Solo Along Parade Route: ‘Mardi Gras is My Christmas’

Maybe you saw him today sitting by himself along the parade route in Lafayette: a lone man, sitting in a lawn chair alongside Johnston Street, ice chest strategically placed, watching the traffic pass by.

Saltzman was wearing a few strings of beads around his neck, and there were a few nicer ones on his ice chest.

When I asked him if he misses the Mardi Gras festivities, Nick Saltzman of Broussard said, "Mardi Gras is my Christmas, but it's all good. This is where my family sets up every year, and I just wanted to be out here for a little while. Someone even slowed down enough to throw me these beads." Not the greatest Mardi Gras haul, but much more than most of us will be seeing this year.

When I asked him what he meant with the Christmas reference, he explained that, in the way most people wait for Christmas to come around, he waits for Mardi Gras.

I then asked if he was going to let the lack of parades dampen his Mardi Gras spirit, he shook his head and said, "One way or another, we're going to laissez les bons temps rouler!"

Thinking back, I now realize how dumb of a question that was. After all, the man is sitting along the parade route, alone, wearing Mardi Gras beads. It's obvious that his spirit is far from dampened.