GeoCities.us
» BourbonStreet » Parade|
GeoCities.us
» BourbonStreet » Parade |
Get your FREE home page! |
 |
Krewe of Persephone
|
Greetings from the captain and officers of the Krewe of Persephone! We are a small women's Carnival organization,
about 120 members, who ride together every year in one of the suburban parades on the Saturday before Mardi Gras.
We take our name from the Greek goddess who spends half the year underground and comes up in the spring, which
seemed right for a bunch of ladies who spend all year planning and then come out for one glorious afternoon in
February. Our colors are the traditional purple, green and gold. Our signature throw is a pomegranate (Persephone's
fruit; look it up), and if you catch one from us, you were lucky and we were aiming.
This page is for our members, for the friends and family who line up along the route every year, and for the ladies who write to ask how to join. Read on for all of it. |
|
The 1999 Parade: "Under the Sea"
Saturday, February 13, 1999 What a day. We had worried about the weather all week (the forecast said 60 percent chance of rain, and there is nothing sadder than a wet float and a soggy wig), but it held off. Cool, gray, a little breezy, about 58 degrees, which is perfect parade weather because the crowds come out and nobody faints. Our lineup was eight floats and a hundred and fourteen riders, plus our dear friends from a local high school marching band and a dance troupe, who were with us for the first time and whom the crowd loved. The floats, in order: 1. Neptune's Court — the captain's float, with the officers in silver and sea-green, a papier-mâché Neptune twelve feet tall on the front, and the krewe banner. Our float builder outdid himself on the trident, which lit up. 2. The Mermaid Lagoon — twenty-two riders in mermaid tails, which we found out are very hard to climb a float ladder in. Sequins everywhere. Sequins are still turning up in the den. 3. The Coral Reef — pink and orange, with the riders costumed as tropical fish. Prettiest float of the day, in our completely unbiased opinion. 4. Sunken Treasure — a pirate ship on its side, treasure chest on the bow, and this is the float that threw the gold doubloons, all 15,000 of them. 5. Jellyfish Jubilee — the members' favorite. Glow-in-the-dark tentacles hanging from the canopy, a great idea that we will not be repeating on a day parade, because they only glow in the dark. 6. The Shrimp Boat — a nod to home. Riders in white boots and oilskins. Threw the shrimp-shaped beads that everyone was fighting over. 7. The Octopus's Garden — purple, naturally, with eight arms that waved in the wind whether we wanted them to or not. 8. Persephone Rising — our traditional closing float, Persephone in a chariot coming up out of the underworld into spring. The pomegranates were thrown from this one, as always. We rolled at 1:00 on the dot and finished the route a little after 4:00, with only one stall (float 5 lost a tire at the halfway point, but the tractor driver had it changed in twenty minutes and the band played the whole time). By the end our arms hurt, our voices were gone, and every one of us was already talking about next year. Thank you to the crowds, who were wonderful and who yelled "Throw me something, sister!" the whole way, which still makes us laugh. Our parade photos are being put together in an album by the historian; a few of them may end up here once she finds someone with a scanner. |
Carnival 2000
Mardi Gras 2000 falls on Tuesday, March 7. That's a late one, which means a long Carnival season (Twelfth Night, January 6, until Fat Tuesday) and a little more time for everybody's costumes. Our parade will roll on Saturday, March 4, the usual time and route. The 2000 theme will be announced by the captain at the November general meeting. It is a secret until then. It is always a secret until then. Please do not ask the officers, and please do not ask the float builder, who has been sworn to silence and bribed with pralines. We will say that it is not "Under the Sea" again, and that the captain has been seen carrying a stack of library books. Important dates for members: Saturday, October 16 — Fall general meeting and first dues installment Saturday, November 20 — General meeting, theme announcement, float assignments December — Costume fittings (dates by float, watch your mail) Saturday, January 8 — Throw order deadline. No exceptions this year. We mean it. Saturday, February 26 — The Ball Saturday, March 4 — Parade day. Den opens at 9 a.m.
|
|
About Throws
People who aren't from here ask us all the time: why do you throw things? The honest answer is that it's fun and it makes the crowd yell, but the tradition is old. Riders in the New Orleans parades have been tossing trinkets to the crowd since the 1800s, and by the early 1900s it was expected. The idea is simple. You are on the float in a costume and a mask, playing a king or a goddess or a fish, and you are being generous to your subjects. The subjects, for their part, are supposed to beg: "Throw me something, mister!" is the traditional line, and for our parade the crowd has learned to say "sister." Beads. The most common throw and the one everybody wants. The old ones, from before the war, were glass and were made in Czechoslovakia; you'll still find them in antique shops for a lot of money. Today they're plastic, by the gross, in every color, and the long ones and the fat ones are the prize. A rider can easily throw several hundred dollars' worth of beads in one parade. Our krewe sells beads to members at cost from the den in January; you can also bring your own. Our rule: nothing sharp, nothing that will hurt a child, and throw them to people, not at them. Doubloons. Aluminum coins stamped with the krewe's name and crest on one side and the year's theme on the other. The first ones were thrown in 1960 by one of the big old-line krewes, and now nearly every parading krewe has its own. Ours are gold-colored, with Persephone and the pomegranate on the front and the theme on the back, and serious collectors have every year since 1994. (Nineteen ninety-four is scarce. We only threw 5,000.) If a doubloon lands at your feet, step on it first, then pick it up. Everybody here knows why. Cups. Plastic cups printed with the krewe's name and colors, which started being thrown in the 1970s and which every kitchen in the metropolitan area now has a cabinet full of. Ours are purple with gold lettering. They are the throw your husband actually uses. Our signature throw: the Pomegranate. Every krewe with any self-respect has one throw that is only theirs. Ours is a red pomegranate, about the size of a plum, hand-decorated by the members over the winter, hung on a string of purple beads. We make about 2,000 a year and they are thrown only from the last float. If you catch one, you were on the right side of the street at the right moment and somebody liked your smile. Do not ask us to mail you one; that would defeat the purpose. Also thrown, depending on the float and the year: stuffed animals, plastic spears, light-up rings, the odd pair of sunglasses, and once, by accident, an officer's shoe. |
|
The Ball
Saturday, February 26, 2000 Our ball is the Saturday before parade weekend, in the ballroom of a hotel on the lakefront, and it is the one night of the year when we wear the gowns and our husbands wear the tuxedos and everyone behaves for at least the first hour. The evening opens with the tableau, in which the captain and the year's court are presented and the theme is acted out (this is the part with the papier-mâché and the dry ice), followed by the call-out dances, the grand march, and then dancing until the band quits. Last year the Crescent City Stompers played the first set (you can find them right here on GeoCities.us) and a dance band played the rest. The ball is by invitation only. Each member receives a set number of invitations for her guests. If you have been invited, the invitation will tell you the dress (it is formal; long gowns for the ladies, black tie for the gentlemen, and yes, we do check) and how to respond. If you have not been invited, the best way to get an invitation is to know a member, and the best way to know a member is to come stand on our parade route with a smile and a big bag for the beads. There is no charge to a guest for the ball; the members' dues cover it. Please respond by the date on the card so the ladies on the ball committee can sleep. |
|
Membership & Dues
Membership in the Krewe of Persephone is by invitation, and we are limited by the number of spaces on our floats, which is about 120. A new member must be sponsored by a current member in good standing and approved by the board. We do keep a waiting list; as of this fall there are about thirty ladies on it, and we usually take in ten to fifteen new members a year as others retire. If you'd like to be added to the list, the easiest way is through a member you know. If you don't know one, you can e-mail the membership chair at the address below and she will tell you where things stand. We are honest about the wait: it can be two years. Dues for 2000 are $450 per member, payable in two installments (October and January). Dues cover your float space, the parade permit and insurance, the tractor and driver, the bands, the den rental, the ball, and the officers' headaches. Throws are extra and are up to you; most members spend between $300 and $500 on beads, doubloons and cups, and some spend a great deal more, and we don't judge. Your costume for the float is rented from the krewe for about $75 and must be returned clean, or as clean as possible, which after a parade is a matter of opinion. Members are expected to attend the two general meetings, to help with the pomegranates (we have a pomegranate night in January that is mostly wine and glitter), and to ride. If you can't ride, tell us early so someone on the list can take your spot for the year. |
|
Officers, 1999-2000
By tradition the captain's identity is not published; she is known to the members and masked at the ball and on the parade, and that is part of the fun. The rest of us are less mysterious. Captain — masked First Lieutenant — Yvonne Second Lieutenant — Denise Secretary — Charmaine (who types this page and would like everyone to stop sending her spelling corrections) Treasurer — Gail Membership Chair — Roxanne Ball Chair — Trudy Float Lieutenants — one per float, listed in the members' newsletter Historian — Miss Lorraine, a founding member, who has every doubloon and most of the stories |
Neighbors on Bourbon Street:
Miss Odette's Creole Kitchen ·
The Crescent City Stompers ·
the whole neighborhood
Coming soon: a page of doubloons from every year since 1994 (Miss Lorraine is lending hers), and the ball photos, if the members will allow it.
|
[email protected] — general questions to the secretary, membership questions will be passed to Roxanne.