26
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2014
W
hen you’ve been in business
for more than 50 years, and
you have stores along the
parade route, you see every character and
every costume imaginable during Carnival
season. And the faces hidden beneath the
Mardi Gras masks and makeup are often
very familiar; it seems our customers and
team members love Mardi Gras
as much as my family and I do.
England may have the Royal
Family, but at Rouses we have
Mardi Gras royalty. Kings,
queens, captains, pages and
maids shop and work at Rouses.
A former Queen of Apollo
works at one of our stores in
Raceland; a former Queen of
Shaka works at our Thibodaux
store by Nicholls State.
In New Orleans, we sell
coconuts the throw of choice
for Zulu witch doctors,
ambassadors and the Zulu
mayor, governor, Mr. Big Shot, and the
prince, queen and king himself. There are
Mardi Gras Indians working at Rouses all
over the city, and a few Baby Dolls. The
butcher who hand-carves your steak at
our Carrollton store makes costumes for
the Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs. We also
get Rolling Elvi in the stores, and all the
marching crews, from the early morning
Skull and Bones gang, to the Jefferson
Buzzards, the Corner Club, and Pete
Fountain is Half-Fast Walking Club. Lyons
Club starts the morning at Grits Bar up the
street from our Tchoupitoulas store. The
Krewe of St. Anne routes near our French
Quarter store.
I love that we have a front row
seat for the Mardi Gras action
in Algiers, Houma, Metairie,
Youngsville, New Orleans and
more. The Thibdoaux parades
line up by our Nicholls store; our
Mid City store is just blocks from
the Endymion route; Caesar and
Zeus pass directly in front of our
big store on Veterans Boulevard
in Metairie; and Lafayette’s Le
Festival du Mardi Gras is held in
Cajun Field, right across fromour
store on Bertrand and Congress.
My favorite part of the parades
is the bands. We featured the
Come On Take Me to the Mardi Gras!
by
Donald Rouse +
photos by
Frank Aymami
