Going Mary Alice (adj.): Def., the momentary lapse of all things adult during Mardi Gras; acting more juvenile than a juvenile.

•

On her first trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, my stepmother, Mary Alice, made her mark just as so many do when overtaken with the spirit of revelry that abides on Fat Tuesdays.

Like the stories passed through generations, Mary Alice became famous in the Murphy house for her ability to lose all of her adult faculties to fight children, sometimes hitting the concrete, in the quest for thrown beads. Most families who have celebrated this holiday have their own Mary Alices who arrive at parades seeming to be normal adults.

It happened to me standing along Government Street in Mobile, Ala., pulling a quasi-New Orleans by hoisting my shirt skyward — all for a pink horse for my niece, Alex. We caught the horse, and later I whispered in the 4-year-old’s ear, “When you get older, I will explain what had to be done to get that horse.”

Without a doubt, though, the winner of the 2009 Mary Alice Award goes to sister Lori, the oldest and most mature among us.

As the first parade passed, she leaped over the chest-high barricade and began sweeping Moon Pies — much-coveted alternatives to beads — in our direction. Fines for hopping the fence during a parade are in the several-hundred-dollar range, yet this physical therapist with a master’s from Emory University acted as street sweeper.

She made it over the fence without incident, but firmly planted herself as the award winner on Sunday with an 80-pound boy on her shoulders. Lori weighs little more than her eldest son, yet she propped him up. Jake called for toys and dolls; Lori caught a glimpse of a football about to be thrown. Lori and her surgically repaired knees leapt forward with Jake still straddling her shoulders. The ball bounced off Jake’s hands and fell to the ground.

Lori, son still on shoulders, dove forward into a catcher’s stance, snagged the foam football with her left hand just ahead of an approaching horde. She rose without her knees touching the pavement, and Jacob still in place.

So to Lori, the straight-A student who will celebrate her 40th birthday on May 22, please accept the 2009 Mary Alice Mardi Gras Award. We hope you will be defending your crown next year. You are a worthy champion, indeed.

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..