Page 45 - The Jazzsipper Novel
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THE JAZZ SIPPER
One member would carry the club’s official banner. This gave the prospective
members a glance of what their "processional" would look like. Several S&P Clubs
that was founded before and shortly after the turn of the century is still around today.
The Young Men Olympians, was formed in 1884, the Zulu’s in 1909, and the Prince of
Wales in 1928. The noun second line (n) is also the name of a "unique dance",
performed to the beat of New Orleans’ traditional jazz. The dance is an evolved version
of an old African dance known as the, "Bambula". Each year, club members will
choose a color scheme, then set about to assemble or make new suits and host their
annual second line parade. With names like the "Jolly Bunch", "Money Wasters," "Lady
Buck Jumpers", and the "Golden Trumpets," the S&P Clubs played a vital role in the
community during the legalized segregation that created an entertaining counterpart
to Mardi Gras. Black Indians (now called Mardi Gras Indians who paid homage to
those Indian tribes that took in and protected runaway slaves), and brass bands would
parade by, sparking excitement, until the most famous and largest S&P Club arrived—
The Zulu Social Aide & Pleasure Club. It is for this reason, that even today, the Zulu
parade will past from the main street of Canal, and turn right, down into the back
neighborhoods that saw the beginnings of the society.
Regina remembered how mad she had become when Sister Maxine wanted
them to do a Term Paper. Regina complained all the way up until she began
reading the article. Afterwards she was so happy; she felt so knowledgably
and enriched about something that in New Orleans especially with Black New
Orleanians was a tradition. It was as natural and familiar as life and death
itself to all true New Orleanians. Most Orleanians had taken part in or would
take part in a Second Line. Regina found that it was strange that nowhere in
the State of Louisiana’s History Books were there any mention of the history
of Second Lines and its important contribution to Black New Orleanians. The
city of New Orleans, and matter of fact the state itself, all have profited from it
and continued to do so. Regina promised herself that when she became a