Kris, this is an excerpt from one of my articles that appeared in the Meridional several years ago. It should fit your request quite well! Ken The parade we will view in 1902 is a Mardi Gras parade. Until this time, Mardi Gras was barely acknowledged in Abbeville. Generally, our citizens went elsewhere--New Orleans or New Iberia. Thanks to promoters Gaston Levy and Col. Richard Dozier, the celebration took place here in town. In 1901, Mr. Levy had tried to promote a parade, but his was the only float in the parade. On that float was "little Mable Lann riding on top attired in a fairy costume," surely, J. S. Lann's daughter. He was one of our merchants. Also in this fledgling parade, there was "a large body of maskers" who marched down our streets under Levy's command. Evidently the idea of having our own parade took hold in the minds of other Abbevillians and this parade came about in 1902. The celebration was taken seriously and nearly all "business houses" closed at 1:30 p.m. in time for the parade. However, the saloons, fruit stands and drugstores remained open. After all, essential businesses had to be open to supply the public! Mardi Gras, according to the Meridional, was celebrated in Abbeville "more elaborately" that year than ever before. Finally, we are seeing a parade in which one of our own bands, the Abbeville Silver Cornet Band, provided the musical treats. The newspaper didn't go into great detail about this parade. It did state that "the streets were full of people who enjoyed the home production." In this Mardi Gras parade, there were several floats, including Levy's, and Dozier's. Also dazzling the young and the appreciative were wagons and carriages and "the fire apparatus." The vehicles must have been decorated in some way. There were even those who rode by on their horses, and there were pedestrians as well. I trust that the pedestrians marched before and not behind the horses. This February 11th parade, then, had been a bright spot that had made up for a dreary time in Abbeville. Prior to February 15, 1902--when the parade was reported on in the newspaper--there had been only two clear days that month. It would seem that the "cloudy, gloomy, foggy and misty" days had lingered too long, like unwelcome guests sometimes do. We all have them: unwelcome guests. However, before we feel too high and mighty, let's not forget that we, too, are sometimes unwelcome guests! While the newspaper doesn't give us many details, at least we get a sense of what it must have been like at a Mardi Gras parade in Abbeville, almost a century ago. I wonder how many of you who are reading this excerpt had ancestors that participated in or viewed that grand parade! Ken Dupuy