pat Marolt said.

The Oxford, Md. resident and her husband, Gary Marlot, are spending the winter aboard their boat anchored off St. John.

The parade ran down the road that runs from Winston Wells Ballfield to First Bank, passing Quiet Mon Pub. The pub organized the parade.

Up and down the parade route nearly everyone professed to be Irish, even if only for a short while.

"We’re Polish, but we like to be Irish for the day," Dan Wesolowski of Malvern, Penn. said. He was hanging out with St. John resident Mary Hartman, who had handed around green necklaces, pins and other adornments from her vast collection.

"I’ve collected all this green stuff over many years on St. John," Hartman said.

Ann Chase of Syracuse, N.Y., is a big fan of Ireland, she said.

"And I love Guinness beer," she said, waiting for the parade to start.

Is St. John resident Lisa Durgin Irish? "Lisa Kathleen Durgin," she said, with the emphasis on the Kathleen and roots in the Emerald Isle.

St. John residents and many tourists usually know when the parade will be held. Others just wandered by in time to watch.

"I’m waiting on the ferry to go home and a local told me I had to come and see the shortest St. Patrick’s Day on record," Les Willis of Suffolk, Va. said.

Mark Davis of Raleigh, N.C. came out with friends to "enjoy the alcohol and festivities" as well as to watch Quiet Mon Pub staff and friends throw T-shirts and green-wrapped candy into the crowd, to see Kelly O’Brien, who called herself Miss Ireland, wave, to cheer on the kids from Using Sport for Social Change, and to watch the Middle Age Majorettes strut their stuff.

And St. John resident Catherine Stul entertained with some step dancing.

St. John resident Virginia Knaplund was making her way up and down the parade route passing out Irish flags.

"I’ve been doing it for 10 years," she said, hustling off to hand out more flags.

Weston Pearson, a bartender at Caneel Bay Resort, was riding in a truck with some friends. While the intent was to enjoy the day, he also spoke about how he was promoting recycling.

"We need to recycle bottles as well as cans," he said, referring to the fact that St. John currently has a recycling program for aluminum cans only.