Well, I hit the Mardi Gras scene on Saturday to see part of one of the biggest parades they have here in NO. I say “part” because the Endymion parade is reputed to be on the streets for seven hours because it has 32 floats, numerous marching bands, and one 200+ foot float. Didn’t see the latter because I just wasn’t hanging around until midnight. Probably would have had more trouble getting home than I did. More on that later.
Got to the parade grounds about a half an hour late because the buses were/are all screwed up because of Carnival/Mardi Gras. Still got to see the first float (from afar) because of NO time. I saw the float which boasted actress Marisa Tomei, but I didn’t see Marisa Tomei. No biggie. Who I DID see was Tom Felicia off “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (and those Pier One commercials) on another float. He was having a blast flinging beads all over the place.
Speaking of beads, I made off with about five and a half pounds of the suckers despite the fact that the women who were “nice” enough to let me up in front so I could see always managed to snag the stuff that a float rider tried to throw directly at me. People are ruthless when it comes to those made-in-China things. Except they don’t like the “old school” ones. My gain, because I liked them and thus got A LOT of them. The typical metallic, jewel-toned ones are OK, but I liked the older, short-stringed, clear plastic ones from (I was told) about twenty years ago. Also coveted are large beads and differently shaped (not round) beads, and I managed a few strings of those as well – including a long string of half-inch diameter, disco-ball faceted gold beads. Hey folks, there’s a hierarchy to these things. I have plenty of typical beads I’m going to mail to my grandmother for the younger cousins. But I’m stingy and I’m keeping ALL the old ones, so there!
I actually have my friend/attendant Erika to thank for my treasure trove. She waved and pointed and yelled and leaped over me to get a lot of this stuff. And to prove I’m not completely stingy, you’ll be glad to know I actually shared my old beads with her because she and I apparently were the only ones in our section of street who appreciated their retro value.
The floats were incredible in their detail and imagination. Endymion’s theme this year was “Magical Menagerie,” and there were centaurs and satyrs and Sirens, oh my. And I forgot my freaking camera . . . . I did manage (again, thanks to Erika) a dubloon and a cup with the krewe logo, theme, and date on them. Great keepsakes.
Oh yeah, and a plastic crawfish key chain. Priceless.
Yeah, I'm pretty much Mardi Gras-ed out. It literally took me three hours to get home Saturday night on the bus because of all the freakin' vacationers taking the buses. On the first leg, two buses passed Erika and me because they were "full" and didn't want to pick up the bulky wheelchair. When the third bus came, Erika said, "Look lady. My friend is freezing, she's gonna get sick if she stays out here any longer, and this is the ONLY way she has to get home since there are no wheelchair-accessible cabs in this city. PLEASE let her on." All the passengers started making room while the bus driver was saying no. Made her look like a total butt-munch, so she let me on. I was chilled to the bone by the time I finally got home -- cranked my thermostat to 80 for half an hour. Crazy thing is that the air temp really wasn't that cold (in the 50s), but with all the surrounding water and the breeze, it was chilly, especially on my old, arthritic knee.
And no, I didn’t see any flashers. We stayed away from Canal and St. Charles Streets where all the vacationers hang. We were where all the families were, waiting to see their babies in the marching bands. Speaking of that, one of my favorite bands got really involved with the crowd. They did a bit of song while standing in their nice, not-quite-straight lines, then they started moving around in random dancing. After a bit of that, they played instruments with one hand and grabbed onlookers with the other, pulling them into the street to dance with them. No wonder they had so many beads!
As a by-product of trying to find a route for an earlier parade which I didn’t make it to, I discovered a bunch of eating establishments I want to try within walking distance of the Elysian Fields bus into the Quarter as well as some shops I want to check out. However, I’m not going anywhere near the Quarter while those crazy tourists are here.
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