225BatonRouge.com - Blogs

Guess what this weekend is. No, it's not my birthday. No, there isn't an I-forgot-Valentines-so-I'm-making-it-up-now dinner in the works. It is NBA All-Star Weekend, but that's not what I was looking for. Give up? It's the time of year where people and homes are drenched in everything pink. The ever popular white-trash yard-bird flamingo is out in full force. It's the bawdiest, most irreverent, non-pc event Baton Rouge has to offer: the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade. And luckily, it is still rolling along the traditional parade route.

Oh the joys of Spanish Town and its very own parade. My first time attending was in elementary school while spending the night with a friend. I remember going home feeling like I had been to something my mom would probably not have approved of. Last year was the first time I attended with my family. Watching my mom and dad look with big eyes from my grandma's front porch, quickly turning to my sister and telling her not to look told me that I was probably right all those years ago. But they were warned, and I took joy in saying "I told you this wasn't a family parade." I said it a couple times, in fact.

Some of you are new to the city, and some just haven't been able to attend. So that you can be prepared before you trek to the downtown area, here are a couple tips for a fun filled time.

1. Try not to make it a family affair. That is unless you are either prepared to make some uncomfortable explanations to your children, or they are all old enough to handle reading snarky political commentary and seeing all manner of risqué floats and decorations. I'm not even talking about public indecency or belligerent drunks, like you get at New Orleans parades. Remember what I said earlier—bawdy. Irreverent. Politically incorrect. If you want a family-friendly parade, I suggest Southdowns, which rolls at 7 p.m. the night before Spanish Town.

2. Find a family member or friend that lives in Spanish Town and partake of the parade at their place. It's a more comfortable experience to have easy access to food and a bathroom. Not to mention infinitely more convenient to be in a yard where you’ll only have to fight friends and people you know for beads. If you have no friends, or at least no friends with homes in Spanish Town, there are usually tons of house parties. Considering how small Baton Rouge seems to be, you can almost always find someone you know at a party, and on parade day in Spanish Town, party crashing is widely welcomed.

3. Wear as much pink as possible, no matter what your personal opinion is of the color. Guys, pretend you are going to a sporting event and showing team spirit (just ignore the fact that the team color is pink this time). If you don't want to go the pink route, consider wearing a costume. Pull out the Halloween gear and do it all over again. The costumes are more fun and inappropriate than scary (with the exceptions of the people with plastic body parts, or the people who clearly have no taste and aren't dressed in a costume), so leave all the blood and guts at home.

Whatever you decide to do, just make every effort to have a good time. Ignore all the pushing and drunken behavior that comes along with parades and enjoy yourself. After you've sobered up and the crick in your neck from all the beads has subsided, let me know how your experience was. And make sure to come back next week to get a peek at what a couple 225 staff members found at the parade.