“When I mention we are doing ‘Footloose,’ a sparkle comes to their eye, and you get a big smile,” said Hannibal High School senior Lauren Priest about the response she gets when telling adult friends about this year’s HHS musical. “There is something about this story that strikes a chord for people.”

A free and open jam session is planned for 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at the historic Oak Hill School.

Havannibal Cigar Company, 308 Broadway, will host a fundraising Art Exhibit from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30.

The Hannibal Parks and Recreation Department has announced that the senior dance regularly scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28 at the Admiral Coontz Recreation Center has been canceled in order that preparations can begin for the annual DARE Halloween Party. The dances will resume on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The annual campfire hymn sing will be at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Oak Hill Community Center, eight miles south of Hannibal, just off Route T.

Marion County Historical Society is hosting a fall picnic and bonfire from 2:30 p.m. until dark on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Kilmer historic family farm, northwest of Hannibal on U.S. 61. Go three miles northwest of Hannibal and turn right into the drive on the opposite side of the highway from the turn for Highway W.

Mother Nature smiled on the wall-to-wall crowd meandering along the four blocks of North Main Street Saturday and Sunday during the 33rd annual Autumn Historic Folklife Festival, sending down the first rays of warm sunshine Hannibal had felt for several days.

If you have trouble finding fun in the area this weekend, then you need the kind of help I cannot provide.

Pea Ridge Community Church will have its annual Whole Hog Roast and Auction beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Philadelphia Community Center in Philadelphia, Mo. The menu will be pork, buns, home-made bread, cottage potatoes, baked beans, green beans, corn, relish tray, pie, cake, tea and coffee. The auction will begin at 7 p.m.