Parade Part 4: To the CBD and beyond...

We are under the I-10 overpass. The band has kicked up the volume a notch to take advantage of the echo underneath- fantastic! The float passes under and out heading around Lee Circle. At this point on the route the crowds are now back behind barricades along both sides of the parade. Folks are really packed in trying to get close- it's harder now to single out individuals- when I make throws I just try to make sure people in the general area are looking. At this point, I am down mostly to plain beads altho I do have a couple stack of plastic Krewe of Mid-City cups, some packages of KMC potato chips and lots of doubloons (I will really have to work on my doubloon management if I do this again!). We pass thru the circle and move on down St. Charles- there are bleachers and viewing stands- along with pockets of people on ladders- on both sides of the street. The crowds are now more or less at eye level with riders on the float and at points you can just lean a bit, reach out and hand beads directly to people as you ride by-nice! There are also people even farther back and higher up on balconies of residences and apartment houses. I make a couple attempts to throw way, way up and back. More often than not the beads fall short- man people are way way up there. We are approaching the official viewing area around Gallier Hall. I realize that I need to figure out where my wife will be as we pass by-my krewe buddy Arthur riding next to me knows they are in a viewing stand on the other side of the float (sidewalk side) but we aren't quite sure exactly where it is along the route. As our float stops- the King's float has reached Gallier Hall and the parade has stopped for him to make his official toast with New Orleans city officials as well as VIPs in the KMC viewing area- I make my way to the other side of the float to ask one of the senior riders if they know where the KMC viewing stand is . He points it out a little ways ahead up past Gallier hall. I head back to my side of the float to wait for us to start moving again. As we begin to move, my friend Arthur and I make our way to the other side of the float. As I look up ahead, I see my wife and Arthur's wife in the front row of the viewing stand. I catch my wife's attention and as we roll up I am able to take their pictures as they snap photos of us in return. I am also able to throw my wife some signature KMC beads as we go by- very cool! We're now in the home stretch as we reach Canal Street on the edge of the French Quarter. At this point I've (finally) got a pretty good rhythm going as I reach down and grab a bunch of beads, tear off the banding and throw. I'm getting less tangled now and having a much easier time. I finish up throwing my cups and potato chip bags as we roll up and then come back down Canal St. towards the finish. I also throw some doubloons but folks don't seem to know what to make of these-some people seem to think it is money as they hit the ground and scramble to grab them up, others just seem confused- probably expecting beads instead of coins. As we get closer to the finish, I have thrown the last of my beads. The crowds are still yelling and cheering as our float rounds the final corner and we slow to a stop. We were told to exit as soon as the floats come to a stop and I am ready. I grab the bag of beads and throws that I had put aside as souvenirs, throw the rest of my doubloons into the bag and exit down the back steps of the float. It's over just like that. I help a few of my fellow riders unload their remaining beads and throws from the float. We all congratulate each other on a great ride and then disperse. I realize that since I am on float #3 that there is still a lot of our parade left, so I go around the corner back onto Canal Street (costume on but mask off) and find a spot on the street to watch the rest of our parade. The foil covered floats really do look pretty spectacular as they roll in and out of the sunshine. I get to see some of the marching bands and my fellow riders on the remaining floats. As the last float rolls by (it's the women's float- the only double decker float and it comes at the very end of the parade) I head back inside to the hotel . I make my way up to the ballroom where we had started the morning with our pre-parade breakfast where there is now a post-parade buffet set up-the jambalaya is hot and the beer is cold- a great way to end. The room is buzzing as all the riders and their families and friends come back together after the parade. I re-connect with my wife and with my friend Arthur and his wife and kids and we compare notes about the parade. Everybody seems to have had a great time and already discussions turn to doing it again next year...We'll just have to see....

Parade Part 3: Floatin Uptown...

I'm on the float now. Parade is going to start in minutes. As I stand on, in and around all of the bags, boxes and sacks of beads and throws that I need to get organized I start to feel a bit overwhelmed. Ok..first things first. Make sure I can see out of my mask-check; hook up to safety belt-check; take a drink of my special parade beverage-check. I begin opening up some of the bags and taking out the individually packaged KMC speciality beads and putting them in the wooden troughs that line the wall of the float in front of me (each rider position gets 3 of these to put beads and throws in so you can stand, reach down,grab and throw a bit easier). I quickly fill these up and start feeling like I might have a better handle on this. At this point, one of the float lieutenants at the front of our float- seeing that I may have relaxed after this initial bit of organizing- calls out to me- "Hey Mike, you know that what you have ready there is only gonna last about 5 minutes, right?". Ok. So there was much more to this than I thought. I go back to getting more organized; I open each bag or box to get a look inside so I can more easily know where to look/reach/grab for more items to throw as I run out of what I already have out. I move some stuff around my feet- put some stuff next to me, behind me and in front of me- I also start hanging up some beads on the hooks built into the float behind me as well. As I'm doing this the float begins to move- the parade has not started but we are moving into position. Since the start of the parade is in a residential neighborhood, our float is now literally in front of someone's house. People are milling about on the street and now they are already starting to approach the floats to ask for beads and throws. A group of little kids has spotted our float captain who sits up on the second level and has lots and lots of plush toys to throw. He begins tossing a few to the kids down below. Additionally, adults begin to approach asking for doubloons (each krewe has their own doubloons which are highly collectible for some folks; our krewe had 4 different colored doubloons- red, green, silver and gold; there are also special doubloons given out by the king, the queen and parade captains on horseback;collectors like to get the whole set and many times head to the beginning of the parades to try and get 'em). Anyway, so now in addition to trying to get myself organized, we have folks already asking for stuff. I give out a couple things because altho we were instructed to "stop throwing" when floats came to a stop it looks like other krewe members were giving out stuff - good PR I guess, especially since we were sitting in the street in front of their houses. Finally, the call comes- we are officially starting to roll! The first thing I noticed was the crowds and a close second was the noise of said crowds. Holy cow- there are a lot of people out there..I began to throw some of the items I had taken out. As instructed, I try to make eye contact and/or point to a person in particular to make sure they knew I was throwing their way. Kids and parents w/ kids on their shoulders are also coming up to the float with hands up asking for "somethin'"- it was great handing the toys and trinkets directly to folks- especially little kids who were absolutely thrilled to get a plush toy. The float continues to move at a  pretty good clip- our brass band is playing, the sun is shining, the crowd is screaming-this was really something special! The crowds were endless. At points it must have been 10-15 people deep along the route; there were folks close up, far away, sitting on the ground, sitting in chairs, standing on their porches, up on their cars, up on ladders- I even saw one guy up in a tree yelling for beads or a throw.  I was going thru my stuff pretty quickly- handing out a lot of plush toys initally to little kids and families; I pulled out some soft footballs and tossed a few; next I tried some frisbees- unfortunately the wind had picked up and this combined w/ being on the move made these throws less than accurate- and maybe even downright dangerous. I opened up a box of our signature individual serving size potato chips and tossed a few bags- nice! I made some deep throws of the packaged beads to folks way in the back of the crowd and was surprisingly accurate- this was fun! It was also pretty cool that you could- even in the sea of people- actually make eye contact with one specific person, throw or hand them something, and have them shout a thank you or give you a thumbs up when you got it to them as you rolled by...wow...On the other hand, I also made some really lousy throws with items falling short, sailing too long or going too far to the right or to the left of my intended target-embarassing. Most of the time, I could see someone else catching or picking up the item thrown but there were a handful of times where I'm pretty sure I hit some poor unsuspecting person (or child!)..oh well...The float continued to roll and it was time for me to start throwing some of my regular beads. These were in big sacks and were "banded" in bundles. I quickly found out 2 things: first, the sacks, which were made of a nylon burlap type material were really hard to rip open (I think they are the same type sacks that are used to package live crawfish!); second, even tho the beads were banded together in bunches by the dozen, they could still get easily tangled as I reached in and pulled them out. This was gonna be a challenge. Initially I was getting lots of tangled beads (Bead throwing 101 tip: if something tangles, just toss it overboard; do not spend time trying to untangle beads or thats all you will be doing). As it turned out ,even the tangled beads were a hit w/ folks along the route-very cool (another hot item with the crowd?- empty bead bags..these are like shopping bags-w handles and a zipper- and it makes sense-if you are watching parades all day and collecting a bunch of beads, you better have a way to carry them home)...As we moved down St. Charles Ave I was focused mostly on the task at hand: getting stuff ready to throw and then throwing vs being able to look at where we were exactly. When I did look up it was mainly to search the crowd directly in front of me for someone to throw to- which at times caused me to freeze up- should I throw close? far? to that person, to that other person? to the little girl? the teenage boy? the mom? the dad? grandpa?..decisions, decisions! I did recognize at one point on the route that we were coming to the end of St.Charles and were about to go under the I-10 overpass ..Lee Circle and the CBD were next..stay tuned for next post...

Beads, Doubloons and Plush..Oh My!

So I think most folks know that there are beads thrown (from floats, from balconies) at Mardi Gras. What I don't think most people know is how much time, effort and money is spent in getting the beads, loading them onto the floats and what this process entails for any individual krewe or what it means down to the individual parade float rider. (Warning: There is going to be some math in this post). Anyway, I had no clue about the volume of beads that it takes for one rider let alone one krewe to put on a parade. It's mind boggling. I got my first inkling when I went to the Krewe of Mid City new rider den party last spring. As I was shown around the float den, we came across a palette(!) stacked with bags of beads that was maybe 4 feet high- I was told that this was a typical amount of beads for 1 rider in the parade. More recently, when I volunteered at the ARC of Greater New Orleans bead recycling program I got another insider view of the volume of beads that go into putting on Mardi Gras. The recycling warehouse was full of thousands of 3o lb sacks of beads in all sizes and colors (as well as mountains of plastic cups, stuffed animals and other trinkets)- and this was just the beads and other items that were being recycled- let alone the new ones that were being purchased by all the krewes for all the parades that occur in the 2 weeks of carnival across the NO region! Anyway here's a quick breakdown- when you are talking about beads for an individual rider (here comes the math) you talk in terms of dozens or even grosses (12 dozen dozen beads= 12x12=144 individual bead necklaces) of beads. Here is the typical bead inventory for a "light throwing" rider in a 2-3hr parade: 6 doz krewe logo beads, 1 gross special logo beads, 6 doz addtl special logo beads, 1 gross other bead types,4 gross (48 doz!) 36" beads, 32 doz 48"beads, 40 doz 48" metallic beads, 12 doz 60" larger size beads..you get the idea- for a "moderate" or "heavy" thrower you can double or even triple these amounts (in volume and in cost)...riders typically purchase bead packages from their krewe which goes towards helping to fund the parade (decorate the floats, pay the marching bands, tractor drivers,etc etc)...in addition to beads (which come in all kinds of lengths-most typically 48",but also 33", 42"and 60"- and individual bead sizes- denoted in millimeters- from 8mm up to 12mm) there are also various other "throws" that get tossed to the crowds. These are limited in scope only by the individual krewes imaginations (and wallets) but fall into a few main categories: Plush toys (ie stuffed animals) w/ or w/ out krewe logos, doubloons (plastic and/or metal coins that typically have the krewe logos embossed on them- usually ordered in quantities of 200 or more for a single parade for each rider) and other krewe-branded "trinkets" (things like plastic cups, drink koozies, frisbees, footballs, even food items like bags of potato chips or Moon Pies!) which are ordered by the dozens again by each rider on a float-holy cow!...again, if it can be bought in quanity, can have a logo put on it and you can throw it from a float w/ out killing somebody, some krewe has or is throwing it during a parade..For my first ride I bought a basic bead & throw package from the krewe- along w/ ordering some exta krewe-branded frisbees, specialty beads, footballs, koozies and the like. I then supplemented this with 3 bags of plush toys (about 100 pcs) and 4 30lb bags of beads from the ARC of New Orleans- to save a little bit of money but also to help do a little bit to save the environment by using recycled items..this configuration probably falls at the "lighter throwing" end of the spectrum so I'll have to see if I run out by the end or not (running out may be better than having too many thows left at the end-having too many items left at the end can result in riders starting to throw not single strands of beads but full bags-maybe a dozen at a time-into the crowd to get rid of their beads). On the receiving end, folks who go to  a lot of parades may only collect certain things- for instance,only doubloons or only footballs or plastic cups- while others want to get anything and everything they can get their hands on. Apparently for certain parades that feature very unique or limited quanity "special" throws the competition to get one ("Throw me something mister!) can be fierce and I'm told that if something hits the ground,you better put your foot on it to claim it vs reaching down w/ your hand b/c you will likely get your fingers stomped!..You also have to pay attention b/c you have multiple riders on any given float who may be throwing beads at the same time and if you aren't careful you can "catch" some beads to the side of your head or in the face which-if it is a 60", 12mm size strand of beads- is not a pleasant experience..All in all, this whole parade thing is going to be quite an experience and i will be part of it both as a rider/thrower and as an observer/throw catcher- wild!

Mardi Gras 101

All right. Time for a quick primer about Mardi Gras. What is Mardi Gras? Well, Mardi Gras is not the drunken mess on Bourbon street with the beads and the flashing; in fact, believe it or not, for most local folks Mardi Gras season is a time to get together with family and friends out in the neighborhoods where the parades roll. Yes that's right- it is very much a family activity with people gathering together year after year at the same spot on the parade route to eat and drink and watch the parades roll by in hopes of catching some extra special "throws" as they also catch up with each other on the events of the past year. Ok so Mardi Gras can be a family holiday. Mardi Gras is also about the parades -which not only roll in New Orleans proper but in the surrounding towns and suburbs. Mardi Gras is also all about the throws- beads and more beads of all different sizes lengths and shapes; trinkets, dubloons, "plush" toys, coconuts, shoes, plastic cups, sunglasses- you name it, and one of the many krewes probably throws it. Many krewes have a signature throw- some of the most famous: Zulu coconuts (which are handed to bystanders vs thrown for obvious reasons), the famous Rex metallic dubloon, the Krewe of Muses  decorated shoes and so on and so forth. As the floats roll by its tradition to yell "Throw me something mister" and hope that you catch a rider's eye who will single you out in the crowd and hopefully throw you that special something. Mardi Gras is the Mardi Gras Indians who work on their "pretty suits" all year and then make appearances on Mardi Gras morning  throughout the neighborhods and side streets of the city. Mardi Gras is history and tradition. There are lots of ways  to "do" Mardi Gras- this Frommer's article is a pretty good one in terms of providing different ways- nice, naughty or nasty- to spend that special day. And of course, Mardi Gras is king cake which at this point is available in an ever increasing number of different shapes, colors, and flavors that spark continuous debates about which is the best over the 3 week carnival season. King Cake season officially starts on Twelfth Night and lasts thru Mardi Gras Day altho over the past few years- much to the chagrin of traditionalists- they have started to appear and/or become available at other holidays or special occurences (think Saints Super Bowl a couple years ago) as well. Finally, let's not forget Mr. Mardi Gras- Arthur Hardy- who is the official historian on all things Mardi Gras. He publishes an annual "Mardi Gras Guide" which is widely available during Mardi Gras in and around the city and which quickly become collectibles. Go here for more info.....21 days and counting til Krewe Of Mid City Parade- Hail Mid City!