Krewe Of Tucks

I am back from New Orleans and Mardi Gras....tired and trying to get organized here again but had a great trip back. I took some Bourbon Street Mardi Gras costume pictures, mine included, so when I have time to upload them I can show you some of them.As always, the food was great in New Orleans. I can't imagine many places with better food. Mardi Gras was fun and it was nice seeing familiar people and places again. I'll write some things about it later after I upload the photos and when I have the time to do so. Now, just something about the Mardi Gras parades.

The crowds this year were the biggest ever for Mardi Gras, given the late time of the year (warmer weather, college spring break etc. .makes for more travelers). I saw three parades this time, each different and in deferent locations. But one that is typical, and that I watched (one actually participates in parades in New Orleans, not merely watches them) is the Krewe of Tucks.It's typical of carnival organizations and most things in New Orleans because it started from a nonsense idea by the most unlikely of persons.

Loyola University students started this parade in the late 60's. The"krewe"' takes its name from Friar Tuck, an uptown pub where two college students drink allot (it's near their campus) and decided to create their own parade after unsuccessfully trying to become white flambeaux carriers (The flambeaux carriers were originally slaves and free men of color parading, twirling and fooling around in robes. Before floats were lighted with electricity it was a way of providing light for the floats to be better seen. Flambeaux carriers are rare now but are true performers who dance and put on terrific shows for the crowds who often throw spare change as tips.). See below a photo so the old style flambeaux carriers.

From there Tucks gradually grew into a full sized, well financed (all parades are private enterprises paid for by krewe members). The Krewe of Tucks parade is always a parody of something either serious or non consequential. This year, for instance, the theme was " iTucks, What's APPening", making fun of the addictive property of all the technology people seem enamored.

Here were some of the float titles in the parade: Farmville, Tweet This( it had a huge bird mindlessly tweeting on his phone), I Have No Bars, Byte Me, and Green Eggs and Spam. The techno title was tied in with some non tech point made by each float.

This year's Tuck's king waved a toilet brush scepter and the krewe themes throws were all toilet related.... miniature squirting toilets, plungers and Tucks-stamped toilet paper rolls. I caught a toilet plunger and there is a photo below from the local newspaper of someone else who caught one and who is putting it to good use.I saw this parade along historic St. Charles Avenue, the beautiful old oak lined avenue of mansions and charm. There were hundreds of thousands of viewers for Tucks (and for each of the other parades during Mardi Gras) and many had tents with barbecue pits along the parade route. It gets so crowded on St. Charles, and real estate on the parade route is so prized, families (illegally) rope off sections along the route 24 hours or more before the parades roll, often getting up in the middle of the night to stake out their plots.


The "stuff" along the route that people place includes the barbecue pits, mini kitchens, portable toilets, lawn chairs, stacks of coolers and rows of ladders for children to stand on to get up above the heads of parade watchers. It's like no other parade route in any other place.Tucks is the non traditional type of parade. The floats are not elaborate and the costuming and bands are unconventional. I like this type of parade as well as the garish super krewe parades. The unconventional types probably give more of the character of New Orleans, while the fancy ones will give you the oh and ah effect.

Anyway, I think you should one day see Mardi Gras parades and experience carnival as they do it in New Orleans. I can promise one thing, that it will be different from anything else you have ever seen.