Someone buy Sean Dietrich a beer Saturday at Millbrook's Mardi Gras

When Sean Dietrich rolls into Millbrook for Mardi Gras on Saturday, he wants to meet everyone. After all, they’re kind of his new neighbors.

“Say hello, because I’m there to meet you,” said Dietrich, the novelist, columnist, musician and storyteller known as Sean of the South. “Come find me, hug my neck and buy me a beer.”

Dietrich is the grand marshal of Saturday’s Mardi Gras Festival and Parade, put on annually by the Millbrook Revelers.

“I’m very excited about it. I’ve never been a grand marshal of anything,” said Dietrich.

The festival opens at 9 a.m. at the downtown Village Green Park. At 11:30 a.m., Dietrich is being named an honorary citizen of Millbrook. He said it’s a responsibility that has a few gives and takes, especially during Mardi Gras. He’ll be in the parade at noon.

“I’m going to be throwing stuff (beads and moonpies) from the car, and I’m going to be given complimentary beverages. Free beer,” he said. “I’ll go anywhere and live as a full time resident, if they give me free beer.”

Being from the Gulf Coast, Mardi Gras has always been a huge deal to Dietrich.

“Wherever I had a job, we shut down,” he said. “We all celebrated Mardi Gras. We’d all go to Mobile and celebrate it. It’s really neat to be this far north and to still be celebrating it.”

Even before Millbrook, Dietrich was already living life Alabama style. Millbrook’s actually not too far from Birmingham, where he, wife Jamie and their dogs (bloodhound Thelma Lou, “alleged Labrador” Otis Campbell, and blind coonhound Marigold) all moved from Florida during the pandemic.

The dogs love the somewhat cooler weather here. The Dietrichs needed a little more time to get used to cooler temps in the winter.

“Sometimes the temperatures get so bitingly cold here. Yesterday it was 65,” Dietrich said, speaking in his usual storyteller tone. You’re never quite sure if he’s being sarcastic.

Location was a main reason for the move. Now that he’s able to tour again, Dietrich said he’s got the busiest schedule he’s ever seen.

“It’s central to everything we do,” Dietrich said of Birmingham. “We travel so much. You’ve got airports here. You’re close to Atlanta, and close to Nashville. Shoot, I’ve got something in Indiana, and I’m only like five hours away from Indiana in the car, which surprised me.”

The move to Birmingham means he had to give up on his little hideaway camper office back in Florida, a place where he’d take secret naps and recharge while writing.

“In this house, I actually have my first office. My real office with real bookshelves, a desk and all that,” Dietrich said. “That’s kind of a big deal.”

Valentine’s Day plans

Not sure if he planned it like that, but Dietrich is giving his wife a “Hart” for Valentine’s Day… Hartford, Connecticut, that is.

He’ll be speaking there at the Mark Twain House and Museum on Feb. 14, discussing his latest book, “You Are My Sunshine.” It’s a true story about a really long bike adventure with Jamie.

“It’s a huge honor,” Dietrich said. “I’ll be doing a show right there in Mark Twain’s living room.”

Of course, Jamie is going to be by his side.

“She’s kind of like my president, and I’m kind of like her subject,” Dietrich said. “She tells me what to do. If it wasn’t for her, none of this could even happen, anyway.”

A Valentine’s dinner won’t be anything “super fancy” for the Dietrichs. Do they have good Mexican food in Hartford? If so, that’s probably where they’ll be.

“Typically, we’ll go to a Mexican restaurant, or we’ll go to Waffle House,” he said.

Waffle House touches “a sweet spot in my heart,” Dietrich said. But traveling almost 200 miles for waffles and hashbrowns with awesome toppings would probably be a no-go. According to wafflehouse.com, the closest one is three hours east of Hartford, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“Waffle House was kind of a tradition when we were younger, because we lived next to a Waffle House,” Dietrich said. “We had absolutely no money, so we would get dressed up and go there.”

Embracing the electronic age

When he's finally off the road and back in Birmingham, location and office space aren't the only things that have changed for Dietrich, who is always busy with one writing project or another.

“They’re going to bury me with a typewriter in my hands,” he said.

Yes, he’s known for writing most of his works on an old manual typewriter. But that's changing. Sean of the South has actually started to embrace the computer age for projects that require a quick turnaround, which for him is a lot.

“I think I finally succumbed to the pressures of modern technology,” Dietrich said.

He’s keeping his typewriter mentality, though. While he writes a first draft, the only way is forward. No revisions. No cutting. No pasting. Does he ever cheat and change something along the way?

“The temptation is always there,” Dietrich said.

Keep up with his daily writings, books, events and more online at seandietrich.com.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Someone buy Sean Dietrich a beer Saturday at Millbrook's Mardi Gras