Thank Cain and Mobile for Mardi Gras
When I hear about Mardi Gras celebrations I used to think of New Orleans. Well after this assignment in Pensacola I will think of Mobile, Ala. After all, that's where Mardi Gras began in this country.
Didn't know that, did ya? I didn't either. But during Mardi Gras season, roughly from the middle of February until about the first week of March, Mardi Gras celebrations are all over the news - if you live around the Gulf Coast.
Moreover, it is a big celebration in Mobile, Ala., and people come from all over to see the various parades. For some reason the news media in other states don't seem to mention much that Mobile is where the big party started in this country.
In 1703, when Mobile was a colony for French soldiers, the military men decided to celebrate surviving a particular bad bout with yellow fever. Party favors, however, were hard to find in the New World, so the men decided to paint their faces red and for a few hours act crazy. It must have been a lot of fun because it became and annual event, according to various sources.
There was a hold put on Mardi Gras festivities during the hostilities of the Civil War. Afterward, Mobile was occupied by Federal troops, and there was little revelry. However, in 1866, a man by the name of Joe Cain felt it was time once again to bring back the merriment of Mardi Gras and decided to do his part to put life back into the town.
Cain decked himself in full Chickasaw Indian regalia, proclaimed himself Chief Slacabamorinico, climbed aboard a coal wagon with six spirited (figuratively and literally) friends calling themselves "The Tea Drinkers," and road his one-mule, one-float parade through the town.
Mobile during the Festival of Lent has never been the same since. But how did it get to New Orleans? According to various sources, Mardi Gras was transformed into a parade event in 1840 by a group known as the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, the first of many of Mobile's so-called mystic organizations who journeyed to New Orleans in 1857 to help a group there set up a Mardi Gras celebration. And the rest is history.
The Mobile Mardi Gras is considered to be more family oriented and less crazy that the one in Mobile. In addition, small towns all along the Gulf Coast celebrate Mardi Gras with their own parades.
Finding out about local history and traditions is just one of the fascinating benefits you get as a medical health traveler.
Carol's assignment will be up here in April and we plan to travel to the Tampa Bay area. We have the assignment but I will hold it in surprise until my next entry. One of the interesting bits of information is that if you do a good job at your place of assignment and you like everyone, the medical facility will most likely ask you to hire on.
But don't let it go to your head. It's flattering, to be sure, but unless you really like the area and the pay is adequate for your needs, keep to your goal to travel. You may never get to see the country on someone else's dime again.
Here's the answer to last entry's puzzle question. It's kind of a long answer. But for Wintergreen Life Savers Roll Candy to sparkle, you have to have it really dark. When you bite down hard on the candy, which is made up of a combination of mint flavoring and crystalline sugar, the energy stimulates a component in the flavoring to emit light. The component in wintergreen is methyl salicylate. There you have it.
Happy Trails travelers, 'til next time.
