The Jefferson City Buzzards group is the oldest marching club in New Orleans Mardi Gras, USA. It was started in 1890. The Buzzards have an all-male membership.
With doubloons, long beads, and flowers that are exchanged for kisses, the revelers entertain themselves by lying on their backs in the street, quivering their arms and legs in the air like dying cockroaches in front of traffic and shouting "Cockroach."
The Jefferson City Buzzards have four parades each spring. Two weeks prior to Mardi Gras, they have a "practice parade" in uptown New Orleans dressed in drag. On Mardi Gras morning around 6:45am, wearing traditional Mardi Gras costumes, they begin marching at Exposition Blvd. and Laurel St. Uptown, at the edge of Audubon Park. The club walks down Laurel to Webster, turning right to Tchoupitoulas, down Tchoupitoulas to Arabella, then to Magazine, to St. Charles Avenue down to Canal St., preceding Rex. The route proceeds to Rampart St. then takes a U-turn to end at Magazine and Poydras streets. The Buzzards hand out emblem doubloons. The Buzzards also parade on Metairie Road as part of Metairie's St. Patrick's Day parade (which takes place on the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day), and on Veterans' Memorial Highway in Metairie the following Sunday as part of the annual Irish-Italian parade.
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