Spring Blossom Parade

Lions leading the parade back in 2008 included the two fellows on the right: Jim Oliver and Stu Huffman.

by Amy Huffman Oliver

“I’ll see you on parade day,” is something I say a lot this time of year.

If you’ve been here a while, you know that “parade day” anchors the spring calendar in Brown County and refers to the annual Spring Blossom Parade that steps off from the high school parking lot at 11:00 a.m. in Nashville on the first Saturday in May. This year, the date is May 3, rain or shine.

It’s my favorite day in Brown County. Neighbors greet neighbors again after our winter slumber in these hills and hollers.

The 2025 parade continues a long legacy of spring celebrations started in 1929 by painter and apple grower, Dale Bessire. The first Apple Blossom Festival lasted a week and crowned Mary “Grandma” Barnes as the first “Spring Blossom Queen.”

Today, it is thanks to the volunteer power of our local Lion’s Club that the parade continues as a free event, both for participants and the audience.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating Brown County State Park.” The blaring sirens of fire engines, a costumed lion, and this year’s grand marshal, park property manager Scott Crossley, will announce the start of the parade.

Bringing up the rear you’ll hear the sputtering engines of antique farm tractors which congregate at the Antique Tractor Show at the 4H fairgrounds held on parade weekend each year.

The very last unit is a battle shipsized American flag donated to the community after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in 2001, first displayed on the side of the Hob Nob restaurant in 2001. The flag’s immense size requires a dozen or more to carry it over their heads.

Volunteering on parade day has been a staple of our family history for three generations starting in 1972 when my mother walked the parade route in a pioneer dress with Psi Iota Xi philanthropic sorority.

My first memory of walking in the parade was around 1981 when I marched with my junior high school band from Columbus. In 1997, I moved back home to Brown County and brought my husband, Jim, with me. Every four years, when he ran for local office, we walked the parade route with family and friends. My favorite was the year we decorated a friend’s royal blue VW Beetle with a huge red check on the side to match his yard signs that read “Oliver for Prosecutor.”

Starting in 2000, our sons became part of parade day even before they could walk. We pushed them in strollers as part of the Nashville United Methodist Church “Lawn Mower Almost Precision Drill Team,” a performance that was a big hit with the crowd.

Later, parade day for the boys meant creating the Cub Scout float with Dad or walking with their T-ball team. In high school, our youngest son proudly kept the high school marching band in rhythm with his drumbeat while I ran alongside taking photos.

On other parade days we were stationed on the Village Green selling biscuits and gravy at the Boy Scout Auction or assembling pulled pork sandwiches for Mother’s Cupboard.

Parade day brings up happy memories of my dad. Lion Stu relished parade day like no one else. Folks would do a double take seeing him first carrying the Lions Club banner at the start of the parade and again as a flag bearer at the end.

My husband, Lion Jim, continues the family tradition this year, marshalling the floats before the parade steps off.

Join us on May 3 to celebrate.

Cindy Steele’s photos from last year’s parade.