News - Columnists - Jimmie Bell

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Oct. 30 MEMORY BANK

Dateline 1986 — Throw me some heat, mister!

Louisiana’s Tangipahoa Parish and the Mississippi Coast, both proponents of Mardi Gras, have always used the religion-based festivities to give their communities a fun parade and or ball. But some years it gets cold — like 1986. That’s when the travel bug began to bite. So why not travel? “The Krewe of Dionysus of Slidell, La., decided to bring all that charm to the Gulf breezes of the Mississippi Coast for its annual festivities, booking 189 rooms.” Then the cold spell moved to Bay St. Louis. So the local Krewe of Nereids from the Bay brought all the trimmings to the Coast Coliseum and, said The Herald, “brought its own indoor parade.”

Sun Herald Memory Bank archives are researched and compiled by retired staff writer Jimmie Bell, whose reporting career at The Daily Herald and The Sun Herald spanned 30 years. Jimmie Bell is editor of Bell’s Letters poetry magazine, published in Gulfport. E-mail, jimbelpoet@aol.com.