How did you first come to join a Gasparilla krewe?
L.L.: I was born and raised in Ruskin. It started out as a very hometown krewe for me. There are women on this krewe that range in age from 26 to 76. There are women on this krewe that carted me around when I was a kid, to school. Now we throw beads together. TC: Always wanted to do it, ever since I was a kid. Wanted to be a pirate. Yep. Have you seen a lot of drunken debauchery during the parades? TC: It’s not so much that. It’s people falling off floats, breaking arms. Being clumsy enough to walk between a vehicle and a float. LL: At the night parade, when you’re down in the middle of Ybor City and it’s very late, we all stay together as a group. Guys are there to walk us through, because if you’ve still got beads left, you’re a moving target. How many sets of beads would you estimate you have in your house right now? TC: I’m really a bead-monger. I’ll go through a case and a half during the day parade. I probably have in excess of 2,000 beads at my house right now. And that’s not in
