Peregrinator Mark: Mississippi Mardi Gras

Because I had some trouble with the state of Mississippi's DMV bureaucracy, I had to fly back to the Gulf Coast briefly to take care of some stuff in person. While there, my cousin Katlyn was in a Mardi Gras parade in downtown Ocean Springs. While growing up in Vicksburg, Mardi Gras wasn't a very big deal. Yes, lots of people would go to New Orleans, and we would usually have a king cake with a small plastic baby stuffed inside. However, there were no parades or days off from school. I've never been to a proper Mardi Gras parade with bead-throwing and tons of floats. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they celebrate Mardi Gras a lot more. My mom and I didn't plan on staying for the whole parade but went mostly to see my cousin march with her high school band.

This small coastal town of Ocean Springs (population 17,000) was unusually warm and sunny with a high around 75º F (24º C), so there was a particularly large crowd. For a town of this size, the parade was rather large, much larger than anything I had seen in Vicksburg. Perhaps that's because most of the parades I've seen in Vicksburg only involved the high school organizations like bands, cheerleaders, and sports teams. This parade included tons of floats from local businesses and politicians. Some were more impressive than others. The crowd did show the whole spectrum of the small town's demographics. Many families had cookouts on their trucks' tailgates next to the main road. The most surprising aspect for me to see was all the public drinking in broad daylight at a family parade. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised at all, but many young adults, specifically young men, were throwing back multiple cans of beer. Usually, I'd expect a city ordinance against this kind of public drinking, especially in the last state to legalize alcohol sales after prohibition. This wasn't even the evening parade, which happens later this month. Maybe there was a special exception for this parade.

There weren't many people who seemed to be my age, though. Then again, many of the people my age here are married with at least one child. More than once I saw a couple younger than me pushing a baby stroller along the street. It's odd seeing so many young married couples, especially since I've spent so much time with people who refuse to think about marriage before they turn 30. I didn't grow up here, so I didn't know anybody. I'm not sure if most of the people I saw, such as the young couples, had grown up here their whole lives or if they had moved here from somewhere else. I would assume that if I had grown up in Ocean Springs and had gone to high school here I would have known a lot more people. As it was, I was an outsider observing everyone else.

I'm a bit disappointed with my photographs. My sun shield broke while I was in Scotland, and I haven't taken the time to buy a new one. Thus, many of my photographs had an unwanted glare. Using iPhoto, I had to go adjust the lighting in several of the photographs. Maybe the glare adds a special feel to the photographs. I also had trouble with the lighting and shadows. When I stood on the south side of the street, everyone was lost in the trees' shadows. When I stood on the north side of the street, I was shooting into the sun so that my subjects weren't as well lit as I would have hoped. Oh, well.