KING MANGO AND FRIENDS

       Yesterday we had a reunion for the folks that created the Grove's great parade, The King Mango Strut.

    We are the original Mangoheads, the guys who got the ball rolling back in '82. Most of us had played crazy characters on Main Highway dozens of times why others, like Peter O,

  did the extensive background work needed to pull off the annual event.
      For twenty-eight years we were the team that put on the show that entertained thousands. Nine years ago there was an ugly fight, a hostile take-over, and the parade began to change. Half of the original mangoheads dropped out because our usual raucous meeting were not fun anymore. The new organizers wanted to get serious, incorporate, and create their version of the Grove's great parade.

Allan squirrel watching
      But yesterday, we didn't have time to discuss how good things go bad. We were relishing our decades of grin-inducing accomplishments. 
Allan "Jellyfish" Aunapu, 77, came screaming up on his huge motorcycle.  

   Twelve years ago he crawled the entire length of the parade as one of Michael Vick's pit-bulls. Every twenty feet or so, he'd stop, lift his leg, and piss on someone's feet.  Unfortunately, we don't have committed strutters like Jellyfish anymore. Few are willing to crawl six yards much less six hundred.
     For years Keith Root gave his blessings garbed as the Pope. He's one of the few originals that still go to parade meetings but he says his ideas -which always worked for us- are now largely ignored or "die in committee".                   
     Both Gina and Mike McFall are crazy as loons. They can't stop strutting and are still marching as "Barbie & Ken's Parents" ,  "Water Woman and AquaMan" and or the "World's Largest Key Chain Bobs".  (above, Gina with Bobby Ingram)

    Bob Deresz used to pull off such feats as "setting lobsters free" from the Taurus restaurant's salt water tank ( He made his escape on a policeman's horse!).  Once he borrowed a 20' blimp and raced away with his giant balloon.
Bob with his lovely wife, Lynn

    After he changed his wild ways he wasn't quite as entertaining but is still one of funniest guys I know. You may remember Bob as the "Clown in White" with a broom and trash can, the final act in our parade for thirty years.

   Bob on the 2006 poster threatening to "Piratize Social Security".  He is dragging Bobby Ingram, Bob's wife, Gay, and my mother, Audrey Terry, who was a big Strut fan.
 
    
   It was wonderful to be with my King Mango buddies again. Every fall we would meet on Tuesday nights at the Taurus to decide what December's parade would be. 

    
    Now, some are dead (Bill, Wayne, and Bob) and a few others (Kathy, Buzz, Eileen, Peer, and AJ) are still kickin' but were not able to join us yesterday.

    All of the veteran Mangoheads are so loved and appreciated. They made thousands and thousands smile in the streets and yesterday, they were happy enough being together again.
                  ___________________

 





PS:  ITS  ATTIC  CLEANING  TIME- We've got vintage King Mango Posters and T-shirts (about a dozen, mostly smaller sizes) to give away.  Send me an e-mail if you're interested, bettermiami1@yahoo.com.