Oh, there’s lots of stuff to drop on New Year’s Eve. Apples, peaches, oranges, disco balls, pine cones. Pickles. Fleur-de-lis. Here in Mobile, Alabama, we drop a Moon Pie. Yeah, as in RC Cola. As in Chattanooga Bakery.
Moon Pies are important to us because they are important to Mardi Gras (of which Mobile had the FIRST in the U.S., thank you very much. That’s for any fleur-de-lis-droppers out there). Mardi Gras means parades, and parades mean throws, and throwing means parade-goers getting whacked in the head. This lead, years ago, to a shift from boxes of Cracker Jacks to Moon Pies. Moon Pies have no edges. Also they are discs, and thus handy for throwing.
Our giant New Year’s Eve Moon Pie has been fastened to the roof of the RSA bank building for a couple of years now. At midnight, when the Moon Pie drops, Three Dog Night will be playing and people will be partying in the blocked-off streets. Happy New Year!
Photo courtesy Chattanooga Bakery
Janet Nodar 