🍎 Save Me a Seat on Walnut Street

Every summer, it begins.

One by one, lawn chairs start popping up along Walnut Street—sometimes weeks, even months, before the Apple Festival Parade.

To an outsider, it might seem strange.

But around here, everyone knows what they mean.

No one moves them. No one questions them. They simply become part of the landscape until parade day arrives.

For my family, those chairs have marked the same spot on Walnut Street for more than fifty years.

One of my favorite moments in this video is seeing old footage of my grandpa carrying one of those familiar lawn chairs to our family's spot along the parade route.

As I listened to story after story, I realized those lawn chairs represent something much bigger than saving a spot for the parade.

They represent belonging.

The Apple Festival is about coming home. About generations gathering in the same place, year after year. About traditions passed down, shared, and embraced until they become part of who we are.

Maybe that's why "Save Me a Seat on Walnut Street" feels like more than a request.

It feels like a promise.

A promise that there's always a place waiting for you. A place where stories are shared, traditions take root, and where, someday, the next generation will gather too.

Because those chairs aren't just saving a seat for the parade.

They're saving a place where we belong.