By Edward Master
I have been in a quandary over a short subject now for a few short years. Tell me why the Apple Fest ln Franklin and the Autumn Leaf Festival in Clarion both occur at roughly the same time each year? ALF is the older of the two as it began in the 1950s. I don’t recall ever Appleizing in Franklin as I was always an ALFer, as a kid and as an alum of Clarion University (now Penn West).
Why didn’t Franklin set another time slot? You think a different date would attract even more crafters. Oh well, maybe the powers in charge just wanted to war.
As a child, ALF was another escape to a carnival. In my early teens, I marched with the A-C Valley band (I played brass). In my later teens, I once helped pull a parade float for my fraternity (we passed on the truck business). As a grown-up, I marched with my aging fraternity brothers to hand out ceremonial red and silver (frat colors) beads (the crowd loved them, especially the kids), while with our ceremonial cannon (fired after home-coming touchdowns).
Alas, age has caught up and surpassed the brothers of Phi Sigma Epsilon. Bum knees, hips, and assorted wounded bones have negated parade marches with a once-supposedly-dismantled (then restored) working cannon. The very brief cannon history is that it was intended to be dismantled and displaced. It was not; it was pulled out of a creek, refurbished to working (meaning firing) mode, and now again sits in storage (basically where it belongs). I guess the brothers and cannon are each retired.
I once did partake in ALF’s craftsman extravaganza. My wife and I took my mother to the Friday Craft Day before Mom got too old for the walk down Main Street through Clarion. Once was enough for me however. How many wooden ducks and pinwheels do you need to see? Though, as a sidebar, we once saw a crafter in Kittanning at the Armstrong Folk Festival and then at ALF. We bought a couple Christmas gifts made from railroad spikes. So, different day, different show, turned a sale.
I have a childhood friend (Patty Landers) who does hand weaving such as rugs and blankets. She does Apple Fest. I just wonder how ALF Craft Day would turn out instead?
Personally, my days at ALF are finished. Kaput. Sayonara. My mind may want to, but my body says otherwise.
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