Today, according to my west coast brother, is Johnny Appleseed Day. I told him that his source was wrong. We in Fort Wayne know all about Johnny Appleseed, or, to give him his proper name, John Chapman. After all, he is buried here. He evidently died on March 12 or 18 in 1845. I don't understand why today, his questionable death date, is noted as Johnny Appleseed Day. Usually important people are celebrated on the anniversary of their births. Washington's birthday, Lincoln's birthday, etc. I think we're doing the right thing here in Fort Wayne. He was born on September 26, 1774 and we celebrate his memory with a festival every September. This year is the 50th year for our festival, which will be held on September 20 and 21. It's a time for food, children's games, food, arts and crafts booths, food, entertainment and more food. And yes, apple pie and apple cider are crowd favorites.
In addition to our festival, our baseball team is named the Tin Caps because legend has it that Johnny Appleseed wore a tin pan on his head instead of a hat as he roamed the area planting apple trees. I'm not sure about the pan on his head but he did plant a lot of apple trees. So go ahead and eat an apple to celebrate his day today, or better yet, come to the festival in September. It's held in Johnny Appleseed Park. You can visit his grave while you're there.
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