Marika Mizell and Mark Brannon arrived to Mobile first thing Sunday in hopes of getting their favorite spot along the Joe Cain Day Procession route.

At the corner of Royal and Dauphin streets, the two Daphne residents were among the first set up their spot for the day.

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“This is the best spot in town,” said Brannon who has either watched or drove a float in the procession since the early 1980s. “It is real family orientated here, too.”

Family gatherings were the story of the day throughout downtown Mobile. Those gatherings started around sunrise in Bienville Square where Joe Ferguson of Mobile met up with Kevin Lott of Saraland and Nate Gurley of Panama City, Florida, for breakfast.

The trio arrived at 5:45 a.m. to begin a day of tailgating. Their wives, children and other family members arrived in time for lunch.

“We will have the spot here set up for them,” said Ferguson. “We’ll just grill and have a good time.”

“It’s our husbandly duty,” said Lott, which elicited laughter.

He said 15 of his family members were coming for lunch, and gather ahead of the arrival of the Joe Cain Day Procession that snakes through downtown Mobile led by the Foot Marches and followed by the Joe Cain Parading Society.

“Everyone is welcome,” Ferguson said. “This is a family friendly day. It’s the best day to come down here.”

The sunshine and mild temperatures also made it a perfect day to gather for fellowship.

For Gurley, it was his first Joe Cain Day.

“I’ll be back next year, for sure,” he said.

Mary Day Lantaff’s family gathered outside the Old Church Street Graveyard for the annual arrival of the Merry Widows of Joe Cain, iconic characters in Mobile Mardi Gras lore.

For Lantaff, a Daphne resident, it’s an annual tradition to see the Widows and watch their antics. On Sunday, the Widows did their annual visit to the Graveyard and Cain’s gravesite to pay their respects and bicker with each other over who Joe love the most.

Cain is credited for reviving Mardi Gras in the U.S. in 1868 when he, dressed as a fictional Indian chief named Slacabamarinico, paraded past the Union troops who were occupying Mobile following the Civil War.

“This day goes back to Joe Cain, who did the original people’s parade,” said Lantaff. “The Widows celebrate Joe Cain. It’s a huge crowd here today. It’s unique and different.”

The Widows, during their visit to the graveyard, also paid respects to the late folklorist Julian Rayford, whose efforts in the 1960s involved getting Cain’s remains disinterred from Bayou La Batre and reburied in Mobile.

Rayford’s efforts are credited with the start of Joe Cain Day on the Sunday before Mardi Gras Day, and the Joe Cain Day Procession.

For Lantaff’s granddaughter, 8-year-old Kaitlin Hall of Pensacola, Florida, it was her second Joe Cain Day. But it was the first in which she showed up dressed, from head to toe, in the all-black attire of a Merry Widow.

“She has been wanting to do this,” Lantaff said. “She’s all about it, so we’re supporting it.”

Her mother, Christine Hall, said she figures her daughter will achieve her ambition of becoming a Widow someday.

“We figure that if it takes 25 years, she’ll be over 21 by then,” Hall said.