I enjoyed being close to NO growing up, but even though I had business in NO in the past, I could never allow myself to actually live in NO or Metairie. The closest I could get was Slidell. It was just a personal preference, but I'm thinking NO is not such a great place for kids to be, either. Here's yet another story...

I grew up on the coast in Gulfport, and lived there with my parents until college. In all that time, I personally never got into the whole Mardi Gras thing. We had a little parade every year on the coast, and I'm sure that I went to a few of those, but Mardi Gras in NO really isn't for anybody younger than 18, IMO. We always heard horror stories about people with razor blades in their shoes and kids getting run-over by floats and stuff...and I can't speak for everyone, but I didn't have to go to NO to get a nude frontal view of a woman.

Anyway, after all those years and I was married with 4 children living in Slidell...and I finally decided to go to a parade in NO. I made the mistake of taking the children along.

We parked our car somewhere, and then after walking for a while, (and we did get a glimpse of that Margaret/Martha ?? Dubisson (sp?) news reporter lady that use to be big there, not sure about now...but she sure was littler in person), and then we came across this guy with an old man mask on and a trench coat. When he got right up to us, he flashed us. He had a fake unit that was about 12" long...and the kids got a good look.

Then, one of those private clubs that march before the real parade came marching down the street. They had caps on and there were things protruding from their caps. Well...the name of the club was the "D#ck Heads" so you can imagine what those things protruding were.

So...it was right about that time that I said, "OK, let's go home."

I still haven't seen a real parade in NO.