Missy Madsen
Staff Writer

When May starts to come around and we see the apple blossoms beginning to bloom we all know what that means- the Apple Blossom parade and carnival. I think for most teenagers in Westford  can remember those days watching the parade, jumping up and down for candy, and being fascinated by the floats strolling along the street.

This year’s Apple Blossom Festival is the 43rd annual Kiwanis sponsor celebration.  Many people, especially the little kids and teenagers, do not know the history behind the parade and festival.  It all started back in May 1935 with the apple growers in Westford and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, the State College and County Extension Services contributed to the support of their facilities.  The then governor of Massachusetts, James M. Curley, addressed the crowd to announce a queen, thus starting the tradition of the queen and the princesses or back then ‘maids of honor’.  In the next year the festival had expanded to include the thirty eight towns comprising of  the Nashoba Apple Belt.

However soon the tradition disappeared for many years and then was brought back in 1968 by the efforts of the Westford Kiwanis and has since been a tradition up to 2011 as we know it today.

At this year’s parade, held on May 14th, the air was cold and the threat of rain was imminent, but the laughs and screams of the children seemed to make the dreariness of the day fade away.  Along with all the floats in the parade, the Apple Blossom queen was announced.  This year the honor was given to Lauren Uram, and she was awarded a $500 scholarship.  Other nominees, or princesses, include: Molly Klinka,  Alissa D’Angelo, Jackie Lawlor, Stephanie Sullivan, Melissa Templeton, Sarah Goode, Jillian Furcillo, Mary Fitzsimmons, Chelsey Walter, Rachel Secrist, Rachel Weinstock, Shannon Mills, and Alandra Bain.

Alandra Bain and Stephanie Sullivan catching the breeze in their car

One of the most exciting and lively parts of the Apple Blossom Festival is the arrival of the carnival.  The carnival is not only a place to go for rides and eat over-priced  food,  but for the teenagers it is a place to hang, have fun, and stay out  late, screaming your head off rides.

The highlights of the carnival are the fireworks display held at nine at the carnival on the evening of the parade, and also of course the famous ride-the zipper.

The zipper is clearly the most popular ride at the carnival and the most thrilling with its over half hour wait to even get on the ride and being completely flipped upside down and forward with no warning at all-obviously a fun time.

Well the carnival has now past, but as the apple blossoms bloom, summer is well on its way, and this time next year a new queen will reign and the parade and carnival will be alive once more.