'I love a parade' reminds us of the childlike magic of believing

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Carol Forsloff - Portland, Oregon --“I love a parade” speaks to how wonder-filled parades are for adults and children alike, and no more is that made visible than the Starlight Parade, a major event during Rose Festival Season in Portland, Oregon that takes place every June.

In any language, around the world, the announcement of a parade simply to extol pride in one’s place produces crowds that respond to the magic of believing, with the floats, marching bands and colorful displays reinforcing that belief.

So it was in Portland, on a warm and wonderful night.  Portland folks had longed for rain respite, and here it was at a time and place when the best face of this cosmopolitan town was produced once more for all the world to see.  Rose Festival, an annual event, brings people from many places around the world to enjoy what has become the very definition of a Portland great occasion.  The two parades that dominate the series of events, including parties, dances, coronations and carnivals and other frivolous fun foster crowds that return again and again every year to see how well-turned out that Portland foot becomes.

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The Starlight Parade captures the kind of wonder folks can have in a fun-filled event like a parade and the childlike shock and awe from special sights and sounds that make them very special.  It was on this weekend's balmy Saturday night, the gentle air that sweeps across the crowd with the purity of Portland, the smell of flowering trees and blossoms everywhere, united with the lights and displays of floats  and wove their way along the downtown boulevards.

Political discussions melt in the simple joy of a parade along with economic worries, social fears and disasters'  poignant memories that impact all of us  in almost every place, except those designed to foment trouble for aggressive gain.  A parade that tells us how we can join hands again, like children walk together, speaks once again of why love of a parade remains part of song and social life in cities like Portland on a summer’s  Saturday night.

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Portland, Oregon's no spring season of discontent

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Carol Forsloff - Portland, Oregon, wet and still wintry with rivers at flood stage, joins other cities in a season of discontent. Weather reporters speak of disasters in other places, but Portland is moaning also from the weight of too much water.

While the wild weather has created wide havoc around the country, few commentators speak about the West Coast, specifically Oregon, except to mention the temperature, along with other regions on the U.S. map, but there are aberrations in Portland weather that speak to the climate’s topsy turvy ways as well.

Portland is known as a place where hats and umbrellas are a must for most days, but as June approaches the wet weather won’t let up, except for an occasional peek from sun, mostly with one eye half open, before the rain comes again and folks have little chance to get out from under the eaves, the hats and the umbrellas for a walk down the street, let alone a walk in the park.

Roses aren’t coming up either, as the bushes of beauty have been delayed by prolonged cold, wet and very rainy weather. Temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s don’t promote the pretty flowers that bloom in spring, especially Portland’s fairest, the roses that have made the city a special place because of them.

Rose Festival week begins with the fair along the river, with the faithful folk used to the constant drizzles by now out to have fun in spite of gray days, proving once again that native Oregonians have well earned their title as ducks.

The rivers have risen so the mighty Columbia and Willamette junctures have created delays in traffic flow across the main bridges, as they are raised again and again to allow the boats to get out from under, as some are too close to the bridge tops for safety on the rivers where sandbagging has prevented overflow into residential areas. On the other hand, there has already been flooding in low-lying areas.

Portland welcomes rain to keep its evergreens ever green and to continue to wear with pride its very green status for the look and feel of nature, but the rainfall has become a topic everyone talks about in a city that never has had to talk about it as much before. So count Portland, Oregon in with all the other areas of the United States, that have either too much water, as in rain for Portland and river flooding, or not enough as in the Southwest where fires have taken over for want of rain at all.

Portland will celebrate its Rose Festival days ahead, bravely and optimistically, while wishing all the while for the sun to be out long enough to sit and have time to smell the roses—wherever they might be, as they are too few in number for the crowds who love them so.