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Just when I thought the holidays were over, I remembered Mardi Gras. I checked online to see what date Mardi Gras falls on this year and found out that it falls on Tuesday, March 8th. That got me to thinking about my husband David and the coldest Mardi Gras ever.
The parade route was in walking distance from our home in Metairie, so after a lunch of Popeye’s spicy fried chicken, we headed out to catch the parade. It didn’t take long to realize how brutally cold it was. I didn‘t even own a pair of long johns till I took my first trip out west, so no doubt I was unprepared for the cold.
Walking back and forth, and back and forth along the parade route is David’s trade mark. One time we walked so far off the beaten path that our family hardly saw the parade. But I digress, I was talking about the weather. The walking wasn’t warming us up and David wanted ear muffs. K & B was on the parade route and we figured we would buy them there.
I use an old K & B pill bottle to store sewing needles.
Founded in 1905, Katz and Besthoff was a New Orleans icon until it was purchased by Rite Aid in 1997. K & B branded themselves with a jingle that said “Look at almost any corner and what do you see; a big purple sign that says friendly K and B”.
And purple it was! Purple cash registers, purple signs, purple employee uniforms…everything was purple! The shade became so well known that people called it KB purple. Besides being a pharmacy, the store had a wide variety of merchandise.
They had everything from cameras to their own brand of liquor and ice cream. K and B ice cream was loved by many New Orleanians including my daughter, Janice. As a teenager, she would buy her own half gallon of KB chocolate to keep in the freezer. Dark and rich, it was a chocolate lover's delight. Like I said, K & B had everything.
Everything that is, except ear muffs.
As it turns out, that wasn’t the coldest Mardi Gras ever. It just felt that way. The coldest Mardi Gras ever on record was during the Great Blizzard of 1899. On February 13, the Monday before Mardi Gras, the Port of New Orleans was frozen over. Ice floes were reported floating out of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. The following day was Fat Tuesday. The temperature was 22 degrees. The King of Carnival was a tad chilly that day and the Rex parade was delayed due to snow that had to be cleared from the streets.
Montana set a record low at that time too, with a -61 degrees Fahrenheit at Fort Logan.
