If there is one thing I don’t remember about Mardi Gras in Mobile, AL when I lived there, it was my parents voting in an election, but strangely enough politics and parades are colliding in Alabama today. The chaining date is, of course, one of the more quirky aspects of the holiday. Its 50 days before Easter, which, like my spring break when I went to catholic school, is determined by the phases of the moon — how archaic! I remember it being in early March once during a leap year and they held fantastic parades on the 29th. Of course the election process also moved this year, seemingly more than in the past, and today the two collide — oh I already used that metaphor.
Mardi Gras is by far the best holiday I can remember. We got a random Tuesday in February off school to go downtown and catch all kind of wholesome goodies: plastic cups (which I still use to this day, though the Mardi Gras emblems have faded), beads, candy, and best of all banana and strawberry flavored moon pies. Oh and my mom’s special Mardi Gras turkey, for lunch. I loved then, as I do now, going into the city for just about any reason, even though the city was much smaller back then. It was just so much fun, and downtown Mobile had this inescapable lazy Sunday French charm about it — very refreshing to imagine. Now, add to all of that election excitement, that would be a blast.
I learned too late last night, that Obama was here in South Boston at the last rally before the voting. I’m not sure that Massachusetts is the politically savvy state to hold such a rally in, maybe California would be better, but I wish I had known and gone. Although, i doubt they had moon pies, so I’d still rather be in Alabama last night, but that wasn’t on the docket — hopping the T to the convention center could have been. I guess he did goto Harvard Law School, and with all those Kennedy endorsements its not a bad place to be. Anyways, my part is done, it was quiet and rainy outside the firehouse in line. Not a long line, it took maybe 10 minutes. The sweet sounds of the rain, which woke me up this morning before I rolled over again for another few hours, was only broken by the sound of a car horn as it drove past the two girls standing holding rain soaked Barack Obama signs across the street. And then by their subsequent noises of glee, mostly shouting and giggling.
There weren’t any supporters for any other candidate outside the polling place. I did pass some Hillary supporters with their 4 sign tall posts standing in the middle of Davis square as I drove to work after voting, just like they were yesterday, when they were upstaged by the Ron Paul supporters, who left a small sticker on a traffic sign and departed to make better use of their man power. There were two similar Obama supporters holding one rain soaked sign each. Even after voting, I’m too excited for the results, I couldn’t avoid searching out news and writing this post. If you haven’t made up your mind yet, I have another video link; don’t mind that it is by Lawrence Lessig, whom I’ve already linked to as a supporter via xkcd. It makes a slow solid argument that you can self evaluate, as is appropriate at this stage in the game.