Mardi Gras Parade Nothing I

Mardi Gras Parade

Nothing I ever heard about or read about Mardi Gras in books or magazines or watched in movies or on television prepared me for my first Mardi Gras parade. It surpassed my most outrageous expectations. It was an experience that I will never forget and one that I'm certain I will be recounting to my children and grandchildren in years to come.

My cousin Anne and her husband Hugh live just off St. Charles on Napoleon, and so I was fortunate to not only have a free place to stay but to have my own personal tour guides. The first thing that I learned was that during Mardi Gras, even locals take either a taxi, trolley, city bus, or walk to their destinations. No one drives their car because parking spaces are nil and even if you found one chances are extremely high that when you returned to that spot your car would not be there or would be unrecognizable due to missing parts and such by vandals.

According to Anne and Hugh, a must-see parade was Endymion. It seems that Endymion was one of the main krewes that brought life back into Mardi Gras in the early 1970's. It is noted for being the people's parade because it brought young people back and flooded Carnival with contemporary music and celebrities. Endymion is also famed for its enormous floats, many being the largest ever assembled and for its elaborate royalty costumes. I was promised that the Endymion parade was an experience to remember.

Saturday afternoon we took a taxi down Orleans Avenue to City Park, the beginning of the Endymion parade route. Both sides of the street were literally packed with thousands of people, at least eight to ten deep, while mounted police patrolled up and down. The meridian was lined with sofas, stuffed chairs, rocking chairs, lawn furniture, barbecue grills, large ice chests, six-pack coolers and the like. Many people had spent the night on the street to ensure a good spot to watch the parade. One look around and I began to understand why this was known as the people's parade.

There were so many people and so much going on that I could gaze in one direction for twenty minutes and never be bored. People of every age, shape and size were dressed in every imaginable way, from authentic carnival costumes to jeans and tee-shirts and even bathrobes and flip-flops. The colors, sights and sounds, and the incredible aromas bombarded my senses.

Music poured from the bands playing in City Park, from the portable radios and stereos up and down the street, from the open doors of local bars and restaurants, and from the young boys dotted throughout the crowds playing steel drums. All of this music seemed to meld into one sound, one beat, a distinctive carnival drum beat. Yet if I moved ten feet in any direction, I could discern a certain song, then ten more feet brought a different piece of music. One song that I heard repeatedly throughout the day was "Iko Iko Ah-Ney." Whenever a steel drum band would start to play it, everyone around would start singing "talkin' 'bout hey now, hey now, iko, iko ay-ney" while children, and the young and old alike danced and swayed as spaced allowed. The music was so intoxicating that it was impossible to stand still or to even walk without a rhythmic gait.

The food smells were equally overpowering. Not only had all the local markets, bars and restaurants opened their doors and set tables and chairs in front, but hundreds of people were cooking on the streets as well. Barbecue grills sizzled with chicken, ribs, sausages, and pots of boiled crawfish, corn-on- the-cob, red beans and rice, gumbos, and zatarans of various flavors. Even if one had eaten a full-course meal before arriving, it would have been impossible not to indulge and sample as many selections of tastes as your wallet or stomach could tolerate.

Late afternoon, the Endymion parade began its long route to town, through the French Quarter and that would eventually end at the Superdome, where the Endymion Ball would take place. To see these parades on television is one thing, but to see them in person is something else. There were at least twenty to thirty marching bands from high schools and colleges across the country, as well as military bands. All were dressed in full regatta, and each equal in pomp and stance. The floats, however, were spectacular!

There were at least forty-fifty floats. Some were several stories high, so high in fact that many of the beads they threw landed in the trees and hung on the branches, glistening in the afternoon sun like Christmas decorations. The royalty and court costumes were incredibly elaborate, sparkling satins and sequins. The krewes were dressed in oriental-cut pants and shirts of every color imaginable, blue, red, purple, gold, black, green, silver, yellow and white. It was indeed an impressive sight.