I really lucked out w/where I settled in New Orleans. The area of town that I live in, although considered Uptown, is more specifically called the Lower Garden District. The LGD abuts the Irish Channel. A block, yes, only a block I say, from my house is Parasol's-headquarters for the St Patty's Day celebration at Third and Constance Streets.
March 17, 2009, happened to be on a Tuesday. The Saturday prior to St Patrick's Day is when the parades roll. That Saturday happened to be rainy and stormy so the parade coming down Magazine, and right past my balcony, was substantially delayed. This parade was like none I'd seen before; completely disorganized, chaotic, and racy. The men, in their kilts carrying flowers, stopped to give the ladies on the street a kiss and a rose. Random strangers who felt like joining the parade just hopped in line and walked the route, drunk people just fell over in the streets and folks kept walking.....a very different experience than Mardi Gras.
Since the cops already had all of Magazine and most of Third Streets closed down, rather than get pummeled by drunks on the street, considering the perfect view I had anyway, I opted to stand out on my balcony waving and snapping pictures. In this parade, however, while they still toss the occasional bead, the people on the floats toss food! I was informed of this ahead of time so I was well prepared. They tossed cabbage (for what would a day of the Irish be w/out cabbage!) and carrots, onions, I think some of them tossed potatoes. It was a riot! I tried to get a little of everything, but only ended up w/some carrots-it takes a lot of upper body strength to hurl a cabbage from a moving float to the second story of a house! As it was, one of the girls in my office (Tracey from one of my prior Mardi Gras posts) caught 2 whole sacks of cabbage and she gave me two heads. I made the best stuffed cabbage rolls on the planet! Mmmmm...cabbage.
Third Street on the other side of Magazine remained closed the entire day and into the night. After the parades were over, my Turkish neighbor Alper came over and told me to get my shoes on-we were going down to the party at Parasol's. Out into the drizzle we headed simply to stand on a corner, getting wet, drinking beer and talking. While we were standing and talking (and Al chain smoking), I had occasion to people watch. Drunks are nothing new to me down here and frankly, I find them amusing. One guy in a kilt, w/nothing but the goods God gave him underneath, fell over 10' from me and began licking a woman's muddy toes through the thong of her flip-flop. Gag. The cops? Flirting w/all the ladies and clearly enjoying the festivities more than, in my opinion, a police officer should. I didn't hear about any acts of violence breaking out, though, and all seemed to be having a good time, so I guess that's the important part.
Once it got dark, Al suggested that we walk down the road to a couple of bars. Eh, a bar is a bar is a bar. We went, more beer, yada yada yada, got home and did laundry on Sunday.
Much to my surprise, come Tuesday, after being in the office for all of two hours, I'm asked by my co-workers as to WHY I'm at the office. "Ummmm, working?" "Leave, go home right now!" they say. I learn that the police are shutting off Third Street (which means I'll have NOWHERE to park) and 4,000 people are expected to be at Parasol's by 10am.....I, naively, thought since they had the parades on Saturday that everything was done. Silly me! If there's an excuse to drink and get out of work here in NOLA, the people will come.
I raced back home, just in time to get a decent place to park on the street, and I got inside my crib before the massive influx of people heading to Parasol's hit. There's a bar directly across the street from me too and they were wall to wall. The weather was positively immaculate that morning and afternoon, and was a great day for drinking crappy green beer from a keg!
Parade the Saturday before 03/17/2009
St Patrick's Day w/4000 people
More from the Parade the Saturday before 03/17/2009
No comments:
Post a Comment