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| Mardi
Gras Rally |
     
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When
they say “It’s All About
the Beads” I can tell you that it’s
ALL ABOUT THE BEADS!”
Starting on Friday right up until FAT TUESDAY we attended four
parades. We just couldn’t get enough beads? And who in the
world needs all these beads, but we were all out there grabbing
and snatching every bead we could get our hands on. And the beads
we couldn’t reach because of barricades you spotted some
of us with long sticks fishing the beads in! It was a fun time
for all of us. Personally I came home with over 600 beads, plus
lots of toys they also threw out, but who’s counting? At
least some of us might build up a We had 12 rigs attending this rally. They included our hosts, Marie and Burnell Moreau, Ida and Les Cook; members, Linda and Polk Brian, Romola and John Laninga, Geneva and Bill Waters, Thelma and Murray Yandt, Bobbie and Chuck Bayles, Sue and Joe Moore, Ruth and Paul Rees, Nancy and Bobby Skinner, Rosalyn and Bud Odom; and guests, Mary and Bernard Lang. We
started our rally out with a social get together on Thursday late
afternoon following a welcome dinner of delicious Crawfish Etoufee
and wonderful pecan pie prepared by Marie. The pie was so good
because Burnell hand picked and shelled all the pecans! The Friday we had a potluck brunch which turned into a great idea. We had an assortment of egg casseroles, biscuits, lots of fruit and it was all so good. After the brunch we were on our own until parade time. There was an Executive Meeting attended by our past presidents that were present. Lou Bautad came over for the meeting which was a pleasant surprise. They created the nominating committee for next year officers. This committee will be comprised of Polk Brian, Bill Waters and Lou Bautad.
Saturday after breakfast we caravanned again to the next parade in Carencro. This parade was very long with 200 floats and we got to totally fill up our bags and body of BEADS. This was the BEAD Extravaganza Mother Load parade. We all struggled caring our bag of beads back to our vehicles. In the evening seven couples went out to dinner at Pats in Henderson.
Monday was a day on our own so we all went on our own trips getting together for common interests. We were all back in time to attend our 3rd parade which was the Lafayette Queen’s Parade. The floats at this parade were the best decorated and most had a full team of “Queens” throwing BEADS. Hmmmm….more BEADS! Tuesday we were up bright and early to attend the parade in Opelousas. They had no barricades at this parade so you could actually walk right up to the floats and BEG for your favorite beads. This brought any childhood actions out in some of us. You would think we never saw a BEAD in our lives! We were at the beginning of this parade and it went in sort of a U-shape so when the parade was over on our street….yup, we walked to the next block where the same parade was just getting there so we were able to beg for more BEADS (if they had any left). OKAY, so we went BEAD CRAZY. If you weren’t at this rally you surely missed a GREAT TIME…and a lifetime supply of BEADS!
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Mardi
Gras "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEADS" Rally
Hosts:
good
supply to actually be throwers from a float some year instead
of catchers.
decorations
in the clubhouse were so festive for Mardi Gras….beads everywhere.
We were all presented with hats, wigs, vests and just an assortment
of Mardi Gras wear. We could use whatever decorations on our body
we chose. Some of us even became self appointed Queens ?. After
dinner we had entertainment by Mitch Richards from MLR Magic.
He was really good, gave us a good laugh, creating balloon figures
and wowed us with his magic tricks. 
We
tended to leave for the parades anywhere from 2 to 3 hours before
the actual parades started to get good parking and space to watch
the parades. Friday we attended our first parade in Lafayette.
Marie made chicken salad and some of us pitched together to make
a bunch of sandwiches which we brought to the parade site. When
we got there, we took up the parking lot with our chairs for our
“dinner” of sandwiches. We then moved to the parade
site and set up our best seat selection. And then the first of
the BEADS started coming. Gosh, I really never thought we could
get so excited over BEADS!
Sunday
we had a Potluck Dinner for lunch. Would that be call a Drunch?
We were well fed at that meal as well. Afterwards we surprised
Mary and Bernard Lang with a cake celebrating their 50th Wedding
Anniversary!