Hard Work But Lot's Of Fun
Hog’s week starts for us on the Monday before setting the heavy things, laying out our site plan and staging for Friday AM when the true setup takes place. Everything has been placed by the 9:30 AM meat check. As soon as the check is done we immediately go into meat prep mode. The 120 lb whole pig is trimmed, seasoned, injected and put back into storage until cook time. Our Boston Butts are prepped the same way and our Ribs are prepped and seasoned. The Porkpourri (freestyle Pork Creation) offering is organized so it can be staged as turn in times come up. This year we added a Friday submission for Bacon Night. We also added a Blue Plate Mayo & Tobasco Sandwich turn in submission.
Of course, our main sale offering is fresh “popped” Cracklins. We have been cutting and rendering the 570 lb of Pig Belly for our Cracklins since the first of the year. We render and freeze for the final pop on site. This makes our offering the only true hot and fresh Cracklin offered on the field at Hog’s For The Cause and a very popular item.
This year was our first Friday night participation and it was a great first experience. Our sales were brisk and it was a fun evening for our team members working the front. The Cracklin production group got to break in the system for the bigger next day.
Fires for the Whole Hog were lit at 7:00 PM to meet a schedule for a 9:30 AM turn in the next morning. The activity from the Bacon Night Friday Night and LSU Basketball/Baseball games kept everyone involved and energetic. By 10:00 PM everything began to shut down and the crowd cleared out and the fire tenders settled in. Even with the parties going late into the night, this starts the quiet time when the stories get told and later the reflective period of predawn hours.
Sitting, talking, occasional head nodding but mainly getting up every ten to fifteen minutes to check and stoke fireboxes, regulating temperatures, and mopping the pig every hour to make sure all was good. At a certain point in the night conversation lulls, the mind fogs and the mind turns inward. This year my thoughts drifted to Mardi Gras. Because of our Horse Racing roots and historic political activism I found my mental reflection drifting to Ed Muniz and his parade Endymion. the spark of consciousness came in the form of the young group of Nurse Anestisist next door going through copious amounts of liquor while blasting every form of music imaginable at ear shattering decibels. I thought they were like rookie float riders who didn’t understand the premise of a parade being a marathon and not a sprint. To make it through the thirty six hour grind of Hogs, if you are a fire tender, you better pace yourself.
I thought about Ed and the organizational efforts it take to put together the worlds largest Mardi Gras Parade and Party. How many pieces have to spin the right way and how you have to learn and evolve every event to continue to have success. In a macrocosm our little team, Tailgate Tigers, has the same process and each of the ninety teams of Hogs has a process. The event producers have done the same and to this point the parallel between our experience with Jazz Fest during our tenure at Fair Grounds has astounding parallels with Hogs For The Cause. The rookies next door crashed and burned about two in the morning leaving the rest of the night quiet and their fires cold. We occasionally nodded our heads as our music played softly and our fires stayed steady.
Our friend Ed may have ridden in his last Endymion this year as father time catches up to him. Our history as friends and neighbors goes back to my childhood. For those who don’t know, the name Endymion was chosen for his parade inspired by a New Orleans handicap winner at the Fair Grounds where his cousins Mervin and Ray worked as Racing Officials. Ed’s first radio job was at the little WBOK AM on Gentilly next door to the track. Endymion originally lined up in the neighborhood next to the Fair Grounds and started it’s route down Gentilly past the track. Many of the original members were horsemen or employees of the track. Ed memorialized Marie in the 2004 Endymion with a placard on a float. The honor was special to Vickie and I and was a highlight of my twenty five year participation as a member. Vickie and Ashlee still enjoy their night out for the Endymion Extravaganza.
The dawn broke with renewed activity and preparation for turn in started. Cracklin, Pulled Pork & Rib sales started at 11:00. By the 8:00 PM Shut down and beginning of the Awards ceremony, exhaustion has turned to sore and stiff. Then as all party phases comes the worst part of the event… clean up and breakdown. Partial load out happens Saturday night and complete site evacuation on Sunday. Monday is unload, clean up and put away day. The seven day cycle completes itself and planning for next year has already started while this years event was playing out.
BGK