Mardi-Balling Post #51

Mystic Stripers Queen

            Since moving to Mobile in 2008, I have done anywhere from three to eight balls per year during the 4 week season.   Working from home  my first five years here afforded me the option of sleeping in on the following mornings.  Last year, I started a fulltime job outside the home in late January, right at the start of the carnival season.  At the same time, I had the flu and eight ball invitations at hand.  Adjusting to a corporate schedule for the first time in 10 years, by the time the balls rolled around, I was already exhausted and didn’t want to mess up things at work so it was imperative to come up with a new approach to ‘Mardiballing’.

            The key thing to know is that maneuvering through whole season means balancing the parades, balls, and peripheral activities such as brunches, lunches, receptions and dinners during that time with real life.   I learned the art of doing the ‘doll and dash’;  doll up, dash to the ball, watch the callouts (tableau), have a bite to eat and a drink, greet the host, perhaps a dance or two, and dash back out the door between 10:30 – 11:30.  I’ve become quite proficient at being home in bed by the pumpkin hour.

Order of Persephone - Emblem

  Talking to others in the same situation, they would do things differently –  either come for the long haul and deal with the repercussions in the morning, or to skip the tableau and show up to eat and drink, enjoying the latter half.  But contrary to most Mobilians - who were born and raised here - the one part I wouldn’t miss is the tableau (call-outs) and there are a few reasons for that.  First it is what the society members live for all year; to parade and their ball tableau.  It is their time of recognition, as silly and funny as it can be.  In my own opinion, making that part of the ball shows appreciation and respect for the host who invited me – though having 20 plus balls per season (as many do) could very well change my mind on that. 

Order of Persephone - Queen

But the main reason I love the tableaus is, because after six years of living here, I still haven’t gotten over the fact that this even goes on; that there are forty plus balls per season and each entail hundreds of people in brand new costumes, a king and/or queen with robes that start at around $10,000 and can go up to six figures – from what I’ve been told.  I still can’t believe that everyday people are willing to dress in silly costumes, parade around the city, spend hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to throw beads, toys, moon pies and other goodies to crowds that can be 50,000 to about 120,000 when the season is in full swing.  And then after that, they host their balls and are introduced on the stage as they bow to the king/queen and dance down the stairs in the spotlight.  I mean, seriously!  You would never see such a thing where I came from and anyone who even thought of it would be considered a fool.

Venus Queen & Court - Pre-robe.

Yet, here’s literally thousands who do just that, and then tens-of-thousands more who show up to watch the stuff and celebrate.  All those years back, while shoveling snow and holding my breath while running from the car to the house to keep my lungs from freezing, never in my wildest dreams would I believe that there was a place that actually did this even one time, let alone over and over for a period of four weeks every year.

But now that I know this, there is no turning back.  No matter how tired I get, how many times I find myself in tears when I remember that I have a ball that night and I’m already exhausted, I will still muster up the energy to go, if only for the call outs.  There is something extremely empowering about going to parades and balls when the news and my northern Facebook friends are sharing their struggles with the horrible winters.  It is almost a feeling of cheating death.  Perhaps I have the fear of forgetting the suffocating feeling that I constantly felt while living in that weather, and the immense amounts of time that were spent managing the snow; time that is now spent on parades, balls, and all of the other festivities.  For me, Mardi Gras is a way of celebrating freedom and my own escape from my ex, whose name is ‘Old Man Winter’.