Hard Times Hit Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras organizers are scrambling to find 80 vehicles to pull floats after a Mobile dealership pulled out.

By: Christian Stapleton | WKRG-TV
Published: December 31, 2008

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MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Mardi Gras organizers are scrambling to find
80 vehicles to pull floats after a Mobile dealership decided not to
provide its white full-sized trucks because of hard economic times.
Parades are scheduled to begin in downtown Mobile on Feb. 6. Fat
Tuesday is Feb. 24. Only 25 are needed per night in the beginning,
but as many as 80 trucks a day are required by Joe Cain Day on Feb.
22, according to Sonny Davis, president of the Mobile Mardis Gras
Parading and Non-Parading Association. Floats were pulled by mules
in the early days.
National Guard jeeps pulled them at one point, but stopped amid
the increasing number of parades launched each year. McConnell
Automotive started providing trucks about 20 years ago.