New Plastic Necklace

Whenever I enter a flea market I'm instantly drawn to large emblems that are or could easily be attached to a chain. Unfortunately, these things do not come cheaply. The most attractive necklace charm would be the hood ornament of a car, especially from an obviously old model; they can rarely be found for under $70, mostly because someone had to risk jail time by ripping it off a car and then welded it onto something with a hook. Once something campy becomes expensive, it's value drops down to zero.

Luckily, I found this plastic substitute. By being unassuming and having little do with the 90's street wear revival, which certainly included medallions on over-sized metal chains and became passé soon after becoming popular, this necklace was instantly well-worth $1.

NOMTOC, or the New Orleans Most Talked Of Club, whose Coat of Arms I now wear feature a jug of alcohol and two candy canes, was started in 1951 and formed initially as a carnival organization. Entrance into New Orleans' most talked of club requires yearly dues to paid to fund the floats they build for their February parade. It's similar to the Fat Tuesday celebration that New Orleans is thought of for, except that it's rich in culture and not horrifically trashy. Unlike Macy*s Thanksgiving Day parade, which shows off unsightly advertisements on wheels, the floats in NOMTOC's parades are colorfully painted, creatively inspired, and covered in feathers. In 1970, they started having yearly kings & queens of the social club, who were then featured atop the floats. The most recent list of NOMTOC Royalty shows that 12 of the former kings have died since being crowned, but all of the past reigning queens are still alive.