“How much for those necklaces?” voices yelled from the sidewalk along South Street on St. Patrick’s Day nearly three years ago.

The annual parade to celebrate the Irish in my hometown of Peekskill, N.Y., had 17 previous parades with no beads. It took a hint of the South to send a little culture “up there.”

Parades when I was growing up included pep bands, bagpipes and a fleet of emergency vehicles, sirens blaring. No one ever thought to have a float and throw necklaces (what Yankees call beads). But there we were, my brother Dan and I, with knapsacks filled with leftover Fat Tuesday beads we had transplanted to the North. Children of all ages ran to us, offering money at first then looking perplexed as we threw them out for free.

We tossed them gently to the crowd, knowing the folks who lined these streets had never been pelted with a Moon Pie or string of beads. Halfway through the parade, the elected city officials started to buzz as the faces of the children beamed.

“We need to look into this,” said the mayor.

Dan and I kept walking and throwing beads, confident we had brought the magic of cheap plastic ornamentation to an area that had never seen such, at least not since colonists were bartering with Native Americans.

Peekskill might never have a Mardi Gras parade, and boy is it missing out. The partying, the revelry, the friendship and the Moon Pies.

Whether dancing up Washington Street in Vicksburg, strolling along Dauphin Street in Mobile or struggling elbow-to-elbow to negotiate New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras is an event that shouldn’t be missed.

Come Saturday afternoon, the streets of Vicksburg will be lined and the calls of “throw me something, mister,” will resonate throughout downtown.

Mobile’s big celebration comes one week from today, Joe Cain Day.

According to legend, Cain revived Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebration in 1866 by parading through the streets of Mobile dressed as a fictional Chickasaw chief named Slacabamorinico.

The People’s Parade is so named because it is performed by citizens and not members of specific Mardi Gras krewes. The parades on Joe Cain Day are the best and should be on any family’s can’t-miss Mardi Gras list, as should Vicksburg’s celebration.

Take a day off from the world of doom and gloom and remember there is still much to celebrate.

So throw me something, mister, and laissez les bon temps roulez.

Sean P. Murphy is Web editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail smurphy@vicksburgpost.com..