Stepping
back into the past to discover local heritage
Sean
Comstock, posted Sept. 26, 2006
The 29th
annual Heritage Festival and Craft Show was held Sept. 16
and 17 at historic Nifong Park. Attendees were invited
to step back into late 19th century mid-Missouri to experience
the traditional culture and customs that originated in the
Midwest long ago. Highlights of the festival included an assortment
of cultural musicians such as the Ironweed Bluegrass Band,
Paul Baum the Native American flutist, and the Nashville County
Church Band.
The Taylor
McBaine Memorial Fiddlers Competition was held on the opening
day of the festival. Among the participants were 12 year-old
Brian Priswell accompanied by family friend Pete Aiden on
the guitar. Priswell filled in for his brother who was unable
to attend the event. “I started on the banjo and have
been playing music since for 35 years, but he [Priswell] is
the real star,” Aiden said as the two practiced in the
parking field prior to the competition.
Old-fashioned
products were featured and sold at old-fashioned huts throughout
the park. Bill Soeaert, owner and sole producer of “New
Salem Broom Works,” demonstrated stitching ends of hay
at the base of a broom as he described a broom-makers typical
ten-hour workday. Soeaert said his main attraction to this
art is that “It keeps me out of trouble.”
One display
featured Walkabout Acres Honey & Beekeeping whose own
Rosemary Mills recently won an award at the Missouri State
Fair. Old Time Photos, a variety of weaving stations and an
all-natural herbal products stand, Thorny Ridge Farms, were
also on display. Former school teachers JoAnne and William
Bumgarner began growing their wide variety of herbs such as
orange mint and lemon balim after they both retired from teaching
in Perry, Mo., nearly 20 years ago. “It helps to preserve
our sanity,” JoAnne said.
The Missouri
Cowboy Poets Association’s performance portrayed western
ranchmen carrying out daily activities that a settler would
be accustomed to. They did this while singing songs and reciting
poems customary for the time period. One grizzled cowboy donning
a 10 gallon hat and a weathered red bandana around his neck,
took a moment from explaining the uses of his antique equipment
to help a small toddler onto a horse saddle positioned on
top of a hay bale to simulate a horse bucking.
Activities
designed for all ages were found throughout the fair. The
Fun for Young’uns Area featured candle dipping, milking
a lifelike cow, gunnysack races and hayrides all free of charge.
