Two subjects typically dominate initial conversations when meeting people here. While Katrina is understandable, Mardi Gras was a bit tougher for us yankees who had thought that the Mardi Gras celebration occurred one day a year in New Orleans. How little we knew…

Almost every community along the gulf coast has their own parade – and most occur on Sundays. The community parade list begins in early February!  Here’s a link to just the parades in New Orleans: https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/schedule.html

People are invited to join a group, called Krewe of …, whose sole purpose is to raise funds for the participants to be on a float or/and attend a ball. Many of the societies are secret and attendees wear masks.

Each person on a float, in each town, must buy $300+ of metal beads to throw at the parade watchers, plus have a snazzy costume and pay to ride the float. The decorated floats all have porta johns, bead stands so the beads don’t get tangled and music to dance to.

There are so many beads tossed to parade watchers that most people  don’t bother to pick up a string that hits the ground. Special beads are saved for the “throwers” to toss – which seems to mostly be pretty, young women. Parade watchers bring their beer, a few chairs and bags to collect all the beads they catch. The Waveland freeway, where we attended Sunday’s parade, is still filled with debris 2 days later.

Mardi Gras has very important commerce implications for the gulf coast. Our neighbor, across the street from Camp Coast Care, has a side business of painting floats. Pre-Katrina, he would paint about 15.  An artist I’ve met had the job of putting sequins on ball gowns for the Pass Christian Ball. Although retired, she was spending all her free time beading gowns that had been purchased, but weren’t decorated to the desired level.

A friend’s son, a recently graduated lawyer in his first job in Bay Saint Louis, spends most weekends, during this time,  attending balls in New Orleans. Handsome young men and women are invited to attend multiple balls for the prestige of the hosting organization.

A few of the social service organizations, such as ARC, recycle donated beads to be re-sold for the next parade. The beads can easily tangle and are best if they are wrapped in small groups.

So, I’ve stashed 2 grocery bags filled with the beads Dave & I wore back to camp – let me know if you’d like a few…