Autumn memories of York County: Harvest fests, Halloween pranks & parades, apple butter...

As the leaves in York County turn from green to shades of fiery orange, red and gold, and the orchards are filled with apples ripe for the picking, waiting to be turned into cider, pies and dumplings, the scent of pumpkin spice fills the air.

The sights and scents of fall have arrived.

Joy Dolan’s grandmother owned Allison’s Bakery, a stand that sold produce, baked goods and more in the center of Central Market beside Fred Henry’s Ham.

She worked there every Saturday since 1960, when she was about 6 years old, following in her father's footsteps among the memorable stands of Fitzkee's Candy, Senft Potato Chips, Godfrey's, Meyer's.

“I remember the wonderful bounty of the fall flavors and colors in the Central Market. Pumpkin pies, Indian corn, sweet snickerdoodles and freshly smoked ham,” said the 1972 Dallastown graduate.

Embracing Autumn with apple butter

For many York natives, this season brings back childhood memories. Parades, harvest festivals, trick-or-treating, apple picking and more evoke the simple joys of autumn.

For Jamie Noerpel, fall means apple butter.

“The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves floating through my kitchen is the ultimate sign of the changing seasons,” she said.

Using apples handpicked from local farms, Noerpel begins the apple butter making tradition by peeling apples in the evening. “I use this pampered chef doohickey that peels, slices and cores my apples – it’s glorious.”

With her trusty kitchen tool, Noerpel can peel, de-core and slice, an apple in less than 30 seconds.

Later, she'll transfer the prepared apples to a crockpot, where they'll cook all night. She's so dedicated that she wakes up twice in the middle of the night to stir the mixture.

"By the morning, the entire house is filled with the aromatic flavor of fall. We’ll spread it on beagles, toast, or put it in our cottage cheese," she said.

Halloween parades and cornfield pranks

Born in York, John Noel moved to Dover in 1959 when he was 12 years old and recalled his fond memories of attending the Halloween parades in York County.

Noel, who marched in the parade for several years through a Boy Scout program, said, "The parade was always big and fun."

He thought back to the joy of building giant piles of leaves in Penn Park on beautiful fall afternoons, and though he never went apple picking, Noel and his friends found joy sneaking into cornfields for ears of corn.

"We'd get the hard kernels off the cob to throw around on Halloween," which in the 1950s was not just a one-night affair, he said, but lasted several days to a week.

Noel found his way into holiday mischief by ringing doorbells, soaping windows, and even sneaking transistor radios into school when the World Series was being played on a weekday.

Family traditions: The Apple Harvest Festival

When Gloria Irvin thinks of fall, she thinks of the Apple Harvest Festival.

In October 1965, Irvin was 14 years old when she first went to the festival. She was camping with her family at Mountain Creek Campgrounds.

"By "family" I mean not only my parents but all of my aunts, uncles and cousins." She added, "We filled the lower end of the campground and then some."

At the time, the festival was a brand-new event, and Irvin said her family had no idea what to expect, knowing only that there would be plenty of great food.

Her Uncle Phares made a big production out of taking her family into town to visit the Thomas Brothers Country Store to pick up unusual gifts, she said. "I still have the blue speckled tin mug he gifted me when I was about 15 years old."

"Way back then, the Apple Harvest Festival was a free event and parking was easy. We would travel, en mass, to the festival, where we would all go our own separate ways."

Irvin would check out the steam engines on display. "If I was lucky, a machine or two would be operating, and I would just hang out there, 'til the smells of the festival tempted me to stray."

The next stop would be for food, which was homemade and fresh. If Irvin ran out of money, she said it was always easy to find one of her relatives in case she needed a few dollars.

Her last stop of the festival was taking a school bus ride through the orchards and listen to the stories shared by her bus tour guide.

"I introduced my boyfriend to the Apple Harvest. He went on to become my husband, and our kids joined the traditional Apple Harvest Camping trip."

As time went on, Irvin said aspects of the festival have changed, and she has not returned in several years.

"My husband and I visit the area frequently to stop at the Round Barn, the winery and Irvin's Orchard to get freshly picked apples, but we haven't been to the Apple Harvest Festival in quite a few years."

They have not returned to the festival in years, not wanting to lose the magic of family fun they remember from the early days.

Lena Tzivekis is a Central Pennsylvania reporter. Email her at etzivekis@gannett.com, or message her on Twitter at @tzivekis

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Autumn memories of York County, Pa.