Carnival A-Z: Jefferson City Buzzards

Every Mardi Gras morning Rex takes to the streets and parades through his kingdom. As the throngs gather to await his arrival, several other groups amble by. While one is waiting, he might see a group of men, ambling by, at a level of sobriety inversely proportional to the distance they have on their route from Audubon Park (in the confines of the former Jefferson City’s boundaries) to the Quarter. The Buzzards’ website gives the following self description:

The Jefferson City Buzzards group is the oldest marching club in New Orleans Mardi Gras. It was organized in 1890. The Buzzards, as the neighborhood folk refer to them, feature an all-male membership.

Friendly with doubloons, long beads, and kisses, the revelers enjoy entertaining themselves by one of their well-known pranks: lying on their backs in the street and quivering their arms and legs in the air like dying cockroaches in front of traffic, hollering "cockroach."

The Jefferson City Buzzards begin marching Mardi Gras morning around 6:45am at Exposition Blvd. and Laurel St. Uptown. The club walks down Laurel to Webster hanging a right to Tchoupitoulas down Tchoupitoulas to Arabella, then to Magazine, to St. Charles Avenue down to Canal St., preceding Rex. The route proceeds to Rampart St. then takes a u-turn to end at Magazine and Poydras streets. The Buzzards handout and toss emblem doubloons, collector's items.

The Buzzards aren’t the only Walking Club though. One may have seen Pete Fountain’s Half-Fast Walking Club, which is described as:

Originally all on foot, in recent decades it has also featured one or two small floats. Fountain and other local jazz musicians play through much of the parade. The krewe's current route, basically unchanged since the mid-1970s, starts very early on Mardi Gras morning, at world famousCommander's Palace Restaurant on Washington Avenue in the Garden District. The krewe then proceeds downtown on St. Charles Avenue and after a brief interlude on Canal Street, enters the French Quarter at Bourbon Street winds around the Quarter and eventually ends up at the New Orleans Riverfront Hilton in the early afternoon.

The "Half-Fast" is one of the best known marching Krewes that parades in New Orleans on Mardi Gras. The original name was "The Half-Assed Walking Club" and was an excuse to take a "lubricated" musical stroll down the parade route. Pete changed the name under pressure exerted by the parade organizers. On Mardi Gras Day 2007 Pete once again joined his Half Fast Walking Club, having missed the event in 2006 due to illness.

Other Walking Clubs one might run into are the Society of St. Anne, which parades through the Marigny, and the Completely Mistick Krewe of Chartreuse, which describes itself as:

The Completely Mystick Krewe of Chartreuse marches for it's fourteenth consecutive year this Fat Tuesday. Founded by a small group of High School friends in 1996 the Krewe's true origins are obscured by an ongoing campaign of disinformation and drunken tall tales. What is known is that while their origins are shrouded in mystery, their chosen libation (some because they like it and some because they have to) is the green French liquor Chartreuse. Known by their green banner sporting the image of the ball and cross they can best be sought in the lower Quarter in the afternoon. It is also reported, although not by reliable witnesses that they have a early morning meeting of the courts with The Skeletons on Mardi Gras morning.

From E-Trips: "Headed by the strangest folk in living history, do not miss the parade named in honor of the liquor made from over 130 plants and herbs by Carthusian Monks. In the morning, search for the green and gold globe and crux banner on St Charles Avenue as it heads toward the French Quarter, or find us later in the Quarter proper where we march a randomized route. This will not be in the tour books and is so drunken and raucous you will run home crying if you're not careful. You have been warned." http://www.etriptips.com/wiki/New_Orleans/Mardi_Gras#Small_krewes

Now make sure to catch some of these groups on Carnival Day, and remember ladies, if he gives you a flower, you owe him a kiss on the cheek.

Comments

[Allison]

Remember the walking groups start out early. The Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club usually pass Napoleon around 7 in the morning, usually followed by the Buzzards and the Lyons. Sometimes just a hug will get a flower too!