Dorchester throws itself a rolling party

As it does on the first Sunday every June, Dorchester celebrated itself in the Dorchester Day Parade up Dot. Ave.

Overcast skies kept things at just the right temperature for a parade, which featured everything from Vietnamese lion dancers to bagpipers to a Caribbean steel-drum players:

Far from interrupting a marching band from Nashua, NH, this guy was key to their 3 1/2-mile march - he kept them hydrated:

The parade seemed to alternate between serious and goofy

No New England parade is complete without at least one colonial fife-and-drum group - and horses:

Dorchester's Vietnamese community was well represented in the parade:

This smiling elderly woman went up to onlookers. She'd ask for a high five, and then a second. And then she'd clasp the person's hand and gently kiss it. And then, as she went to the next person, you'd notice her shirt, advertising this year's cause celebre in Vietnam, something about Taiwanese fishermen:

Last but not least this year: Dot Out: