It helps to have a frank and honest style

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.
-- Al Gore, March 9, 1999

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According to a March 1, 2006 Elmhurst Press report the first Spring Road Saint Patrick’s Day Parade started with just a “handful of people,” but has grown to “more than 20,000 in attendance.” The report continues:

. . .this year's event will take about $25,000 and 200 people to run.
"It's beyond anybody's idea," said [Jim] O'Connor [parade committee chairman]. "Nobody thought it would ever grow like this."

Nobody except for Mayor Tom Marcucci, who likes to say he came up with the idea for the parade. (emphasis added)

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While the Elmhurst Press has reported that Mayor Tom Marcucci “likes to say that he came up with the idea for the parade,” the individual credited with coming up with the idea for the Spring Road Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is the late Doug Kuester working with fellow members of the Spring Road Business Association.

Excerpt from Doug Kuester’s obituary

Mr. Kuester formed friendships with several other Elmhurst business owners and enjoyed working to improve the city. One day, over drinks at the Spring Inn, he and others decided to begin a St. Patrick's Day parade in Elmhurst. The first parade was in 1997 and has continued every year since.

Though Mr. Kuester was of German, not Irish, ancestry, he thought a St. Patrick's Day parade would be a good way to unite the community. He also helped organize the village's annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

"He was a very community-minded person," said his son. Chicago Tribune, May 17, 2003

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The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

“If a pickpocket intrude into the society of gentlemen, they exert what moral force they have, and he finds himself uncomfortable, and glad to get away. But if an adventurer go through all the forms, procure himself to be elected to a post of trust, as of senator, or president,--though by the same arts as we detest in the house-thief,--the same gentlemen who agree to discountenance the private rogue, will be forward to show civilities and marks of respect to the public one: and no amount of evidence of his crimes will prevent them giving him ovations, complimentary dinners, opening their own houses to him, and priding themselves on his acquaintance. We were not deceived by the professions of the private adventurer,--the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons; but we appeal to the sanctified preamble of the messages and proclamations of the public sinner, as the proof of sincerity.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A Frank & Honest Memoir
A Million Little Pieces