News and information from the New Orleans area
Mardi Gras
Shangri-La Gives Up the Ghost!!
015 years
Krewe of Shangri-La Crest
Sad day indeed when the former mighty Queens of St. Bernard Mardi Gras, the Krewe of Shangri-La, ceases to exist as a parading Krewe!
My family had a real blast during Shangri-La’s heyday in St. Bernard, with over 1,000 Krewe members riding in a huge parade with around 38 units. I’m talking about the mid 1980s, when the Krewe was at their mightiest. By 1982, Shangri-La was the largest woman’s organization in the history of Carnival in New Orleans.
In another Mardi Gras life, I would see around 40 parades per season. I had my own crazy Mardi Gras posse- My wife Meg, her daughter Sharon, Sharon’s friend Tara, Tara’s brothers Hank and Eddie and Eddie’s friend Bruce. We’d go see the parades in New Orleans very early, then hit St. Bernard, or Metairie, which had more parades in the 80s. We’d go to Slidell, the West Bank, anywhere to catch a local parade. We’d catch some parades at the start, some in the middle, and some at the end. Fun, fun, fun was had by all.
We used to watch Shangri-La twice, once on St Bernard Highway, and then on Judge Perez Drive. You catch way more throws that way.
One year I took the Posse out to St. Bernard for the then fabulous Shangri-La. On the way out, the skies opened up and it began to rain cats and dogs. We persevered, as did the parade. It was warm that evening, we were young, and didn’t mind getting soaked to catch a few beads.
The parade crowd dissipated, and the route was almost devoid of any spectators. The krewe noticed we were almost the only folks out watching, and they dumped throws on us to show their appreciation. That is my wettest Mardi Gras Parade story, and I’ll never forget how generous the krewe was that night. It was the most throws we ever caught, and just about the most fun our posse ever had at the parades.
Shangri-La started in 1973 and paraded in Chalmette until 2000, when they moved to uptown to St. Charles Avenue. The krewe started admitting men into their ranks at this time.
St. Bernard was especially hard hit during Hurricane Katrina 5 years ago, receiving almost 25 feet of water, the most in the Metro Area. The population was slow to return, which severely impacted Shangri-La’s membership. Many members returned for the parade from out of town. 2 years ago, the krewe adjusted to the diminished membership by successfully transforming the street parade into a French Quarter carriage parade.
In 2010, a 45 unit parade ushered in Mardi Gras on the eve of Super Bowl 44. This was a very exciting time in New Orleans, and their final French Quarter stroll was fun.
During a July meeting, the Shangri-La Board voted unanimously to become a Social Club and continue their philanthropic plans. After 37 years, the once fabulous Shangri-La Carnival Club ceases parading. They live on the web at Krewe of Shangri-La.
R.I.P. Jerelyn ‘Pixie’ Naquin
315 years
I always admired Pixie. I remember when I first met her when I was interviewing Blaine Kern in the early 1980s for a Mardi Gras story on float builders. Pixie had been with Blaine for about 20 years by that time. When I interviewed Blaine, Pixie was present, and Blaine referred to her regularly to get me this material or that file. I worked with Blaine for about 3 years at this time, and Pixie was fantastic, a real hero of Mardi Gras, and truly Blaine’s right hand woman. As his business grew in an international direction later in the 1980s, Pixie was a whiz at keeping the lid on Kern Enterprises, pacing Blaine who really needed it as he was overdoing it badly at this time. Blaine’s kids were young and weren’t part of the company yet. She kept Kern Enterprises on a steady keel as the company grew and grew.
Kern does the float building for all the Super Krewes- Bacchus, Rex, Endymion, Orpheus, Zulu. I learned from Pixie just how Blaine acquired all those top parades, and it’s a secret I’ll have to take to my grave, because Pixie only told me if I swore I would never tell a soul. As the business grew overseas, Pixie ran that for Blaine also.
Whatever Blaine got into, Pixie was there, always graceful when others were losing their heads due to the pressures of adding the overseas division at the same time maintaining good will and contracts with all the reigning Super Krewes.
Out of Town High School Band Member Talks About His Mardi Gras Experience
016 years
Not a big fan of the NOLA Mardi Gras blog because of a participant named Bacchusrider, a big bully and worse, but this story was just too cool to pass up. This from Syracuse.com, and was written by Anthony Veiga with Taylor Clarke from the Post-Standard.
Parade made all the work worthwhile
Contributing writer
Last summer my high school’s jazz band set out to raise money to help pay for a trip to New Orleans. We knew that selling candy bars and baked goods wouldn’t get us enough money, so we performed a dozen gigs. Had it been any other trip, all this fundraising might not have been sustained, especially over the summer, but we were excited and determined to perform in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
When we left, just days after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl and at the start of the Mardi Gras festivities, we knew our dedication over the summer was going to be worth it.
After a 24-hour bus trip, we arrived in our host city, Chalmette, and were shown to a mansion where we watched our first Mardi Gras parade. The shower of beads that were thrown at us (none earned in the well-known manner) were all very different in color and size.
Our first morning there, we awoke to a performance by the Chalmette High School jazz and concert ensembles. They clearly had the “Southern” jazz style down, and when they played “When the Saints Go Marching In” chills went down our spines. We followed with our own “Northern” version of the song. We played as in tune and loud as possible, convincing some Chalmette students that the northern “funk” way was the only way to play that song.
We spent the rest of the day sightseeing on a jazz cruise and resting up for our big event the following day: playing in a 13.5-mile-long Mardi Gras parade with the Chalmette musicians.
Before the parade, we learned a Southern-style dance with the other students, which got us even more excited for the parade. At the launch site we assumed our position at the front of the entire parade: students from Mexico Academy were going to lead the Krewe of Thoth. We played our hearts out. It was tiring, but we continued on and 13.5 miles later, when the end came, everyone thought it was worth it. In fact, some wanted to keep going.
When we arrived, we weren’t sure we could make it through such a long parade. We left New Orleans only wanting to return and be a part of Mardi Gras all over again.
Zulu coconut lawsuit thrown out on appeal
116 years
Yes, Mardi Gras parade goers still sue even though most locals and many tourists know that you cannot sue from being hit by a throw in New Orleans in almost all cases.
Daisy Johnson Palmer, a 74-year-old retired Orleans Parish public schoolteacher, wants the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club to pay for the bloody cut, and ensuing trauma, she says came from a coconut lobbed in her direction Feb. 28, 2006, as Zulu paraded down Canal Street.
Four years later, though, a Louisiana appeals court tossed out her case after finding that her claims of trauma from a hollowed-out Zulu coconut thrown underhanded into the French Quarter crowd didn’t merit a trial at Orleans Parish Civil District Court. Palmer’s attorney, Edwin Fleischmann, said he is awaiting the final decision from the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Zulu’s rules say that the throwing of coconuts is “positively forbidden,” as is tossing any throws to the rear of a float. In 2004, Vice president Naaman Stewart was one of Zulu’s most vocal advocates for the adoption of a lightweight coconut, hollowed-out, shaved coconuts purchased in bulk from a Vietnam supplier and shipped to New Orleans where members decorate & paint them. An average store-bought coconut filled with milk & meat can weigh up to 1 1/2 lbs.