Mardi Gras

February 12

I am thankful for Mardi Gras. Not because I enjoy all out partying and debauchery prior to Lent, in fact quite the contrary. I think Mardi Gras can be good clean fun and enjoyment. But I like Mardi Gras more because it is so identifiable with Louisiana and because the children enjoy the parades so much.

I enjoy watching people at Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras parades were the first parades I ever went to where they had throws from the floats. I am amazed at how people get caught up in the thrill of trying to catch what are essentially worthless trinkets. It's easy to become bitten by that thrill (I confess).  Those trinkets become gold, especially if you can catch the rare ones like doubloons, large beads, coconuts, or who knows what.

This is a photo I took at this past Saturday's Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade in Baton Rouge. The brightly colored inverted umbrella is a device used by some ingenious parade-goers to act as a large surface area to catch more beads.

Pink flamingos are the symbol for this parade. Every year on one day a couple of weeks prior to the parade day at least 20 giant plywood pink flamingos are placed on wooden stakes in City Park Lake. Within 24 hours those flamingos are removed and put in yards around town. This has become a very unusual tradition for a neighborhood that pulls out all the stops to be unusal (although sometimes maybe not very family appropriate). The outlandish costumes you see nearly everyone wearing in some form or fashion are very colorful. It is odd and irreverant, but often hilarious. One of the more unusual parts of the parade is by the Krewe of Yazoo and their lawnmower brigade, who march with decorated lawnmowers. This year they were the Lawn of the Dead, decked out as zombies who did synchronized dances with their lawnmowers.

Below is a picture of a "bead tree" after the parade.

February 12b

trow me sumpin mista

trow me sumpin mista

trow me sumpin

ah keep tryin to catch dem beads

but da old lady keeps bumpin me away

an jumpin higha

she da worst ah saw

she een took from dat der kid

well ahma gonna show her

what ahma gonna did

ahma gonna step on her foot

keep her rat from jumpin

dat’ll keep her away

dat’ll get me sumpin

an ah woulda done dat

an ah woulda done did dat too

but dat dad gum old lady

she jus jump outta her shoe!

© rt tulley

King Cakes

February 11

I am thankful for King Cakes. More than this being just a tasty dessert, I love the tradition and how it draws people in Louisiana together during the Mardi Gras season. As I recall, King Cakes used to be plain, round or oblong coffee type ring cakes with sugar icing on top, often sprinkled with purple, green, and yellow food coloring or sprinkles (traditional Mardi Gras colors) with cinnamon filling inside. Now you can get King Cakes with multitudes of different filling flavors: fruit, creme cheese, praline, chocolate, etc. A special King Cake called the Zulu cake contains chocolate and coconut. They are all rather tasty.

The story of King Cakes goes back many years back to their origins from France and Spain. According to Wikipedia (I have to admit my love of Wiki!) the tradition dates back to the eighteenth century in New Orleans. The king in the name represents the three kings who went to visit baby Jesus. Tradition calls for the hiding of a plastic baby, representing the baby Jesus, inside the cake. The person that receives the piece of cake containing the baby is responsible for hosting the next King Cake party. In Louisiana, it has been traditional to hold a weekly king cake party in offices along with morning coffee breaks. It is the duty of the baby holder to bring the next King Cake. Nowadays, because of the fear of someone choking on the baby and possible litigation, most bakeries now put the baby outside the king cake.

luck

there are those born with positive luck

always winning contests and raffles

how they continue to win

and beat the odds always baffles

but i was born

with something called negative luck

like getting hit by bird poo bombs

and with the short straw always stuck

i will gingerly take my bites

of my morsel of king cake and sigh

knowing that i will invariably get the baby

and the next cake i will have to buy.

© rt tulley

Trains

February 10

I am thankful for trains. There is something powerful and grand about them. The noise and rhythm they make as they lumber down the tracks, clickety clack, clickety clack, opens old memories for me. Having a train set as a child only enhanced my love for trains. For me, trains represent a romantic and bygone era.

I remember my first train ride when I was quite young. My pregnant mother (with my sister Mary Beth) was taking my brother Fred and I to Akron, Ohio, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to visit her parents prior to us moving for nine months to Chicago. I remember how scared I was to walk between the cars with the loud noise and the rocking of the cars. I too remember seeing a man in a car at the intersection drive slightly too far before stopping and his radio antenna was clipped off by the descending arm of the railroad crossing arm. I also remember my last train ride when I was just sixteen (it's been way too long) when two of my golfing buddies and I went off to Pensacola on a train to play in the Southern Junior Golf Tournament. It was my first time away from home without my parents and the first time I ever saw the beach.

This photo is of a train which happened upon me all of a sudden while I was taking the photograph from yesterday of Train Tracks/Train Stations. I just had enough time to get off of the tracks to snap this photo.

train

passenger train take me away

onboard your clean and shiny cars

while i sit in comfort and style

no navigational lodestars

no surprise where you’re going

just follow the rails away

never get lost

never fear going astray.

© rt tulley