Baker Heritage Festival recreates local traditions (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
BAKER — Baker Heritage Festival attendees carry memories of history, folkways, traditions, food and music following the Nov. 7 event.
The annual celebration, held at Baker Block Museum, featured an American Indian drum circle, freshly boiled peanuts, fiddling — and Barney Fife.
Attendees revisited their Northwest Florida roots and some, such as Shannon Steele, reconnected with their forefathers.
While flipping through a Laurel Hill School photo album, he found a photo of his dad, Bill Steele, as a member of the school’s basketball team.
“I had never seen a young picture of my dad before,” Steele said, snapping a photo of the black-and-white print with his cell phone.
“It was exciting,” he said. “I realize how much I look like him, and how much my kids do, too. You can see the similarities in the different generations.”
‘HISTORY ROW’
The history tent, operated by Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church members, was one stop on “history row.”
Next door, visitors learned about the area’s ancient history from the University of West Florida Public Archeology program.
They could also research their families’ ancestry at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ booth, while their kids won toys or handmade bonnets by playing corn hole.
Traditions included quilters — their frame hung from the dog trot house ceiling, as it would’ve in the pioneer days — and observing how wool was spun on an antique spinning wheel.
Bonnie Grundel portrayed a Depression-era sharecropper’s wife, while folkways artists demonstrated crafts such as cedar shingle and powder horn making.
In a nod to classic television, J.T. Garrett appeared dressed as Barney Fife — the hapless sheriff’s deputy from “The Andy Griffith Show,” complete with his 1960s Ford patrol car — as he has for several years.
ICE CREAM
Food included barbecue, red beans and rice, pork crackin’s, and freshly baked goods. Baker Block Museum director Ann Spann said volunteers made four 5-gallon batches of ice cream.
“We could’ve done five batches and still sold out,” Spann said, adding that volunteer Joe Coffield did yeoman’s service at the puttering, engine-powered ice cream churn.
Spann said the North Okaloosa Historical Association festival producers introduced up-and-coming performers this year, as well as traditional favorites including Baker native Mack Brooks and his band.
“We had some young talent who performed this year,” Spann said. “They were teenagers and in their early 20s. It was new blood and upcoming talent who performed for us.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker Heritage Festival recreates local traditions (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
