The weather was rough last Wednesday.
The winds howled through the streets of Greenville as 25 parade entries wend their way down Washington Avenue from the courthouse to the levee.
Weather was the reason Greenville’s Mardi Gras parade was held on Wednesday in the season of Lent instead of before, but there was little choice.
We should be proud of the folks who organized the parade for digging deep to find a replacement band and keep most of the revelers in place.
The parade was smaller than the previous year and the crowd was too.
Interestingly, the crowd migrated mostly to the north side of Washington to find what remained of the sunlight in hopes of warming their hands.
There’s no doubt it was cold for this Mardi Gras in Greenville, and I hope the chill wind won’t blow away the chances of the parades continuing.
Friends and I went to Vicksburg for their Mardi Gras parade on Saturday, and their Washington Street was packed for what was almost a 2-hour parade. There was also a beautiful late 1940s Jaguar XK120 drophead coupe finished in a gorgeous green with a beauty queen sitting on the back seat in the lineup.
The smaller street made for a more packed feeling much like the parades in Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Perhaps we should consider blocking off the eastbound lane of Washington Avenue in the future and just using the westbound for revelers.
The wind made it a difficult throw to sail a Moon Pie from the middle of Washington Avenue to the sidewalk during our parade.
There are enough positives about the event to outweigh the less-than-ideal weather conditions of the day. There should also be kudos given to the street department as there was scant sign left that a parade even happened downtown by early Thursday morning.
I was happy to see none of the Moon Pies we had as throws were left lying in the street.
There’s a song from Mobile about those moon pies. It goes:
Moon Pie, Moon Pie, fly to me
Moon Pie, Moon Pie, do I see
Moon Pie, Moon Pie fall in the street
So the winoes have something to eat.
Now that this year’s Mardi Gras season is over, let’s hope next year’s sees better weather.
This parade, unlike others in Greenville, brings out people from every neighborhood in the city.
We surely want to keep that good time rolling.
Jon Alverson is proud to be publisher and editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.com or call him at 662-335-1155.
