The Big Parade

Ok, so I had a first this past weekend. My very first Mal's St. Patty's Day Parade in Jackson. I had heard from so many people how absolutely wonderful it is, so I was pretty excited. Our friends Cliff and Katy had a St. Patrick's Day brunch at their house that morning to get everyone prepared for the parade. So we met at their house and ate and talked to everyone...all in our green. Finally, it was time to go downtown for the parade. I was so excited. We piled into the car with Kell and Mary Straton and Chris Roberts. Little did I know that we would have to walk 100 miles to get to the parade!! Seriously, everyone in the state must have been at this parade...and they came from all over the state. Car tags from everywhere! We trudged uphill to the parade route and met up with the rest of our friends. I really love parades, so at this point, I just couldn't stand it. And then it started. First come the Sweet Potato Queens on their float. They were cute. I mean, I've read the first book, so it was fun to see them. Then came all the Wannabes. One of the craziest things I've ever seen. There were groups from all over the country. At this point, I'm thinking that I'm ready to go home. I kept asking Mary Straton if things were going to get better, but it was her first time, too. I was too scared to ask any of our friends around us because they had already told me how great it was. I didn't want to hurt their feelings! So I just continued to watch. FINALLY, the floats came through throwing beads. There was a pretty good number of them, so we stayed to watch. We were a little too far back to catch a whole lot, but we were able to get some things. Of course, by the end of the parade there were people everywhere either too drunk to stand up or throwing up everywhere. Ridiculous.

All in all, the parade was fun. We got to see lots of our friends we haven't seen in years, so it was worth going. This parade brings out the state's finest, so watching people was as much fun as the parade itself. People came up with some crazy things to wear! The whole thing really was like Mardi Gras...just all in green and shrunk down into one big parade!