Ode to old Mobile Mardi Gras
By an old (former) Mobile cop
By Earby Markham
All rights reserved.
Cold, rainy February nights like tonight make me nostalgic. Nostalgic for a time when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and cops carried 6 shot revolvers. A time when Mardi Gras was largely limited to just Mobile and that copycat to the west, New Orleans and not every community on the northern Gulf Coast. A time when Joe Cain Day was truly for the people and the Joe Cain Day parade was truly the people’s parade.
A time before pepper spray and Tasers, before in-car mobile data terminals and before seemingly every member of the public having a handy video cam and a burning desire to make you, the cop, infamous.
Back when parade duty meant walking (yes WALKING) the entire parade route, each and every parade. Either with the floats or with the bands. With the floats you spent the entire time trying to keep the drunks either on or off the floats, depending on whether you were dealing with the riders or the public. With the bands you’d suffer a short-term hearing loss…usually getting it back by Memorial Day or the 4th of July at the latest.
You didn’t have the luxury of the cattle gate barricades of today to keep small children from running out in front of the floats. Nope you had a single cable secured through metal posts running most of the route. Cables a two-year-old could easily scoot under and anyone 6 or older could simply step over.
You had stretches of the route you dreaded because you could always count on trouble there, usually a scuffle if not more. And the McDonald’s at Government and Washington Avenue? Well, the more things change the more they stay the same.
The weather? Rain dates? Ha! I can remember walking parades in pouring rain with temps not much above freezing and also Joe Cain and Mardi Gras’ days getting sunburned, wearing short sleeved uniforms and cussing the choice of navy-blue polyester which either froze you or made you sweat like a pig (ha-ha, I know y’all were waiting for a pig joke. Probably waiting on a donut reference, too).
I remember how good it’d feel to finish the parade duty and disband only to have to be in roll call 2 hours later to work your regular midnight shift.
I remember working those parades and those shifts with some of the best people I’ve known, many who are still friends today.
To the young men and women working parade duty this and every Mardi Gras, thank you. You’re part of a continuous tradition that I still look fondly on. Know that you’re in my prayers that each parade and each end of shift sees you safe and healthy.
Yep, nights like tonight make me nostalgic.
Comments