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Mardi Gras 1994
We did Fat Tuesday at St. Charles and Felicity this year. My mother-in-law has a friend who lives in the apartment building at 1750 St. Charles, so we had a bathroom in walking distance. She spent the night at her friend's place and got out early on the neutral ground with the ladder for Justin. We got uptown around 7:00am, and got into waiting mode. I brought my Walkman so I could listen to WWL-AM's and WCKW-FM's reports. WWL, of course, had more traditional coverage from Gallier Hall, while WCKW flew in Stephens and Pruett from KLOL in Houston for Mardi on Bourbon St. Where TV would have to put up those digitized cover-ups on various exposed body parts, the DJ can describe what he sees and relay it back.
Just a little after 8:00am came Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club. They were Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf this year, with Pete dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. It was hysterical. They threw a healthy amount of their trademark copper-color Several other clubs passed after Pete's group, including the Lyons, Corner Club, and the Buzzards. Catching a little from them and costume-watching passed the time until the parade of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club passed. As much as Zulu has improved its image in the past few years, with the Lundi Gras celebration, the classy krewe poster, etc., it's still puts on a low-rent parade. The parade itself is no better than any of the others that use rented floats, and it's notorious for having huge gaps between floats and marching groups. The Zulus throw a good quantity, though, including the prized coconuts. Zulu trivia: The coconuts come in two varieties: gold and black. The gold are the more common, the black-painted ones being rarer. Most people think of Zulu as an all-black krewe, but Zulu actually has more white members than any of the other krewes have black members. The king and queen will most likely always be black, but that's not why white folks join the organization anyway. I've got several friends that would love to join Zulu, because they'd like to parade on Mardi Gras, the parade ends early (it gets to Armstrong Park around noon), and they have a hell of a lot better chance getting into Zulu than they do of parading with Rex. Zulu gets a 7.5 from me for score. It's low-rent. The Lundi Gras celebration with the arrival of the King and his Soulful Warriors gets a 9.75, but the parade n eeds a lot of work before it can be considered a class act.
Of course, the parade that follows Zulu is the one that it was formed to mimic. The School of Design was organized in 1872 with the idea of putting on a daytime parade on Fat Tuesday. Comus' parade had already been staged for some years, but Comus was a night parade. Since the king of the new krewe was going to rule over the daytime celebrations on Mardi Gras, he was designated "The King of Carnival," better known as Rex. While Rex is a member of the School of Design in most cases, the organization has not limited themselves to one of its own when choosing kings of Carnival. Rex is chosen for his civic and community works, contributions to the city and region, etc. Because of this recognition, Rex is the only "old-line" king whose identity is made public. The parade got to us around 12:30, a bit later than usual. Long gone are the days when noontime came and Rex rounded onto Canal Street to toast his queen at the Boston Club. The crowds on St. Charles are just too thick for them to pull it off without changing their 10:00am start time (from Claiborne and Napoleon). Led by the Ross Volunteers Drill Team from Texas A&M, as well as three lieutenants on horseback dressed in purple, green, and gold, the parade was 26 classy floats. The theme was "Notable New Orleanians." Rex' idea of who is "notable" means guys like John McDonough (philanthropist that donated millions to New Orleans Public Schools) or Eitienne de Bore' (invented the process whereby sugar cane could be granulated). The names may have been a bit on the obscure side but the floats were gorgeous. The float commemorating de Bore, for example, had massive stalks of sugar cane that were a pretty sight. The classic Rex floats paraded also, such as the Bouef Gras (the Fatted Ox, representing the last meat before Lent), His Majesty's Bandwagon, Streetcar, and Calliope. Rex and his men have been known to be on the cheap side with the throws, but that's changed in recent years. They've gone to throwing a purple, green and gold set of beads that have a little plastic crown with "REX" stamped on it. No date, so they can be ordered in massive quantities. They also throw non-dated Rex cups in purple, green and gold. Since the introduction of these throws, the volume coming from the parade have picked up dramatically. Even doubloons come out of their hands freely. I used to bring a cold six-pack of Dixie to the parade with me to insure that I got some doubloons, but I haven't had to resort to that tactic in years. (I will if I have to, though. We've got a collection of Rex doubloons that goes back to the original doubloon for *any* carnival organization, the 1960 Rex.) Rex gets a 9. There are still too many old men with bad attitudes riding in the parade, else it would get a 9.5-9.75.
Following Rex, of course, are the trucks. My son Justin didn't really care for the fact that all he caught from both Zulu and Rex were beads and cups. He wanted trinkets and junk. Well, he didn't have to wait long. The Elks Krewe of Orleanians immediately follows Rex, with its 100+ trucks. They start off with a quality that rivals Blaine Kern's best efforts, then gradually drop in quality to a bunch of people in costume on a flatbed covered with tin foil. By the time the rain came (at about truck #80), I had a bag full of beads, cups, three plastic swords, a couple of squirt guns, and a very happy five year-old. We ran for cover before the rain got too bad. This meant I didn't get to see the Krewe of Crescent City and their 75 trucks, which is a shame. Just when you get finished with all of the low-rent trucks from the end of the Elks parade, Crescent City's best come by. There is stiff competition among the various neighborhood groups and clubs that make up the truck parades to see who has the best float, costume, headpieces, etc. The best overall are ranked, and that ranking is used to determine the order of next year's parade. Most groups base their membership fees and budgets on where they want to be in the parade, so it's possible to get into a truck parade for a little or a lot of money. Crescent City is no slouch of a parade (as trucks go), but it's difficult to keep a kid entertained when it's drizzling, so we surrendered. In past years (particularly when I was in college), we'd stay only for the first twenty or so trucks and either head down St. Charles to the Quarter, or out to Metairie.
This year, we just went home. Helen and Justin were quite satisfied with everything, but I couldn't help but have a pang of longing for Comus' parade that wouldn't be in the evening. It just doesn't seem right that the closing public scenes of Mardi Gras are street sweepers and cops on horses shooing drunks out of the street. Well, this will be (more or less) my last post on Carnival '94. That doesn't mean it's over, or that discussion on the subject is closed. Quite the contrary. Captains will start next week to choose themes, courts, costumes, etc., for Carnival '95, which will climax on Fat Tuesday, 1995, on February 28th. I've already been approached by a friend with a Carnival-related business idea that sounds attractive, so next year's celebration has started almost before this year's has ended.
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