Fess up, it’s not a parade without hot sausage and beer

5th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
The Louisiana Weekly

A red and white ice chest stands as one of the displays at the Backstreet Cultural Museum in a room dedicated to the traditions of social aid and pleasure club parades and jazz funerals. A picture of second line vendor Tyrone Peters and a sign, “Beer $1” is displayed above.

That this tribute shares the space with legends like guitarist/banjoist Danny Barker, Grand Marshall Alfred “Dut” Lazzard and trumpeter Al Hirt speaks of the regard given to the food and beverage vendors at the events. They remain core to the tradition of the Sunday afternoon social aid and pleasure club anniversary parades along with the club members, brass bands and second liners.

“Ever since I’ve been parading, they’ve always been out there,” says Alfred “Bucket” Carter, who has been a member of the Young Men Olympian Benevolent Asso­ciation for an amazing 72 years. He admits that back in the day there weren’t as many folks selling food and drinks as there are now.

So it is understandable that when city officials announced last month their intentions to enforce licensing of the vendors, the second line community and others were concerned about the continuum of this cultural tradition.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s a second line,” is a favorite phrase referring to the delicious whiffs that originate from barbeque grills at the designated start of each procession. Those selling food and drinks move on to turn up at the parades’ “stops” — usually bars, homes, cultural institutions or businesses — then greet folks again at the end of the four-hour events. Cold drinks, water and beer travel along with the processions via shopping carts, hand trucks and wagons.

“I don’t think it’s right,” Bucket says of the possible shut down of or limitations on vendors. “They’re making an honest living. I don’t see no problem with it. The City wants to make all the money. It was hot out there on Sunday (at the Valley of Silent Men parade) and people need water and beer or whatever.”

No action was taken against the vendors at the VOSM parade and according to Scott Hutcheson, the mayor’s cultural economy adviser, new rules concerning permits pro­bably won’t go into effect until October. He too attended the second line, the first parade of the season, to talk with the vendors and listen to their thoughts and concerns. He says he came away with the understanding that the parades require special handling when it comes to permits.

“I think the second line tradition isn’t just a parade — it is the vendors, it is the community involvement, it’s a collection of the people who want to be a part of the celebration,” Hutchenson offers. “It’s many things that define a unique part of the New Orleans culture. You can’t honor just one piece of it. Whatever is created that the city administration has a hand in, we certainly want to honor those traditions. You can’t ask people to be something that they are not.

“This doesn’t change the fact that there are state laws under consideration as far as permitting alcoholic beverages,” he adds in a statement that might raise red flags in the community. “Well, you can certainly get temporary ones under certain circumstances for special events. And we need to look at that. They are moving festivals. So if you look through that lens, of what a festival or a special event entails, I think every flexibility can be found by how you define an event.”

So what would a Sunday afternoon social aid and pleasure club parade be without a hot sausage sandwich and a cold beer?

“A second line in Houston,” trombonist Edward Jackson, who’s played the parades for 10 years with the TBC and Hot 8 brass bands, quickly answers.

“With all that we went through with Katrina and all the things we did to keep things the same or make it better, the last thing you should be doing is to displease a whole culture,” he reminds city leaders. “They should be doing everything they can to generate money into it instead of taking money away from it.”

For about eight years, a man known by most simply as Junior has been a familiar site at the second lines. He rides through the dancing crowds in his wheelchair that pulls a wagon loaded with an ice chest full of water, Gatorade, soda and beer. He sees any ban on selling refreshments at the second lines affecting him personally and the parades themselves.

“It would have a big impact on me because I get a disability check and I go out there and it helps me make ends meet,” Junior explains. “It would change the parades drastically because people like to drink and party. It’s just like you’re going to Bourbon (Street). You go to Bourbon not to just drink cold drinks, you know. You go to have fun and for entertainment and to relax yourself.”

Considering the decades-long tradition of having vendors on the streets during the second lines, many wonder what set off this probable change of policy. Some believe that a few of the bars where the parades stop made complaints citing the loss of revenue to the vendors who often park their trucks in front of their businesses. However, many of the bars where the second lines stop have long been closed or don’t allow anyone in beyond the club members and the brass band musicians.

“The barrooms are making money too,” says Bucket of those establishments that do open their doors. “They can’t make it all — you have to spread it around.”

Others think that it’s partly due to this administration’s overall tightening on permits of all kinds. Then again it’s been chalked up to the same old state of mind that in the past led to authorities trying to raise the social aid and pleasure club parade permit fees beyond their financial capabilities. It reminds trombonist Edwards of when the police stopped the TBC Brass Band from playing at their long-time spot on the corner of Bourbon and Canal Street. Some blame people new to the neighborhoods where the parades pass complaining about litter. In other words, it’s seen as just another attack on New Orleans’ Black cultural traditions.

“The City Hall switchboard is always active,” Hutcheson says. “People always come to the city to make sure that laws on the books are enforced. That does not preclude us from also evaluating them. This is an opportunity for us to go back and look and see what fits — think progressively and inventively. I think this is going to be more of an exercise in making sure that the laws are aligned and that the permits fit the needs of the vendors.

“Somebody said to me, ‘Don’t make the pork chop man go away,’” Hutcheson recalls. “And we won’t. We’re going to make something good that honors what these people so lovingly give to the community.”

So what would a second line be minus a hot sausage sandwich and a cold beer? Not the real deal; not a true New Orleans tradition.

This article was originally published in the September 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper