On The Parade Route

Happy Mardi Gras! Today is the day....I went to a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans Monday, The Krewe of Proteus, and it wasn't merely the floats, bands, marching units, flambeaux carriers and the rest of what composes a spectacular night Mardi Gras parade here that I noticed. No, I noticed a whole lot more. It has to do with where I saw the parade, Harmony Street and St. Charles Avenue, a prime location on one of the loveliest streets I know. You see, that location was where, in my childhood, my family used to set up to spend Mardi Gras day so long ago.

We had friends who owned a huge house on Harmony (a fitting name for a street in the city of music), just steps from St. Charles Avenue. Each Mardi Gras morning our family would load the station wagon and head to that house where other families we knew also set up their Mardi Gras day feats and provisions in the very large parking area on the grounds of the house. The gigantic old live oaks on St. Charles, some almost 200 years old, still tower the avenue giving it a distinctive, comforting look and feel.

As I stood on the parade ground and waited for Proteus to arrive, I noticed some changes in the environment. Gone were quite a few beautiful old 19th century mansions, replaced by big, modern, condominiums that, though new, make the avenue look less glamorous than I remembered from my boyhood Mardi Gras' there. And the whole street setting was smaller than in my youth. Or do we always remember childhood experiences as bigger than life.

I closed my eyes and imagined I was a child again and that it was Mardi Gras day. But a man with a Mardi Gras bead suit (he actually made a beautiful suit coat entirely with beads and Mardi Gras doubloons for buttons) attracted so much attention from camera laden tourists that I awoke from my flashback and scanned the people to see what else was different. The presence of the ubiquitous cell phone and other electronic gadgets was one change I noticed, and for the worse. I saw people of all ages engaged with their technology and pitied them for devoting time to that when they were about to see a wonderful parade. I wanted those ingrates, those impostors, to leave.

In my childhood time the parade was the main show on St. Charles. And yet now some of those electronic gadget addicts were so unappreciative of this free show they continued to chatter away on their phones even as the parade passed by.

Just before the lead units of the parade arrived I heard a young couple speaking in what I thought was "British" English. I spoke to them and found that it was. They were from London, and had been in the city for four days, according to the more animated wife. We discussed the city and things for them to do while here. I was pleased that both loved the city and the people remarking as most tourists do that people in New Orleans are open, tolerant, friendly and seem to enjoy themselves more than most. They raved about our food and music. This accidental meeting with the pair gave me a better feeling than I had when trying to compare St. Charles Avenue now to then (my childhood).

Most Mardi Gras parade crowds are a happy and friendly lot. This one was especially so. Kids played games, adults chatted , everyone laughed and shared. More than one gentleman handed dollar bills to the flambeaux carriers in the parade as they passed by. Flambeauxs are an old tradition that few Mardi Gras parade krewes retain because of the danger of fire (an insurance cost). But in my childhood when the flambeaux was the only way floats were lighted, the parade watchers would sometimes toss coins into the street as the flambeaux carriers would break out in spontaneous dance and twirl their sticks of fire that help lit the floats. Again, because of safety concerns police and krewes no longer allow the flambeaux carriers to dive for money tossed to them. So people have stopped that coin toss tradition. Handing them the money seems a nice way of rewarding them for the show they put on with their fire sticks.

And I was touched at the remark one of the gallantly dressed Dukes on horseback uttered to me and a few near me.."Thanks for coming to the parade", he said. Isn't it we who should thank the krewe for paying for and presenting this enchanting fantasy every winter? No doubt he meant something to the effect that he was thankful that the Proteus parade organization was still able to carry on the carnival tradition , even though membership was decimated by the hurricane of 2005.

And by the way, the parade was beautiful, even more so than when I saw that same parade the night before Mardi Gras on St. Charles and Harmony long ago as a child.

Some things can be better than we remembered them to be.