C.J. Small can still remember watching Mardi Gras parades in downtown Mobile as a child and seeing former Mayor Mike Dow and Councilman Clinton Johnson waving to revelers and tossing beads and MoonPies from a rolling boxcar float.
“I remember seeing that boxcar rolling down the street with ‘Happy Mardi Gras’ on the side of it,” said Small, now the 48-year-old president of the Mobile City Council. “I was in elementary school. That boxcar has served its purpose.”
After decades in service, the float is about to be retired and replaced with a more colorful and elaborate one dedicated to all things Mobile…