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Fairhope Mardi Gras parade 2011

The king cakes and moonpies are at the grocery stores.  Fast food commercials focus on their fish sandwiches.  The red and green decorations of Christmas have been replaced with purple, gold and green.  It's Mardi Gras season on the Gulf Coast!

Unfortunately the farther east from New Orleans you travel, the less festive it becomes.  It nearly slipped by this year unnoticed.

There was no getting away from it a couple of years ago while we were staying in the Mississippi/Alabama area south of I-10.  The first parade we attended was in Ocean Springs, MS and it was a lot of fun.  We thought the floats were great, the "throws" were good and the turnout was big.  But with each parade it got better and better until the one in Ocean Springs wasn't near as cool as originally thought.  Mobile, AL was probably the biggest and Fairhope was the coolest because it comes by twice but they were all fun, family-oriented events.

For some reason I, like many people, associate Mardi Gras parades with drunken exhibitions of depravity.  That may be true in New Orleans, but it was not the case in Ocean Springs, Mobile, Dalphne, Fairhope or Pensacola.  It was locals and tourists, young and old, rich and poor coming together to celebrate the culture and history of the area, tradition and community.  Yes, I'm sure it has it's roots in some horrible, evil pagan something or other but that's not what it was like to be a part of it.

There were elaborately decorated floats, items called "throws" consisting of everything from the stereotypical beads, to stuffed animals, coins, cups, frisbees, moonpies, and the less predictible but tasty ice cream sandwiches given out by costumed and most definitely masked members of "krewes."  It's the krewe members who organize the parades, decorate the floats and have extravagant formal balls as well (the dinner and dancing kind).  I would love to be able to join a krewe and throw from a float but it's not that easy and it certainly isn't cheap!  You have to know someone, most krewes are very private and the only way to get in is to be sponsored.  And then you're talking annual dues of around $1200.  Guess that's one bucket list item I won't be fulfilling anytime soon.

And then there's the regional issue.  While there are a few Mardi Gras events scheduled in Destin, they seem to be more corporately sponsored gatherings.  There's not much of a "historic downtown Destin" so it just wouldn't be the same as it is in the before mentioned cities.  Luckily I've collected enough beads from previous festivities to last a lifetime and if I'm that desperate, I'll go buy a moonpie, chocolate of course the other flavors taste like chemicals.