Go Fish Galvez

Well, darn it, I missed it this year, “it,” of course, being Mardi Gras! Galveston.

Of course, I missed it last year, too. And the year before that. In fact, I’ve never been to Mardi Gras in Galveston at all, not even once, not a single solitary time. How this can be true still boggles my mind. Verily, it must be one of the last great mysteries of the universe, right up there with quantum mechanics and how geese can fly in a perfect “V” and all.

Aside: A few decades ago (rats!—I’ve given away a clue to my age), I was invited by friends to make the pilgrimage to the Big Easy for what to me at the time was Mardi Gras. (Back then, being such a young’un, I believed Mardi Gras was invented in Louisiana.) I didn’t go. Clearly, a pattern was already emerging. But I digress.

Interestingly, Galveston has one of the oldest Mardi Gras traditions in this country, dating back to 1867. It hasn’t been a continuously celebrated affair since those early beginnings but I expect that’s only because I never went.

Okay, so that’s it, by gosh and by golly. It isn’t January 1 or anything but let me make this mid-year resolution to attend Mardi Gras in Galveston in 2009. Shoot, by then I hope to be living in Galveston, maybe even right there on the parade route, which would be a real boon inasmuch as it would thus require absolutely no effort on my part to participate in the festivities, thereby making it ever so much more likely that I would actually attend.

So it’s MGG 2009 or bust—and don’t forget to BYOB, as in beads, just in case. See ya there!