THE MARDI GRAS

[Music] from Every Mountain Side [Music] here young lady if you're going to stay out of bed you put your robe on Gramps why can't we go to the mar girl well because you're a little too young Julie and uh I'm a little too well your GRS has been to his share of them Julie I haven't well your turn will come in the meantime shall we watch from the balcony moms won't care GRS why don't they have a mighty girl all the time well because people can't spend all their time at play Julie life has a serious side too people must work raise families and always be an active part of this nation they must earn their time time for play well there's your Mighty gr Julie Mighty game colorful isn't it but it wasn't always like this and it wasn't all accomplished overnight either I remember my father telling me of his first Mig Gro months before he had decided to leave his home in Omaha come to New Orleans and set himself up in the furniture business the first part of his trip was made by Stage [Music] Coach by two stage coaches he was lucky to be able to walk away from that one the Jing miles he covered in that second coach made him Mighty thankful to see the first of the Riverbats that were to take him on the rest of his trip Riverbats in those days were the last word in modern travel and the folks of my father's time came from all over the country not only to see the Mig grow but to be able to go home and B post that they had traveled on the most modern means of transportation man would ever be able to invent well when your great-grandfather finally arrived in New Orleans he was looking at the city that was our country's fourth and size and right then first in amount of trouble in 1853 the words yellow fever were enough to make the bravest man want to run and your great-grandfather didn't feel he even qu qualified in the first end but he took time to look around him and he was glad he had not one Soul was running instead men and women were coming in from all over the countryside to help stop the epidemic my father learned a lesson then that he was going to remember all of his life the power of a United effort made by a determined group of people after the epidemic was curbed this town started giving some thought to their MRA they certainly had earned themselves some relaxation and pleasure and so your great-grandfather's first Migra was to mean more to him than just a nausey reel as he peered under the gay mask and grotesque heads of the reelers he recognized the same faces he had seen only a few short weeks before masked with grim determination and his enjoyment was doubled as he remember that he too had had his part in making this Migra possible some of the gay colorful groups of people he met that first night were to become his good friends and business associates for the rest of his life the pattern of his life in New Orleans had begun and ran a smooth unhurried Pace [Music] until well of course your great-grandfather was right in the middle of that and during those four long and terrible War years his memories of the past and his hopes for the future would to be his only comfort I'll never forget the sorrow in his voice as he told me of fighting in one of the first battles in which brother fought brother and father fought son there were no parties no Migra Ury a nation that can only settle his disputes by fighing loses all of its rights to pleasure he told me too of seeing the first meeting between two Ironclad battleships the monotor and the maraman that was in Virginia in 1862 for over 3 hours both ships pounded away at each other but when it was over and done as in most fights neither had won war of any kind and regardless of the outcome is a sorted disheartening business Julie and after the Civil War it took our MRA a long time to recapture the fun and gity they once had by that time I was old enough to sit up and take notice the first MRA I remember now was the one in which I was allowed to help with the floats I was mighty proud of that assignment because as you know the floats are seen by very few people up to the time they enter the parade oh I have lots of reasons to remember that Marty gr it was then that I first met your grandmother and as the two of us together with our party wandered through the crowded streets we heard the whale of an instrument playing some notes that were soon to become a a part of our America the [Applause] blues that wasn't the only form of music that came out of arigo either some years later your grandmother and I were swept into a whir poool of reelers who were parading to the stirring rhythms of a small Street Band the music we mared to then was later called Dixie Land and you know there have been some mighty famous dixyland band since well it wasn't long after that Marley Gro that the drainage of our swampland seemed like the most important thing we could do to entitle us to our yearly Carnival my we certainly earned our MRA those years and you know Julie it seemed to me as it had to my father that the more we had accomplished during the year the more enjoyment we got out of our Mar in 1915 we caught the full force of a tropical hurricane instead of the terrible loss of life that usually comes from such a disaster we had reason to be thankful because because of our drainage system not one life was lost people have to earn their MRA a day Julie just as I did in my time and my father did in his say you hear what that band is playing sounds sort of familiar doesn't it well I guess we were more up to date in my day than people think of course it's only been since 19 19 34 that the children have had floats like the one you wrote on last Saturday but the rest of the MRA today is very much the same as the M GRS were that my father saw in his time each year the chosen King of the carnival has been paying tribute to his Queen and for almost 100 years now he's been saluting as he passes a royal reviewing stand and later escorting her to the ball that was named in his honor outside thousand thousand of masks hide the faces of people who on this day especially know that they have much to be thankful for people who as they happily rub shoulders and elbows with each other all are vividly acting out the meaning of the words the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness well that's enough marra for tonight Julie no back to bed you go someday I'll be out there myself won't I why someday I might even be the queen of the Marty gr of course Julie someday you may you'll share the fun with those people out there and you'll share their work too our country wouldn't amount to much if it was all Play and No Work fun is just a reward for the more serious things we accomplish and what you accomplish when you're older depends on yourself you find opportunities for most anything you set your heart and mind down that's because you're living in a land of opportunity oh