Wishing everyone a Happy Fat Tuesday! I hope everyone can find their inner Cajun today, and keep in mind that before it became known as the holiday where drunk co-eds take off their shirts for plastic beads, there was a fabulous culture and tradion behind today.
"One side is a river, the other is a lake. Meet me in the middle and we'll eat King Cake."
-"King Cake" Lisa Haley & the Zydecats
My favorite memory of Mardi Gras would have to be when I was about 10 or so, we went to the parade in Baton Rouge, my family, my aunt and uncle and cousins, in my uncle's big truck, and we sat and watched all the floats go by. Everyone was excited and friendly, strangers laughing and starting conversations with phrases like "Child, who's yo' momma?" We stood there for about three hours, and there was a palpable magic of tradition and family in the air. After the city parade, we drove out to Mamou, Louisiana (a small town west of the capital) where my brothers and I participated in chicken-catching contests (Yes, there were about 10 or 15 chickens that just ran around and the children tried to catch them. That was the game. It was fantastic.) Meanwhile, our parents cooked boudin and added whatever they had to the community gumbo. Covered in dirt and dust, the smell of southern food drifted somewhere as far as Arizona, I'm sure. It's my favorite memory, because the sense of southern hospitality, love and joy was tangible. To look up at your blood relatives, people you don't even know, and to feel that you are in the company of truly good souls is not something easy to forget.
So bloggers, Laissez les bon temps roulez.
Let the good times roll.
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