“I always wanted to be a writer and spent nearly 30 years in the newspaper business. I started with my high school job as a copy boy in Richmond, VA. I went to Columbia Journalism School and got my master’s in journalism. I was a reporter for the Birmingham Post Herald and worked the crime beat in Birmingham for a lot of years. I went to murder scenes and plane wrecks, saw the devastation of hurricanes and huge tornadoes. I interviewed rock stars and notorious killers. I came to Mobile in 2000 to be an editor for the Mobile Press-Register. Becoming an editor was a difficult decision because there wasn’t as much writing. However, there was a story going on outside of Montgomery that no one else was doing. I went to Wetumpka and did the story about a woman who put her baby girl in the oven. The baby turned out okay and the mom was convicted. But the mom was nuts and this was a cry for help that she wasn’t getting. The name of the story was ‘On Harm’s Way’. The name of the street they lived on was Harm’s Way. I didn’t know that until I got there but you can’t make that stuff up.

I am an observer by nature and you can’t find a better place to people-watch than Mobile during Mardi Gras. There is a magazine in New Orleans called the Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide. Arthur has been producing that magazine for more than 40 years and I wondered why Mobile didn’t have something like that. I tried to talk the Press-Register into publishing their own version but they weren’t interested. I realized if I don’t do this, no one else will and left the Register to start Mobile Mask on my own. I had the website up and running by Mardi Gras 2012. I took pictures and as soon as Mardi Gras was over I worked on advertisers. I am thankful for the ones who said yes before I had anything to show them. I work a lot with local businesses. I was going to give it five years because I thought it would take that long to get established. I was out of the red by year two. I am not getting rich, but I am contributing to the household budget and not a complete burden on Mrs. Mask. I also get to do all of the writing I want.

When I was an editor, I missed getting out and knowing people. I love that people now walk up and want to talk about Mardi Gras or say hi to Mr. and Mrs. Mask. Sometimes they just stop for 30 seconds and tell me thank you and that means so much.

Mardi Gras is more than just throwing things from floats. I dig into the history of Mardi Gras telling parts of this very unique tradition many people don’t know. I am going back with Wayne Dean and a couple of other guys to rewrite the history with more accuracy. The legends are important and we don’t want to mess up a good story just because it is not necessarily true. However, there are things that are worth straightening out so people have a better understanding. I have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joe Cain and the Lost Cause Minstrels first parades the in 1868 hours before the OOM’s first rolled, not 1866 or 1867. He was in New Orleans in 1867 during Mardi Gras. That is where he got the idea.

I drug my wife into this and she became Mrs. Mask. I shoot photos and she shoots videos. We are a team. We start with the first parade at Dauphin Island and go to more than 30 parades a year. When I shoot the parade, I want to show you the whole parade with a video and slide show that makes you feel like you were there. I get messages from people around the country who grew up in Mobile and can’t get back for the parades. They thank us for taking Mardi Gras to them.

The other side of this is making what we catch into art. I had always been creative but gave up on art for writing. The art started again in 2009 with putting beads on a mannequin I had in the garage. I cover things with beads such as cow skulls, furniture, hubcaps, and fish. The name is Thrown Art and there is a website of what I create. I have a permit to sell art at Jackson Square in New Orleans. It is fun when someone gives me money for something I made, but it has to be enough for me to want to give it up. I am hoping to get my own show with the Mobile Arts Council next year during Mardi Gras.”