Mardi Gras & Beyond!!!

Well, I managed to make it through Mardi Gras with my dignity in tact. The trick is: stay out of the French Quarter! My friends set-up at the same spot on St. Charles every year. They take a ladder on wheels with a bench at the top, and use it like a dolly to carry all their chairs and a table. It's really a lot of fun because you sit in your chair and talk to your friends and eat snacks and play games and wait for the parade to start. The fire truck comes down the street followed by a high school or college band and then the first float. Every parade has a theme, and all their floats are designed using that theme. They are elaborately decorated and carry dozens of people down the street throwing beads and other trinkets at the parade goers below. When a float comes by you wave your arms and scream "Throw me something!" If you're standing on the ground you also jump up and down to attract more attention to yourself. Being up on a ladder has its' advantages. You can see the parade a lot better and the Krewe members can see you better. Many times you get your best "throws" from being on a ladder. You may catch stuffed animals, plastic cups, glow sticks, light up toys, candy, metal coins called dubloons, or any number of specially designed beads. Some of them have plastic medallions or seals with the insignia of that Krewe and their theme for the year. Others have heavy clay beads representing a New Orleans icon such as crawfish or beignets. Some of the more coveted and collectible beads are the famed Czech glass beads. During the first half of the last century these were really common and incredibly popular. They stopped throwing them for awhile, due to either the cost of beads in a slow economy or for the sake of safety. Just within the past few years they have begun to throw them again. It's quite ironic, everyone wants to catch as many beads as they can, but nobody wants them after Mardi Gras is over. Most people store all the hundreds of beads they have collected in the attic where they pile up for years!