Carnival Rolls On

I have some catching-up to do! First, then, I'll tell you about the parades I saw on Saturday.

It turns out that I'm exploring the events of the Carnival season accidentally in a scientific way. First I saw the Krewe of Pontchartrain, which follows the Uptown parade route down St. Charles Avenue. This route begins very close to my house, and I am able, by going only a few blocks towards the river [Note: That is approximately equivalent to South, though cardinal directions are useless in the Crescent City, so people say "riverside" or "lakeside," "uptown" or "downtown."] to see the floats as they are loaded with riders and "throws," i.e. beads and other trinkets, and to hear the bands as they warm up.

Many have told me that throughout Mardi Gras one can experience a clean, family-friendly Carnival if one stays uptown of the French Quarter. This was verified when I, to observe the parade, I walked several blocks downtown along St. Charles. This street is a wide boulevard with a "neutral ground" between the lanes, along which the streetcar runs. (I have been told never to call the neutral ground a "median" as it would be known everywhere else.) Well-kept grass grows here, and it is wide enough for grills, tents, chairs, and crowds, with room to spare. (The streetcar, of course, does not run during Uptown parades.) Families from the immediate neighborhoods flock to both sides of the downtown lane of traffic and make themselves comfortable however they can. One device worthy of note is one that I need to find out more about: It is a ladder with a box on top, designed to hold up small children for a perfect view of the parade. I can't tell if these are bought prefabricated or not. The ladders look like standard issue, but there is a uniformity to the boxes, which all have two built-in wheels, I assume for ease in rolling to and from the parade.

The true harbinger of the parade--as opposed to the many falsely-prophesying cop cars that clear the road for an hour prior--is a cable company cherry-picker with a long rod raised above it, probably the height of the tallest float, followed by other cherry-pickers, no doubt ready to quickly clear any low-lying branches that would interfere with the parade. (This is, I think, the most grooming that is legally allowed to be performed on the St. Charles live oaks.) Then comes the parade-proper: Bands, dance groups, motorcyclists, mounties, and the floats of the host Krewe, laden with masked and costumed riders throwing beads, etc, to the yelling crowd. Everyone not on a float is usually with a different organization (a school, dance club, or much smaller parading organization like the motorcyclists) that has joined forces with the host Krewe. Many of these, I believe, march in multiple parades. Bringing up the rear of the parade is a firetruck, which occasionally blares its horn as if to say, Go home! That parade took nearly an hour to pass.

Later that night, I went down to the French Quarter to see two more parades coming from the Uptown route. Of all the parades during Carnival, only Krewe du Vieux (see two posts below) is small enough to be actually allowed to march in the Quarter--all the others do a loop around Canal St., which is its southeastern border. Their floats are much too big to fit through the narrow, old streets of the Quarter.

Standing on Canal at night was a very different experience from on the grass of sunny St. Charles. There is more litter, more alcohol, less comfort generally, but no less cheer. It was on the cold side Saturday night, which made everyone a little miserable, but they no doubt compensated with more booze. The first parade, the Krewe of Sparta, took an hour and a half to get down, which I'm told is considered late, but not considered unusual. It was followed by the Krewe of Pygmalion after a half-hour interval. I will put up the few pictures I took, so that you can get a sense of the crowds and the floats, and I won't bother to describe them in detail. In brief, they are pulled by tractors, they carry two to twenty riders apiece, and they all throw beads. The royal floats only carry two riders, whichever member of royalty (King, Queen, Prince, Princess all separately) and someone to untangle and hand them beads. The royalty are lucky members of the Krewe who are chosen somehow (sometimes it's secret) as royalty that year, and play their lofty role at the Krewe-exclusive bal masque which usually follows the parade.

So far, I have collected almost twenty strands of beads, and have seen, since the beginning of the season, five parades (one on Sunday).

[Yes, later on I will write about the Super Bowl and the victory parade, which starts in four hours.]