Friday, April 23, 2010

Mardi Gras - Dunedin Style


If you don't know the City of Dunedin, next door to Clearwater, Florida, get to know it! It's one of the most beautiful small towns in N. America. It is twinned with Sterling, Scotland, and you can see and feel the Scottish influence there. I had the distinct pleasure of spending three months there in 2005; an experience I shall repeat at my first opportunity. I took out memberships at the Library and at the City swimming pool and, frankly, I didn't want to leave. That's not to say my stay was all good. My short little holidays that I love to tell you about mix the good with the bad. That's what makes them so interesting.


I couldn't help but notice all the announcements of their annual Mardi Gras parade starting in the park at the north end of the city the following weekend. I wasn't going to miss that event because I had never seen a Mardi Gras parade, except on TV. I also expected that there would be massive crowds so I decided to walk there rather than take the Mustang. A thirty minute walk would do me good ….Right?

I arrived there early to see what was going on. I liked what I saw. It looked like it was going to be a family affair because of the prevalence of young people and small families. I saw brass bands rehearsing their music; dancing girls trying out their routines; and clowns and other persons in fancy dress handing out necklaces made out of plastic beads. Everyone looked happy in anticipation of the parade scheduled to start at nine. There was lots to do during the meantime. Concession stands as far as the eye could see were selling giant hot dogs; hamburgers as big as mini-pizzas; huge barrels of buttered popcorn; cans of soft drinks and pitchers of beer. For a quarter, you could throw a ball through a hole in the wall and win a teddy-bear so big that you'd need a full size van to carry it home. It had all the ingredients of a very good time for all. I was definitely going to stay for the parade.

At dusk, a thousand lights came on and the wagons and floats began to move slowly through the park and onto the city streets. I hadn't really noticed the continual influx of high school and college kids and I was shocked and amazed to see that most American kids, unlike British and Canadian kids, were 250 lbs and seven feet tall. I couldn't see the parade so I found a five feet high brick wall to stand on to give me a better view. Many of the “big” school kids began to run after each other because they were excited, playing games and stuff, and that's when one brushed against me as he chased his mate. It was just enough to make me to lose my balance. I don't know how I turned upside down as I fell, but my head hit the pavement first - knocking me out – cold!

A man and his wife leaned-over me asking if I was OK. I think I remember saying that I needed a park bench where I could be sick, but the crowd was so dense we couldn't move. I felt a lump on top of my head about the size of a golf ball and growing. They wanted to drive me to hospital but I declined. I wasn't sure how much my travel insurance would cover simply because I couldn't think straight, so they found a place where I could rest for a while. I told the man and his wife how much I appreciated their help and I finally managed to convince them that I was going to be OK, so they left. Stupidly, I began to slowly make my way home but I felt dizzy. I held myself straight-up against the occasional tree and I sat down on the curb to rest quite frequently. I was afraid that a policeman might pick me up thinking that I was drunk so I started to use the lesser-travelled side-streets.

I finally made it home in one piece and just crashed into bed. Twelve hours later, I woke up with a pounding headache. I did a few simple neurological tests on myself and I knew I was OK. Apart from the accident, I remembered that it had been a terrific night but my best memory of all was the kindness of the two complete strangers who tried to help me – and I never even got their names.

No comments:

Post a Comment