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...so how many of you did obligatory Mardi Gras parades on legs no longer fit for marching in one?

15 minute "parade" for the fancy people. No harm done.

My only obligatory one was up a steep hill for a short block, another short block to the left, another short block to the left, another short block to the left, and back down the steep hill to the party location. I managed, even though I had one sore foot and a way-too-leaky-valves (which worked me to death...just remember how loud we're expected to play, when playing NOLA brass band music) borrowed sousaphone.

This was in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and every other time I've been there, I had avoided downtown (until doing this parade/party last year and this year). Heading off the freeway into the downtown area sort of slapped me in the face that - duh - Jonesboro sits on Crowley's Ridge. Just past the exit, the road "up" into town resembles the first chain-driven upward hill on a roller coaster ride...and then even-more-and-even-more up-up-up.


Crowley's Ridge is an interruptive "lump" (rising up c. 250' - 550' higher) right in the middle of the Arkansas delta. Most believe that it's a millions-of-years-ago western bank of a massively-wider Mississippi River/glacier. To me, it's a "breath of fresh air"/"cool drink of water" in the middle of a dreary/agricultural/dusty/rice-bug-ridden vast-land.



...Otherwise, here is a dreary/typical view of the flat-flat-flat Arkansas delta itself...actually: Stuttgart, Arkansas:


During plowing or burning, the Arkansas delta is particularly "scenic".



Crowley's Ridge can be starkly jutting up - in the background:

I marched with the Salvation Army at the Detroit thanksgiving day parade many years ago but I had to use a beat up small Holton tuba. One of the tuba players was the other Eb bass in the brass band I played in. He cracked up when I started playing the intro to “the undaunted” on that worn out old tuba. “Oh stop!” He said. We had been playing that so much to compete at nabba we all had it memorized at that point.

I don’t know how I would do marching with my little king Eb sousaphone. Probably not much lighter than a BBb with the 4th valve.


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One of the nice things about not playing in groups anymore is that I don't have to march with a sousaphone again, and my feet/knees/back/shoulders thank me.