By Victoria Marty, The Gleaner

It's true: There was no need for umbrellas on Saturday. Yet the 2009 Street Strut isn't about convention.

In fact, if there are any rules to the 19th annual Mardi Gras style celebration of wackiness, it's that there are no rules.

That's why the woman who carried a green umbrella dangling miniature soccer balls was probably committing a technical foul ... somewhere.

Then there was the girl who rode a bicycle on which she had covered the tire slats (and her helmet) with pieces of aluminum foil.

And it could be why this year's Grande Ooh-Pee-Doo won the top award in a way that she said was accidental.

"I laid out a couple of things and said, 'I'm tired, I'm going to bed,' " Susie Rideout laughed, her black umbrella embellished with paintings of flowers that matched her dress.

"I learned something years ago," she added, her eyes twinkling behind a Mardi Gras-style mask. "You don't wear high heels."

That's probably good advice, considering the annual parade loops through several downtown streets and into Central Park.

This year's Street Strut even took place earlier than usual as the organizers decided it would be a good opening-day event for the W.C. Handy Blues and Barbecue Festival.

"We will definitely leave it like this," said Julie Turnipseed, executive director of the Downtown Henderson Project, which organized the parade.

"The spirit was there," she added. "It's a great marriage with the Taste of Henderson."

Compatibility aside, there were plenty of contrasts to be had as the strutters zigzagged their hips and waived their arms on the same streets that, come Monday, will see men and women hurrying toward the more orderly careers of law and finance.