When the Good Times Don't Roll

Prayers for 12 band members from Gulf Shores, AL, where a vehicle ran into them from the back at the very start of the parade. Four are listed as critical. The parade was immediately cancelled. Don't know what happened and why it might have happened. I was about a quarter mile down the parade route when it happened. We didn't know for about 20 minutes. We did get the idea something was wrong when a rescue jeep and a couple other emergency cars went tearing up the road with sirens going.

This was on top of the driver killing people in the crowd in New Orleans. Tragic days even when it's supposed to be a time of celebration.

*********************

At this point (noon, Tuesday) the police are saying it looks only like an "elderly" man (of 73) driving an SUV ran into them. They don't know if he was supposed to be part of the parade. An accident, probably not intentional or under the influence.

As I think about it, even being as close to the accident on an open road as I was, nothing rippled through the crowd down to us for those 20 minutes. Another spectator near me had a "scanner" app on his phone which is when we found out what happened and that the parade was cancelled. All the energies seemed to go toward helping the 12 band members.

Prayers.

Mardi Gras- Let the Good Times Roll

The final day is here. It is the day of

• Mardi Gras.
• Fat Tuesday.
• Shrove Tuesday.
• Fastnacht.
• Pancake Tuesday.
• Carnival.

Revelry must have an end. But before that, the thought has been let's gorge before the "fast" of Lent. Let's get into "fat eating" before the lean times of repentance show up.

Let's indulge. 

Sure, let's overdo it- 

for tomorrow we can repent.

Information from Wikipedia article:
Mardi Gras in Mobile.

In other words:

"Laissez les bons temps rouler"

Let the good times roll! 

See y'all tomorrow. When we will once again have to get serious. Well, sort of serious in some form or another.

Mardi Gras (-1)- Throws

 "Throw me something, Mister!"
-A common refrain heard at Mardi Gras Parades around Mobile.

Mobile, Alabama, was the capital of French Louisiana before New Orleans was less than a tiny village. Mardi Gras in Alabama is a BIG thing. It started in Mobile in 1703, 15 years before New Orleans was founded.

 (Source for information: Wikipedia Article: Mardi Gras in Mobile.)

For many of the Mardi Gras parades in Mobile members of societies on floats toss gifts to the general public, known as throws, that include plastic beads, doubloon coins, decorated plastic cups, candy, wrapped cakes/snacks, stuffed animals, and small toys, footballs, frisbees, or whistles.

Mardi Gras throws have themselves evolved over the years. As little as 20 years ago, the beads thrown by Mobile maskers were small, cheap plastic pieces, and few maskers gave much thought to them. Today, the beads can be the most expensive items on a masker's throw list.

In 1956, the first Moon Pies were thrown by children on the Queen's float in the Comic Cowboys parade.[17] Moon Pies have since become a staple of Mardi Gras in Mobile.

And while talking about food (a very loose description of Moon Pies I realize!) let's not forget the King Cakes!

The first week of January starts the king cake season. The traditional king cake was associated with Epiphany, January 6, also known as Twelfth Night, when English and Europeans celebrated Christmas for twelve days up to this night. The current version is a coffee cake, and is oblong and braided. The cake is iced with a simple icing and covered with purple, green and gold sugar. Each cake contains a small hidden baby doll. According to custom, whoever finds the doll must either buy the next King Cake or throw the next King Cake party. In Mobile, people throw hundreds of King Cake parties every year, and thousands of cakes are made, bought and eaten.

Well worth it!

Mardi Gras is supposed to be fun. Lent is coming, a time when we are supposed to be penitent and introspective. Lent is not a time of joy, but one of repentance. The festivities come to an end at the stroke of midnight tomorrow.

So- throw them beads and let's continue for one more day!

Mardi Gras (-2)- Parades and Floats

Mobile, Alabama, was the capital of French Louisiana before New Orleans was less than a tiny village. Mardi Gras in Alabama is a BIG thing. It started in Mobile in 1703, 15 years before New Orleans was founded.

I have gathered some facts and trivia about Mardi Gras along with some of my pictures to take us through Mardi Gras. (Wikipedia Article: Mardi Gras in Mobile.)


At the heart of the celebration in Mobile are the parades with floats and masked riders and mystic societies. It is far too complex to get into in these articles. One of these years I'm going to get to the museum in Mobile and get it all figured out. Until then I just sit back and enjoy.

Many of the local towns in Baldwin County, the east side of Mobile Bay, also have parades. Some start as early as three weeks before Mardi Gras Tuesday. Dauphin Island, in the western Mobile Bay, starts the whole thing off. Dauphin Island is where the first explorers entered what is now Alabama. For the last 17 days before Lent, there are daily parades in Mobile itself.

From Wikipedia, the information on the floats:

The design, construction and decoration of Mardi Gras floats is a year-round business in Mobile. Several companies along the Gulf Coast do no other work than building floats. The larger floats in Mobile's parades are designed to hold about 15 or 16 adults and their throws. City regulations stipulate length, width and height of floats, to ensure that the floats can safely navigate the narrow streets and tight turns of downtown.

The floats are typically multilevel, with a lower and upper level, and one or two mezzanine stations (typically near the back of the float). The float "captain" typically rides on the upper level, which lets him or her see everyone on the float. For floats in night-time parades, the structures are wired for lighting, and a portable generator is towed behind the float to provide power. Each float also contains some type of portable restroom facilities. Although from the street, a Mardi Gras float might look like a dainty, flimsy contraption, the reality is that they are quite sturdily built and are capable of withstanding a good rocking by the riders.

Different societies and organizations address the different themes each year. Since I have not yet been to a parade in Mobile (maybe next year?) I haven't seen any of their traditional floats in their home base and themes which include:

• Order of Myths Emblem: Folly chasing Death around the broken pillar of life.
• Knights of Revelry Emblem: Folly dancing in the goblet of life.
• Infant Mystics Emblem: A black cat atop a cotton bale, the foundation of Mobile's antebellum wealth
• Mystics of Time's Vernadean: A giant, rolling, fire and smoke-breathing dragon float
• Mystic Stripers Society: Two large 40-foot-long (12 m) emblem floats, one a ferocious and "strong" Tiger, another a sleek and "fast" Zebra.
• Crewe of Columbus' Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria: Three floats built to resemble Columbus' famed ships.
• Order of Polka Dots: Famed emblem featuring three winged sons of Pegasus bearing the Golden Chariot of the Gypsy Queen through rainbow enveloped clouds
• Order of Inca Messengers and Sun Worshippers: Some of Mobile's largest moving structures.
• Conde Cavaliers Emblem: Swashbuckler points his sword right at Mobile.
• Comic Cowboys: Series of satirical comments on current events, locally and nationally.
• Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) The Mollies

Here are some pictures from a couple years ago in Orange Beach, Fairhope, and Gulf Shores:

[Note: It was VERY cold that Mardi Gras Tuesday in Gulf Shores. Air temp was 38 with a wind chill of 22. Even this Minnesotan was cold!]

One thing that has not yet been mentioned- throws.

With this last picture for today, we will hold onto the throws until tomorrow.

Lent Picture A Day (40): Sixth Sunday- Palm Sunday: Celebrate

Mardi Gras

Let's bring the season to its end. The good times have been rolling. It will be time to reflect and spend some time in meditation and mindfulness. It doesn't mean the fun is all done. One does not have to be totally somber for the next 40 days. So let's do one last trip along the Mardi Gras (or Fastnacht or Fasching) trail.



(Note: All pictures from Orange Beach, AL, parades.)