Happy Mardi Gras, everybody! I hope you all survived the blizzard yesterday. The latest and greatest technology still hasn’t given us the ability to very accurately predict nature. Hopefully, that was the last fit of a pretty stiff winter and we’ll enjoy more spring-like days in the near future. It’s time to get out and about in the city!
Mardi Growl, Knoxville, March 2014
As promised, here are the final photographs from the Mardi Growl Parade. Appropriate that they land on Mardi Gras Day. I grew up in the home of the original North American Mardi Gras – Mobile, Alabama – and I was shocked when I moved away and realized that it wasn’t a day off work and school anywhere away from that patch of coastline. I could not believe it – work on Mardi Gras? What?
The Mardi Growl Parade, just in case you couldn’t tell from the photographs, was a massive canine convention. I loved seeing the variety of animals and owners. I appreciated the attempts at floats – we could use more of that next year. I loved seeing the owners dress up and it’s always fun seeing owners and pets who look like each other – some on purpose and others just because, well, they do look alike.
The orderliness of it all astounds and confounds all reason. That many dogs around that many dogs in a confined march seems to be a recipe for a doggie throw-down, but I only saw one skirmish and it was minor. It’s also a recipe for dog mess to be all over downtown and there was more than there should have been. Kudos to all the owners I saw picking up the poop. And curses on the owners I saw walking away. Be ashamed!
Worth mentioning is the full-square coverage of vendors, vets and rescue types. Hopefully some pets were vaccinated and some were adopted, which is the primary point of the event. As is always the case, within an hour or two of the massive influx, the entire event was dismantled and the square restored as if it had never happened. Kudos to the city workers and vendors who took care of that less-than-pleasant part of the day.
I’ll look forward to next year. Hopefully I’ll be a bit more practiced with the camera and, perhaps, will have an additional lens or two that might help. It was a fun day and you might go ahead and mark your calendar for next year – and cross your fingers for more great weather.
