The St. Johns Parade in North Portland had its 48th annual iteration Saturday (May 8, 2010), followed by an afternoon at the 4th annual St. Johns Bizarre of crafts, music and food/drink. It was a warm, sunny PDX day, the kind that makes Portlanders burst forth from their cocoons in relief as the Rose Festival season of parades and events begins.
Beyond those basic facts: Narrative? We don’t need no stinkin’ narrative! Enjoy W&W in PDX‘s “snapshots” of the fun.
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An improvised sign lets the crowd know that two students from St. Johns’ Roosevelt High are state theatre champions: Ashlee Zell and Eleanor Siebert. (Congratulations on the achievement, and on taking the PR into your own hands!)
The “Citizen of the Year” in the parade was Steve Duin, the longtime Metro columnist (and former colleague of mine) at The Oregonian. Former Oregon Rep. Mike Burton was the parade announcer.
An alt-bike for an alt-Queen on her throne
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For "Mother Nature," a barebones float
Gordon Russell Middle School Thunderbirds marching band, of Gresham.
The St. Johns Farmer’s Market “float” wins the Jackie Uh-Oh prize for least effort expended on decor. It consisted of a truck wrapped in burlap, with some folks dressed like Mother Nature & her vegetative bounty waving cheerily from the back.
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There were marching bands aplenty, most of them from middle schools and at least one from an elementary school in the Sylvan Hills. The most inventive children’s musical group was the Astor Elementary School “Marching Eagles” group from North Portland. Its drummers beat time using white plastic buckets and big, black plastic garden pots, turned upside down and suspended by rope from their waists.
Puppets anyone? Mudeye doesn't think small!
Conehead?
Every now and then, I take a big bag of paper towel & t.p. tubes, egg cartons, small boxes and other would-be detritus to the house of my S.J. neighbor, Bruce Orr, the creative brains behind the Mudeye Puppet Company.
He stashes the stuff away, to use later in school puppet-making workshops around the Portland area. I had heard from others about how creative his puppets are, but never been to a show.
Wow! The colorful, over-the-top Mudeye puppets that a group of adults & children from my neighborhood paraded through town on Saturday were beyond what I could have imagined. (They were the lead-in for the Mayor.)
They get the Jackie Uh-Oh Grand Prize!
N. Kellogg Street on parade
Mayor Sam Adams
Bike-friendly Rep. Earl Blumenauer was the politico on parade who sparked the most cheering.
Despite the white wool suits, the Royal Rosarians looked cool.
Most distinctive police car: a 1948 Ford, driven by Wasco County's Bill Kelvin
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Columbia County's pooper scoopers showed style as they followed rodeo princesses & their horses.
Belly dancing for poodles too
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Assumption Village representatives
N. Portland Tool Library entry
St. Johns branch librarians made a giant-sized point.
A grassroots gardening club for kids, Village Gardens, urged everyone to eat their vegies.
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Rose City Steampunks: They stood out, but somehow also blended well with the general zaniness.
The Rose City Steampunks were colorful in their Alice in Wonderland themed costumes. Both they and and the Pirates of Portlandia were greeted enthusiastically, and not with the surprise/shock that some seemed to have anticipated.
But that’s how it is in an already Weird & Wonderful neighborhood, one that has a little bit of every demographic and socioeconomic group in it.
Pirates of Portlandia (who will be in the Rose Festival Starlight Parade too, in downtown PDX on June 5th)
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Some St. Johns Background
Are Cathedral Park & the St. Johns Bridge the only things you know about the St. Johns Neighborhood?
I didn’t know much about St. Johns either, when I moved here to be with my abiding sweetheart. At first glance, I found it difficult to look past the modest, even rundown, structures in the small “town center”– remnants of a bustling hub of river trade that began here in 1847.
But there’s a lovely, New England-style town hall and an Andrew Carnegie-funded library to prove the area’s past glory. Since 1915, when it joined the city of Portland, the area’s trajectory mostly has been downward.
However, in the last decade a slow Renaissance has come to this neighborhood. Credit the young people who moved in seeking cheap housing prices for their blooming families. When they aren’t nurturing children, or tending their frontyard garden plots or their backyard chickens, they work to make the spot they call home better. Thank you to all of them!
Coo, thanks for all the picts of the fun parade. And for the background of St Johns!
I meant cool.
I guess Jackie reads the Typo dialect, Chris. I didn’t even notice the missing “l”. — Linda
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i was in the parade an eagle it was awsome
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