Sweater Project

It’s that time of year again. This weekend, a couple dozen women who are normally more-or-less normal, self-respecting and upstanding members of the community got all tarted up, put on red wigs and green sequined dresses and changed their names to Tammy.

It’s time for the Sweet Potato Queen Parade.

As per tradition, the Tammys gathered at Elaine’s Table in the middle of Hunt to have a few margaritas and check each other for appropriate levels of makeup.

This year the event was larger than the last one I attended a couple of years ago. It’s in danger of actually attracting a crowd. I’m not sure if that would lessen the event or augment it. There’s something really enchanting about a bunch of ladies riding a float and waving at nothing but cactus and barking dogs.

The dress code, as always, was immensely practical.

As the parade was gathering, I found myself standing next to a woman with a really nice camera. I’ve discovered that bad-ass cameras are great conversation starters at public events. I chatted with the woman, whose name I believe was Gloria, long enough to discover that she had no idea what the Sweet Potato Queen Parade was all about. She’d just heard there was going to be a party and had come out to take pictures. When I found out she knew how to play a bodhran drum, I grabbed my mom’s, put it in her hands and said “Great! You can be in the band leading the parade!” I don’t think she quite got it, but she was game. And so the parade was led by the tradition band of bagpipes, bodhran and trombone.

Hint to SPQP photographers: you can encourage the Tammys to point and wave if you lift the hem of your kilt a little bit.

Somewhere along the way, one of the Tammys draped her pink boa over Gloria’s shoulders.

As the parade slowly crept along the 1/4 mile loop, the rowdiness increased. The Tammys were getting ready for their floor show at the Hunt Store.

On the patio at the store, cold beverages were in abundance and the PA system was cranked up so that the Tammys could strut their stuff. When they played the Macarena, Los Dirty Girls (the latina contingent of the Sweet Potato Queens) got up and showed everyone how it was done. Whoah, did they show us how it was done.

(I got about a hundred exposures of Los Dirty Girls.)

But it was a fun, family-type event and there were smiling faces and happy silly people everywhere.

Man, I need a nap now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.