Feature Story

By Ashley Toland Editor

At Dec. 11’s City Council meeting, District One Councilman Fred Richardson announced with great disappointment the “world’s largest moonpie” would not be dropped from the top of the RSA Tower during this year’s downtown New Year’s Eve celebration, as Mayor Jones felt there needed to be “more thought” put into this process.

A “moonpie drop committee” has since been formed and will begin work on plans for the 2008 celebration “as soon as Mardi Gras is over.”

“We will work on dropping a moonpie or baby or something,” one city official said.

Richardson has apparently been collaborating over the last year with the Chattanooga Bakery to create the largest marshmallow and cookie cake “the world has ever seen.”

The moonpie is unique to Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebration and thousands are thrown from floats during the two-week parade season. Mobile has long and often bitterly battled New Orleans on rights to the celebration’s birthplace. As such, Richardson felt it was the perfect symbol to represent the true “Mother of the Mystics,” though there was no word on if it was to be a banana, chocolate or the ever-elusive orange-flavored pie, which would no doubt have caused considerable controversy between banana pie advocates and their chocolate pie adversaries.

The company was under the impression the large cake would just be hurled off the top of the tower or other structure and would simply “splat” onto city streets. Richardson said he “already had a band lined up and everything” but would go along with the mayor’s request.

A member of the newly formed falling moonpie committee said Richardson had agreed tossing a large confection off a 745-foot building was probably not the best idea, and they had thrown around other ideas, including lowering a “classier” crystal or paper mache moonpie.

Richardson seemed content with the paper mache idea as long as it was filled with “thousands of moonpies and had fireworks shooting out of it,” though some expressed doubt the fire marshal would sign off on paper mache pyrotechnics, as it could turn into a giant fire ball and citizens could be seriously burned with falling drips of melted marshmallow creme.

Another plan was to make it like “giant piņata” where people could beat open the moonpie to find thousands of individually wrapped ones. No word on if the city planned to provide implements to beat said piņata with or if anyone thought having hundreds of inebriated revelers wielding sticks on the streets of downtown Mobile also needed “more thought.”

Councilman Richardson vowed to drop a moonpie off the tower next year, “even if I have to do it myself.”

Council president Reggie Copeland reminded Richardson he would need the council’s approval to do so.

Ashley Toland is Lagniappe editor. Contact her at ashleytoland@lagniappemobile.com.

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