Skip to Content

Mardi Gras – Baton Rouge Style

It was a 
dark time growing up without king cake. I grew up in a time before
 Mardi Gras came to Baton Rouge. I’d heard about it as a kid and 
family friends would bring me exotic, glamorous beads from a far
off place. As a child New Orleans seemed much further away than 90 
miles and it was so foreign to where I lived. Even the accents of 
the people from there sounded funny.

mardi gras, baton rouge, mardi gras parade, parade, celebration, mardi gras in baton rouge, midlife, midlife women

That first experience didn’t 
happen for me ’til I got to college. My parents remained Mardi
 Gras virgins. But at some point in my young adulthood, a small
 parade began in the shadow of Louisiana’s huge phallic State
 Capital. Sure, it was a bunch of drag queens that 
liked to dress up and parade down the streets of the town’s oldest 
neighborhood, Spanish Town, but it was a parade. That little parade 
grew and grew and last year 100,000 came to catch the beads, or
 condoms, or white bread or whatever was being thrown off the 
homemade floats.

It is 
appropriate that a parade grew up organically in the shadow of
Louisiana politics. It’s the honoring of our corrupt and crazy
 political history that makes the parade so fun. Add sexual
 overtones to it all and it is a day that is so fun and hip and cool 
that Baton Rouge can only sustain that level of intensity for the 
day of the parade. The Spanish Town parade doesn’t try to be a big
 and glitzy New Orleans parade with it’s imported celebrities. The celebrities that are at the Spanish Town parade are likely to 
be the infamous politician who just got out of  jail. The
 floats look homemade because they are. Pictures are stapled to the
 sides that someone downloaded and printed on their office printer
 when the boss wasn’t looking. The paint is barely dry on others 
because they were hastily put together with a keg and an 
all-nighter.

Continue reading this post on Connie McLeod’s blog, My Creative Journey

Connie McLeod

Connie Mcleod is a: Creativity Coach, Greenview Designs; Art Director; Designer; Marketer; Blogger; Speaker and Group Facilitator; Foodie and Wine Lover; World Traveler

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYouTube

Kathy @ SMART Living 365.comm

Tuesday 4th of March 2014

Glad to see you celebrating Mardi Gras Baton Rouge style Connie. Now you are all ready for the beginning of Lent tomorrow....or at least my version of Lent! One of these days I'm going to have to make it down your way because it does sound like an absolutely fun way to party!

Connie McLeod

Tuesday 4th of March 2014

Yep, For Lent, I'm my jumping back on Weight Watchers and focusing on my health. Something I have not focused on for a month! I must fishing that king cake before midnight, LOL

Pamela Mason

Tuesday 4th of March 2014

I left Red Stick before that parade got started - I'll have to visit next year! Down in Mobile there's the Comic Cowboys with the same political lampoon premise. But without the drag queens - Mobile is N"Awlins' dry, Baptist sister. I think B.R.'s is probably more fun. Hope you post some pics sometime!

Connie McLeod

Tuesday 4th of March 2014

Pamela, we really must get together. One of my best friends comes to BR from Mobile every year for the Spanish Town parade. And we both agree, there is really no place like NOLA!

Comments are closed.
Read previous post:
marriage, married 30 years, longterm marriage, staying married, relationships, husband and wife, midlife, midlife women
How to Keep a Marriage Working

“Keep the fire lit in your marriage and your life will be filled with warmth.”-Fawn Weaver This past August, my husband...

Close