YARMOUTH — The chairs along Main Street say a lot about this town.

Like every year in the lead-up to the third weekend in July, the sidewalks are lined with all kinds of them: camp, beach, office, plastic Adirondack. They’re lying down, sitting up, turned over, roped together.

Clearly, for many, securing a prime spot to watch the Clam Fest parade is a bigger concern than losing lawn furniture.

Much like the festival itself, with its lime rickeys and fireman’s muster, life here can feel like a throwback to another era, the soda fountain replaced with a smoothie shop. The kids might be carrying reusable water bottles and wearing helmets these days, but they get around on their own — to the bookstore, friends’ houses and the farmers market for sno-cones — in a way that more closely resembles a pre-helicopter parenting world.

While still in the single digits, they fill the racks outside their school with bikes, skateboards and scooters. In the summer, they take them to camps around town and, this weekend, to Clam Fest.

A confluence of factors makes it possible: The downtown is removed from the more dangerous Route 1, the schools are nearby, and there’s an extensive network of sidewalks and trails connecting it all. But it’s a mentality, too, shared by the community of tight-knit neighborhoods and adults acting as surrogate parents wherever they are. Even the kids have leaned into the simpler life, using landlines to make plans with friends.

If it sounds too good to be true, know that it is for most. The median home value of $640,000 is the fourth-highest in Cumberland County, after Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth and Chebeague Island, according to the latest census data. While they all have good schools, low crime rates and water views, Yarmouth’s walkability sets it apart — from all of Portland’s suburbs, really.

Limited housing inventory makes it even harder to break into the town, though a committee established in 2020 is trying to change that. It set a goal of building more than 400 affordable units within a decade, starting with 18 workforce apartments planned for behind Town Hall.

But even while it remains out of reach, we can all get a taste of life in Yarmouth this weekend, stuffing our faces with clams fried by nonprofit groups and watching local celebrities shuck them.

Residents make their summer plans around the event, which doubles as a high school reunion and helps keep churches and sports teams afloat for the rest of the year.

Among the crowds will be pre-teens who came just with friends for the first time. Not that it matters much if their parents aren’t there; everyone else they know will be.