One drippy  weekend a couple years back, I loaded up the minivan, stopped at McDonald’s, and took the kids to the Portland, Oregon Earth Day celebrations  (I parked a few blocks away and made the kids leave their food in the car, understanding that not everyone would appreciate the irony).   We were recent Portland transplants, still adapting to the local culture and scene, getting used to the green and gray.  So, I was a bit surprised to lead my troops around the corner and come face-to-face with a tricked-out fire truck and two tail-coated stilt walkers, one in a black top hat.  Women in short skirts and striped stockings, men in ruffle shirts and military band coats carrying horns and drums, an attractively faux-hawked trombone player, and more…wherever they were going, we gladly followed.