Happy Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras isn't widely celebrated in NYC, nor was it celebrated in Texas where I grew up. But I was surrounded by it when I was in college at the University of Alabama - all those New Orleans and Mobile students brought the party with them! (Little known fact: Mardi Gras originated in the U.S. in Mobile ["mo-BEEL"], Alabama, and not New Orleans!)
My sorority big sister, the amazing Casey Cole (Hemard Palascak), grew up outside of New Orleans in Houma, Louisiana, and for Mardi Gras 1998 (I think?) a bunch of us drove from Tuscaloosa to New Orleans to her parents' condo for the weekend. (Thanks, Dr. and Mrs. Hemard! Did you know we were there?)
Side story: Once while I was visiting home with Casey, we went to the property where our friend, Genevieve, grew up. It was an old sugar plantation, complete with very old slave quarters still on the property. "Interview with a Vampire" filmed scenes in that area and on their property, and Casey and Genevieve remember Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise coming to town.
Anyway…
Mardi Gras was a lot of fun! And very crowded. I'm glad I did it when I was 19. Here are a few pictures from that weekend:
Most of the group:
Out in New Orleans one night:
I remember driving in the night, home from New Orleans at the end of the weekend. I was riding with another sorority sister and her friend. They had a mixed tape (yes, tape, remember those?) playing on the stereo and when this one particular song came on, they wouldn't let anyone talk in the car and they would turn up the volume. And rewind to repeat it. (Rewind!)
Warning: Listening with 2014 ears, this is not that good of a song. This is not even a good band. But it's one of those songs from the past that just takes me right back to that moment… driving through the night from New Orleans back to Tuscaloosa, windows down (in February), Spanish moss hanging from the trees, and being 19 without a care in the world.
Third Eye Blind, "I Want You"
