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the Mardi Gras issue

photo by Jeff Tesney

MoonPies missed in the air are still in play once they’re on the ground. As Mobilian Carrie Dozier explains, her MoonPies weren’t “…caught in the air, but by scraping my fingernails like a rake on the pavement. It didn’t hurt! All that mattered was that I got a MoonPie!” Dozier even claims that MoonPies “from the parades have a different taste. These are the real things!” And when MoonPies land “tauntingly outside the traffic barricade,” notes parade- goer Kim Kearley, they are retrieved “by savvy children able to perform the fluid ‘under-the-barricade leg scissor.’” Less agile types bring rakes. Mobile is serious about MoonPies. But how did this beloved Southern snack from Tennessee find itself at the center of Mobile Mardi Gras? First, a bit of MoonPie history to get us up to speed. MoonPies were first produced in 1917 at the Chattanooga Bakery. Made from graham cookies, marshmallow and chocolate, MoonPies were one of 200 items made at the bakery, but they quickly became a top-selling product. The original MoonPie was more than four inches in diameter and sold for a nickel. Because it was affordable and filling, it was especially popular among the working class. Similarly, in 1934, the Royal Crown Company in Columbus, Georgia began selling RC Cola in 16-ounce bottles instead of the usual 12-ounce, also for a nickel. With the MoonPie as the biggest snack cake for a nickel and the RC Cola as the biggest soft drink, together they became a popular 10-cent combination, especially as a workingman’s lunch. Though neither company made any effort to link the two products, the phrase “an RC Cola and a MoonPie” became well known across the South, bolstered by the 1951 hit country song “Gimme an RC Cola and a Moon

moonpie in the sky by Emily Blejwas

D uring the monthlong Mardi Gras season in Mobile, Alabama, the birthplace of Mardi Gras in Amer- ica, over 30 parades roll through the down- town streets, each featuring a dozen floats. And at every parade, from every float, the prized catch is a MoonPie. “You can throw

a MoonPie at a two-year-old child, and a 50 year old will knock them out of the way to get it,” says Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson. “If you run out of MoonPies, you might as well just lie down on the float. You can throw beads for a little while, but the people will start calling for MoonPies.”

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018