Mardi Gras

Down in New Orleans
Where the blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To blow a horn
On LaSalle and Rampart Street
The combo's there with a mambo beat

The Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
Party Gras, pambo, mambo, mambo
Mardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Orleans

Those are the opening lyrics to the "Mardi Gras Mambo", which is quite catchy.

I had thought about telling you what a good time I had at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Instead, I believe a brief story will suffice:

We left Friday morning and came back Monday afternoon. Around 5pm Monday, I poured myself a glass of water. I walked up to my mom and said, "Watch this." I took a sip of water. I said (in my remaining hoarse half-voice), "I think that's the first water I've had since Thursday."
We stayed with some friends who are Marianites of Holy Cross. They are all wonderful and very strong women who are a lot of fun to hang around. Some of their Sisters stake out an area each morning on the corner of St. Charles and Washington, which is very convenient.

We saw nine parades in three days: Tucks, Krewe d'Etat, Morpheus, Iris, Thoth, Mid-City, Bacchus, Dionysus, and Hermes. Of those, Bacchus is the biggest, but Krewe d'Etat is the most entertaining. They focus on making fun of local and national political figures. (one of their floats was themed "WTFWJD?" It would have been ten parades had we gone to see Endymion Saturday night, but we lost our spot because the church we sit in front of was closed down (or something like that). Endymion isn't technically the most important parade. That title would likely go to Rex, whose king is the King of Carnival. The king decides on that year's Mardi Gras theme and is involved in important traditions, such as toasting the King of Zulu. Rex also declared purple, green and gold to be the official colors of Mardi Gras. Endymion is the largest parade, however, and their motto is "Throw Until It Hurts." I can attest that one can really clean up at an Endymion parade. Zulu was founded as the black Krewe. There are a few female krewes, like Iris and Muses. "Carnival season" technically lasts from the end of Christmas (remember, there are twelve days of Christmas) until Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

Some people are under the impression that the City of New Orleans puts on Mardi Gras. That's why there were comments in 2006 that said the city should not hold parades and the like in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. As far as I can tell, the city does three things for Mardi Gras: issues parade permits, pays the cops, and cleans up the trash. Everything else is a private endeavor. The parades are put on by krewes, private organizations with paid memberships. Members pay for their own costumes and beads, doubloons, cups, etc. (these are collectively known as "throws"). I'd say that New Orleans "hosts" Mardi Gras instead.

Every now and then someone asks me how to catch a lot of beads. My two suggestions: 1) stand next to kids and old people and snatch what comes their way; 2) stand next to a guy with a girl on her shoulders. His hands are busy holding on to her, and her hands are busy holding her shirt. This is probably a good time to note that the majority of every parade route is not filled with drunken perverts, but families and others who behave themselves. I certainly don't deny the shenanigans that take place, especially since I've stood on a balcony across the street from Playboy's balcony suite. Beads that usually travel from balcony to street were then going the other way.

Anyway, I really enjoy Mardi Gras. It gets a lot of attention for New Orleans and Louisiana. Listening to the radio on the way home Monday, we heard caller after caller talk about what a great, special, and meaningful event Mardi Gras is for people. Transplants from other parts of the country tell their friends that they have to come see it. Their friends ask if it's really that good, and they just say, "You have no idea."

Sunday morning before Mass we stopped in at a Popeyes promptly at opening time. The manager was a lady named Helen, and she was kicking butt and taking names behind the counter.
Helen: "Larry! How we doin', Larry!"
Larry: "We're good, Miss Helen, we're good."
Helen:"We ain't good! If we were good, this gentleman wouldn't still be standing here, would he?"

Helen: "If I don't see some flour on some chicken and some chicken in the fire, there's gonna be some hands stuck in some grease! Let's go, y'all got to help me make my money today. I'm too old to be making it by myself."

She was something to watch.

Finally, a word about youtube. As you are probably aware, youtube makes recommendations for videos you might like based on what you've been watching. Well, somebody sent me this video, "New Orleans Mardi Gras 1941 in color". Since I watched it, youtube figured I would also like this one, "MGM - 1940 - Swing Social". Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?