HANNIBAL – Dorothy LaBounty leaned in close as she struck the chords of the wooden stand-up dulcimer to create the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” under the direction of Judy Schmidt.
It was Saturday’s 46th annual Folklife Festival and the day brought sunshine and crowds from all around the region. From the drifting smells of homemade soups and the sounds of entertainers playing to the crowd, it was a weekend to celebrate comfort food and stroll back into a different time.
Schmidt and her husband, Carl, along with their guitar player Gean Murray, all from Louisiana, Mo., performed as street entertainers in front of the Mark Twain Museum. Their bass player is David Parrish, of LaBelle, Mo., who Schmidt said they were missing that day.
Schmidt said one of her favorite things to do is teach children how to play. Just a few hours into the festival and she said dozens of kids had already approached her to try it out.
“This is an instrument they can walk up to and they are always excited when they get to play it. Parents love taking videos,” she said.
The group, called Judy Schmidt and Friends, was first approached by Micheal Gaines, of the Hannibal Arts Council, to play at Folklife in 1994 and it’s been a tradition ever since.
“This is just the perfect venue to play old time music and square dance music, which is mostly what we play,” she said. “We also love when people stop by and ask questions, they mainly want to know about the dulcimer.”
The instrument is a hammered dulcimer and, according to Schmidt, they date back to around 100 B.C. as biblical instruments.
“Shadrack, Meshack and Abendigo, when they were in the fiery furnace, they heard the sounds of the trumpets of the dulcimers,” she said. “It’s a very historic instrument although the old ones would have been much simpler. It’s evolved to be bigger and better but it was still a trapezoid box.”
Within the 46 years of the Folklife festival, and the 47th already scheduled for Oct. 21-22, 2023, there are many traditions that have passed down through those decades. One of those is the food.
Several vendors over time have become Hannibal Folklife favorites that people have grown up with. Among those listed on a recent Courier-Post post asking for readers favorite Folklife treats were turkey legs, chicken and noodles, pork rinds, catfish sandwich and cheese soup.
The cheese soup is a treasured tradition made annually by St. John’s Lutheran School, and it was the winner of the Best of Show for the food category this year. All proceeds from the cheese soup goes straight to the benefit of the school.
“Food vendors at the festival must be local civic, church and non-profit organizations, with one hundred percent of their profits going back into our community through their respective organizational missions,” was announced on the Folklife Facebook.
For Steven and Dorothy LaBounty, who are from St. Louis, the Folklife might just become a new tradition. The couple wasn’t aware the weekend they chose to come to Hannibal to celebrate Steven’s birthday was going to be such a busy one.
“We come up here once or twice a year, and today we expected to have the downtown to ourselves,” said Dorothy. “But this worked out great, and we are having a great time!”
