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These days require care, prayer, and thought coupled with bravery.

Thank you for going where no Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival has gone before. Onward! …Tim Lowry, storyteller.

With much thought and prayerful consideration, the Brundidge Historical Society’s Storytelling Festival committee decided to continue with its plans for the 2022 storytelling festival the last weekend in January.

“We had ‘pencil’ contracts with storytellers Donald Davis, Tim Lowry, Bil Lepp and Barbara McBride-Smith and, for a while it looked like, just maybe, there would be a window of opportunity at the end of January,” said Anne Register, committee chair. “But, then, came the omicron virus. We had to make a decision and it was not an easy one. Not moving forward would be moving backward. So, we made the decision to move forward based on being able to host the festival safely for all concerned.”

The BHS hosted the Chili Country Christmas in December with limited audiences and it worked well,” she said. “The Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival will follow the same guidelines in numbers and in social distance seating. Masks will not be required but encouraged. We will do everything possible to make sure everyone is safe and that everyone has a great time.

The storytelling festival will feature nationally acclaimed storytellers, Davis, Lowry, Lepp and McBride-Smith. All are familiar to festival audiences and are excited to be back in Pike County.

Davis is the Dean of Storytelling and his hilarious stories make even the sternest Scrooge crack a smile.

Lowry is from Summerville S.C., the birthplace of sweet tea. He’s never saccharine but distinctly Southern.

Bil Lepp is a world champion liar from the mountains of West Virginia. He will have folks laughing and scratching their heads at the same time. Barbara McBride-Smith is a firecracker of a storyteller. She is women’s answer to Donald Davis.

After two years of concern and being “safer at home, the Brundidge Historical Society chose storytellers that would bring a wealth of laugher and good times to this year’s festival. And the committee hit the nail on the head.

“We have all been through two tough years and are not out of the woods yet,” said Johnny Steed, festival emcee. “But, we still have stories to tell and all four tellers are high energy and they will bring laughter to the stage. We all need a time relax and to laugh.”

The Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival will open at 6:30 on Friday night, January 28 with supper and stories at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge. Tickets are $25. The storytelling festival will continue with three storytelling concerts at the Trojan Center Theater on the campus of Troy University on Saturday, January 29 at 10 a.m. ($10), 2 p.m. ($15) and 6:30 p.m. ($10) All day tickets are $30. Pre-show music will begin 30 minutes prior to the concerts.

For tickets call Cathie Steed, ticket chair, at 334-685-5524 or 670-6302.