(Picture from the Shreveport Times website of Peanut in the lion)Last night, we had the privilege of being a part of the Krewe of Centaur parade here in Shreveport. The boy's kung fu school, Lee's Kung Fu, did some awesome performances during the parade and we were happy to be a part and help out. We have several parades to celebrate Mardi Gras here, but the Centaur and the Gemini are the big ones, and last night was the first. So the crazies and the drunks were out in full force! We are so worn out today!
Most of the parade, the first half actually, was okay. The kung fu and tai chi students, kids, teenager and adults alike, entertained the crowd with lion dances, kung fu stunts and the really cool dragon that takes 9 people to operate. Meanwhile, some of us stayed on the very nicely decorated trailer and played the Chinese instruments - drum, cymbals, gong. Unfortunately, before it all started, I played around on the drum and showed them I knew the beat...so I was asked to play the drum several times during the parade. Which was fun...but DANG....my arms hurt! Not just from that, but from throwing beads to folks! I also played all the other instruments, as did Sammy and eventually, Mikey even picked up some cymbals!
Sammy was the star when he was on the drum, though. Everyone cheered and screamed for him - it was awesome! And when he saw his friends on the sidelines, he really got into it!
Several times, grown men sat on the trailer to ride along, only to be poked in the butt by a kung fu spear (once by me!) and crazy and/or drunk people tried to play instruments, take weapons, dance with the lions, take various things, etc....man...some people!
The best thing (said sarcastically) was when a crowd of crazy folks got too close and were trying to beat the gong on the trailer. Mikey was trying to break them up when someone reared back and threw some beads in his eye just as hard as they could! It actually scratched his eyeball! He didn't see who did it, lucky for them, because he might have done them a lot more damage than they did to him! It's really painful for him, on top of already having a broken arm right now!
On that note - folks watching the parade - behave! They are just plastic beads! And the people on the floats and trailers are sometimes kids and teenagers - stop trying to dance up on them!
Other than the crazy people in Shreve City and toward the end, we had fun. It was an experience, for sure, for the kids. They had never been in a parade before, whereas Mikey and I did them all the time in marching band in high school, even in New Orleans Mardi Gras in the 9th grade. Man, that's a whole other blog there! I remember somebody jumping into to hotel swimming pool fully clothed.....
Have a great week, everyone...and Happy Mardi Gras!
No comments:
Post a Comment