The Krewe of Peggy, a Mardi Gras Adventure!

This adventure began with a broken seat on 2/24/2011, the Thursday before the first big weekend of Carnival Parades in New Orleans, leading up to the big day, Mardi Gras. I called Tony with my crisis. I think it took him a few minutes to realize it was a crisis. He suggested seeing if I could get someone to fix it. My brother, Bobby, came to the rescue. He had a piece of pipe, a flange, and the equipment to make it work. He was able to cut the pipe, file it because it was a little big, tread it so he could put it into the flange and then bolt that to the aluminum plate under the seat.

Thank goodness. I use my scooter daily as a teacher of high school students with autism. We take them in community to learn how to make purchases and explore potential jobs. The scooter allows me to go everywhere.

Since Bobby got my temporary (now backup) seat to work, I was able to e-mail Tony, order a new seat and have it shipped. It would come in the Friday before the next big weekend of parades. This was important because I needed to be able to put the seat back on. With Bobby’s rig, the seat didn’t snap into place. I needed to be able to put a flag on the seat back so that people could see me better when I was riding in the street. New Orleans sidewalks are terrible, courtesy of all of the large live oak trees. In the street I might have to dodge pot holes but didn’t have all the breaks as in the side walk.

The weather was beautiful today and we didn’t need to bring the ice chest. You can see I was loaded down. We were a comical site with me in the lead, Anne following, and then Diane bringing up the rear. Anne is a resident of Poydras Home which is on the parade route. They have a BBQ for the residents and their families on Sunday. I brought my friend Sandy to push Anne’s chair, Diane and her mother Carole came along too. Anne knew all of these people and enjoyed sharing her “home” with us. We were just glad of the most precious commodity at parades, a BATHROOM! We also enjoyed spending time with Anne.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Peggy

 

Parades, Parades, Parades

From Peggy:

The real reason I got my scooter was to go to parades. I will admit it was VERY cold each time I went out so you'll see layers upon top of layers. My friends Loved not having to carry anthing. I did pretty well getting around. Most people were very nice. Just like ya'll I had a few people who were obvilious. People would move aside so I could get to the back and about 5 people would go in front of me. Eventually, I would yell, "Excuse me," then they'd let me through. Some people are just a little slow. I've learned not to let it bother me. What did get to me a little was all of the non-family people with our group wanting to help me lift the scooter, put it in my car, etc. I haven't used it that much, so I'm still learning exactly the best way to put it in Stripe. I keep having to tell them I need to learn. Most of them were fooled by just how light it is.

Jimmy, the parrot, was a great hit with my great nieces and nephews. The all had to squeeze it and when they were in the ladder they'd call down, "Aunt Peggy, squeeze the horn, Pleeeeease!" I squeezed Jimmy so many times, I wonder how it still works. Like children, they accepted Silver without blinking an eye. I'd tell them I couldn't do all of the walking anymore but still wanted to be around them. The most I got in response was "Oh." Kids are great.

The picture of me at Endymion is with my 7 month old great niece Leighton. The group of ladies is at the Saints Parade, but the Endymion Figure is at their open house, and the one with me is at the ALLA, etc parades.