New Orleans’ Mardi Gras festival has been in full swing since Jan. 6 with revelers whooping it up ahead of the Lenten season, which is just weeks away.

The Louisiana city’s final celebration takes place March 4 on Fat Tuesday. The day before the start of Lent is filled with parties and celebrations throughout the U.S., and even in many other cities around the world.

Mardi Gras is rooted in the traditions of various cultures before the solemn season of Lent.

Mardi Gras season began Jan. 6, the Epiphany, but its duration changes each year based on Easter. It always ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent.

Fat Tuesday this year falls on March 4. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Historically, on Mardi Gras, people were meant to use “all the fats in the home before Lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence,” Britannica reports. Christians would consume rich, fatty foods, such as meat, eggs and cheese, before the period of Lenten fasting, according to the History Channel.

The first Mardi Gras festival in what is now the U.S. may have taken place on March 3, 1699, where New Orleans was founded, Mardi Gras New Orleans says, but other think it began in 1703 in Mobile, AL.

Catholics also call Fat Tuesday Shrove Tuesday or Shrovetide, the conclusion to Ordinary Time.

Famously, Brazilians and Venetians celebrate the holiday with parades, masks and costumes. In both Italy and Brazil, the festival is known as “Carnival.”

Most visitors to the Historic Square in Liberty, MO, walk past the old museum building at 14 Main St., unaware of the treasures of local history housed inside. Many stop to admire the window decor-ations created by a dedicated team of volunteers depicting various themes and changed periodically. A block on the side of the building indicates its origins to be 1877 – but that was the date of the building’s remodeling, after a fire damaged the original 1850s structure.
For most of its life, the building served as a drug-store, beginning in 1856 with the first druggist, W.A. Hall. Daniel Hughes Jr. partnered with Hall in 1870, bought him out in 1873 and remodeled the building four years later. In 1877 he sold the building to Joseph C. Simmons, whose name remains on the entry tiles.

Simmons installed a soda fountain just inside the front doors, but discovered it was more work than reward, and replaced it with a candy stand. Today the original soda fountain’s stools can be seen, and the candy stand has become a gift shop with a large variety of books featuring area history.

Dr. William H. Goodson practiced medicine on the second floor for 64 years. When he died in 1963, his office was preserved as it had been in 1920, with his original medical equipment, including many instruments the doctor fashioned by hand. It remains a popular visitor attraction.

The Clay County Museum Association bought the building in 1964. Today it is filled with historical artifacts from throughout the county. Its three floors preserve the memories of those who visited the doctor, bought penny candy or just stopped in to chat with the druggist around the old pot-bellied stove in the back room.

Artifacts include arrow points from area Native Americans, military items from the Civil War and both world wars, old appliances, musical instruments, toys, historic photos, posters, and much more. A rare harp piano can be seen on the second floor, along with a doll collection, period furniture, old documents, and other fascinating items. The lower level displays include a diorama featuring workers assembling stained glass in an early-day factory, an old-time loom, farm equipment, and a variety of interesting household items.

Visitors are greeted on the first floor by a centuries-old Spanish cannon from the Phillipines that once graced the old Court House lawn. In addition to a piano purchased in New York and brought to Clay County in the 1850s on a steamboat, visitors can see old toys, telephones, early-day costumes and countless other items to whet the appetite of any history enthusiast.

Closed in January, the museum reopens in February. Admission is free (with cash donations gladly accepted). Hours are 1-4 Monday – Friday and 10-4 Saturdays. For more information, visit www.claycountyhistoricalsocietymuseum.org.

The hayride is a fun autumn activity to enjoy with your family or a group of friends, allowing you to enjoy the countryside, the changing colors of the leaves on the trees, and a beautiful sunset on a cool night. The activity isn’t as nearly as old as one might guess.

Hayrides have been around since the 19th century, when innovations in transportation allowed people from urban areas to vacation in the countryside. Farmhands would transport hay bales using horse-pulled wagons, and farmers conceived of the idea of the hayride in order to celebrate the arrival of the autumn season. More recently, they’re organized to make a little extra money for their farms during months that might see little to no activity.

In those days, visitors would sit atop the 15- or 20-foot-tall bales of hay piled onto the cart pulled by the horse – sounds like a recipe for accidents, doesn’t it? In the decades following, they would simply sit on a surface strewn with straw, the carts now pulled by tractors.

“Back in the day, especially in small-town America, there were family farms everywhere. If you didn’t live on a farm, you almost certainly had an uncle, neighbor, or friend who did,” writes a blogger who only calls herself ‘Staz’ and manages storiesbystaz.com. “They’d fire up the tractor, hook it to a wagon, and throw on a few bales of hay or straw for seating, and you were good to go.”

Much like a trip to the beach, after which you’d end up finding sand in your clothing for days, hayrides offered a similar pitfall – hay everywhere when you’d return home.

“Of course, the hay or the stray didn’t always stay neatly tucked in each bale. After a hayride, you might find pieces of straw in your shoes, your hair, or even in your underwear,” Staz writes. “Those pesky little straws and hay bristles might be sticking in a few unmentionable places. All that jostling around on the wagon could get those tiny straws stuck in the most unusual places.”

Though a sunset hayride would offer a picturesque view of the horizon, the blogger says hayrides after dark are especially exciting, especially around Halloween, with the possibility of spooky mischief peeking at you from behind each tree or over there in the pumpkin patch.

“Sometimes we went on hayrides to a pumpkin patch, or we had what were called haunted hayrides. There were hayrides with bonfires after the ride, or Halloween parties,” she writes, adding that if you were lucky, you might even get to ride through a covered bridge. “There were late-in-the-season rides and the adults would cut down a Christmas tree and tie it to the wagon for the ride home.”

Though hayrides could provide a good jump-scare or two during the autumn and Halloween, they also make for a romantic date for a pair of sweethearts.

Sally Smith had lunch in Belton, MO, nearly 14 years ago and stopped by a flea market to ask about renting a 10’x10’ space.

She ended up buying the building.

“(The owner) talked me into buying her business,” Smith explained. “I’d never worked retail before.”

Smith named the new 3,600-square-foot store Whistle Stop Antiques, and after more than a decade in business, she reflected on all she’s learned and the memories she’s made.

Whistle Stop Antiques, so named because Belton was a whistle stop town and the railroad runs directly be-hind the building, was a new venture for someone who loved well-used treasures.

“I had owned a company that did estate sales, so I had the antique knowledge but never had worked retail,” Smith said. “At the beginning, it’s always dicecy, and you wonder if you’re going to make it or not.”

But Smith needn’t have worried – shoppers were instantly drawn to the store’s variety of inventory and its small-town charm. The business’ popularity has increased so much over the years that she bought the building adjoining her store, bringing her total space up to 7,000 square feet.

Smith said the area in which Whistle Stop is located has long been associated with sales.

“This entire block was at one time owned by a wo-man who sold children’s clothes,” she said. “(The buildings) were built in the late 1800s.”

At Whistle Stop, Smith said she prides herself on placing her focus on offering quality antiques, with all other items a secondary concern. And whether customers come in with an intent to buy or simply wish to do a bit of browsing, they’re always welcomed warmly and greeted with Smith’s signature smile.

“I have people who come in to regroup; they just wander and look and calm down. I try to set things up so it’s not too crazy,” Smith said.

There’s plenty you’ll find at Whistle Stop that you won’t find anywhere else – including, Smith says, live music on evenings when the store hosts its regular concert series.

Luckily for antiques lovers in Higginsville, Sandy Wescott has always dreamed big.

Now, the store she opened on the town’s main drag 16 years ago is growing to accommodate those dreams. Running Rabbit Antiques has expanded, buying up the building next door and opening a general store and hardware store, along with a 1920s gas station. All of that is in addition, of course, to the wall-to-wall antiques, primitives, collectibles, and advertisement signs that greet you when you walk into the front door of the original building. Wescott’s son Dale and his wife Christa now run the store, having retired from their jobs to dedicate themselves to its management full-time. All told, the expansion, from conception to opening, has taken about a year and a half.

“I grew up with my family collecting antiques. We’ve been accumulating for a long time,” Dale says. “We’ve got some good dealers, we love general store stuff, and now we have one of the better ad sign displays outdoors now. We have some really good dealers over here. We have a bit of something for everyone.”

Dale adds, “My mom always dreamed of expanding next door. Four years ago, my wife and I took over the store, and her dream became our dream.”

Dale says that Christa is general manager of the store and also manages its marketing and social media, while Dale prefers to go on the hunt for and buy those special items that find their way onto the store’s shelves – and, hopefully, customers’ shopping baskets.
When the couple began plans for the expansion, Dale drew up concepts for the use of the next-door building.

“Once we were handed the building next door, we worked 12 hours each day for a month,” Dale explains. “We had a few people helping because we had days of building walls and painting. The days started to blend together. A lot of dealers worked really hard to get their part set up. Everyone has been working hard.”

At the conclusion of that long month, however, Dale and Christa were jubilant when they laid their eyes on the finished space.
“It came out just like I envisioned,” Dale says.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially welcomed the new Running Rabbit Antiques and General Store to town, and the expanded space’s first day of operation was March 22. Customers’ feedback on the expansion has been overwhelmingly positive, Dale notes.

“We had close to 200 people here for the ribbon cutting. When they come inside, people for a year and a half have been looking to the right, looking for the opening,” Dale recalls. “I’ve heard the word ‘awesome’ a lot.”