Downtown was awash in a sea of Mardi Gras green, purple and gold as well as flamingo pink Saturday. Women and men donned wigs in varying shades of pink and wore zany get-ups.
Empty beer cans piled up along the curbs, and music could be heard blaring on every street corner. It could only mean one thing: the annual Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade was about to roll.
While waiting for the parade to start, some people danced along to the music. Others lounged in folding chairs and ate. Sherry Cheek and Delton Richard, however, used the time to get married.
The couple, who have been together for four years, chose the parade as their wedding venue because it is where Delton first introduced Sherry to his family when they began dating.
The theme for this year’s parade, “Buy Yeaux Bailout,” gave the krewes the opportunity to tear into local and national politicians and make light of current economic woes.
Thousands stood in crowds two-to-four people deep, flailing their arms and hands hoping to get the attention of float riders busily tossing beads and trinkets.
Some in the crowd stepped up their efforts to get beads by arm-waving and yelling at the floats or even jumping up and down. Others hoisted their young children in the air or erected targets daring the throwers to try and hit the bull’s-eye.
Ted Rockett didn’t do any of those things, though. He said he comes to the parades to please his wife, Sybil, who is admittedly one of the more bead-crazed parade-goers.
“My stool is over there,” Sybil Rockett said as she pointed to a stepladder set up in front of the couple’s RV.
Sybil Rockett said she and her husband arrived at the parade route around 6:30 a.m. They parked in a lot along Convention Street. The Rocketts are Baton Rouge natives who now live in Springfield. They’ve been coming to the Spanish Town Carnival parades for 10 years.
“It’s still the same,” Ted Rockett said. He said there has been no change in the parades’ notorious levels of crudeness over the years.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time children don’t notice,” he said. “When they start reading, that’s different.”
Sybil Rockett said the parades remain family-friendly events.
“Most people are very friendly and they’re not aggressive,” she said as she relaxed in the shade. “This is just so pleasant.”
In some areas, playpens and strollers were clustered along the parade route. Little boys and girls played catch with their adult companions or perched on their parents’ shoulders to catch prized stuffed animals.
A few blocks away on Spanish Town Road, the scene was completely different. One rowdy crew set up a table laden with alcoholic beverages at the corner of Spanish Town Road and 6th Street.
There were colorful characters like Thomas Schulze and Tiffany Reine, a pair who dressed up in black wigs, pink tops and bottoms and striped pink socks.
Schulze had picked out the outfits. “It’s a Wal-Mart special,” he explained.
“And they’re fabulous,” a friend shouted as he pointed to the word “Fabulous” printed on the couple’s pants in rhinestones.
Four people were taken from the parade by ambulance, EMS spokesman Mark Olsen said. Three of the incidents were fall-related, and the other was the result of a fight.
Street sweepers may have hit the streets immediately after the parade to wipe away broken beads, discarded food containers and drinking cups, the usual remnants of Spanish Town Mardi Gras.
But the big trucks could not wipe out memories of the parade — equal parts off-color amusement and wholesome family fun.
