DOVER — Lisa Smith can throw a mean skillet — even when she’s eight months pregnant.
A women’s skillet-throwing contest is one of the many activities at the 38th annual Ozark Memories Day, scheduled for Sept. 24
at Dover High School, 101 Pirates Loop. The event is designed to give the public a glimpse of yesteryear, as well as raise money for college scholarships for high school seniors, organizers said.
Smith, 32, is president of the Dover Area Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the festival. It will start with a pancake breakfast at 6:30 a.m., followed by a 5K race at 7:30 a.m. and a parade at 10 a.m., and continue with a day of activities and music.
“This is my second year being president, and I actually have been helping with them since I was in elementary school,” Smith said. “Mom was chamber president when I was in grade school. I’ve been helping since I was 10 or 11.”
Smith’s mother, Pat Bocksnick of Dover, served twice as president of the chamber and is on the board, Smith said.
“It’s just a little hometown festival,” Smith said. “We have crafts and vendors. We won’t have manufactured crafts; they all have to be homemade. We have kids games starting right after the parade, as long as we’ve got kids there wanting to play, and preteen and adult games. The chamber provides some free games for children, including a bump and jump,” she said.
“My favorite game is the women’s skillet toss,” Smith said. “We used to use an old cast-iron skillet, but the handle popped off, and we built one out of steel. You see how far you can throw it. You get two throws. We take where it hits, not the roll.”
Smith said she has won the contest “probably 10 times.”
“Three years ago I won it, and I was eight months pregnant,” she said with a laugh. “My farthest is 78 feet. This thing weighs about 10 pounds.” Smith, a former Dover High School basketball player, said she doesn’t practice for the competition.
The men’s event is a log-tossing contest, and Smith has been in charge of it several times. “That’s pretty funny watching the guys, macho, trying to throw stuff,” Smith said. “It’s a 6-inch wood fence post. They think, ‘Oh, yeah, this is going to be easy.’ It’s a little more difficult than they think.”
The winners in both those contests get cash prizes of $20; $10 is awarded for second place.
The day will kick off at 6:30 a.m. with a Lion’s Club Pancake breakfast in the middle school’s fine arts building.
Most of the activities are held at Dover High School, but a 5K race will start at 7:30 a.m. at the elementary school, Smith said.
A parade will begin at
10 a.m. “It goes through downtown Dover and ends up at the festival area on the high school campus,” Smith said.
The festival’s horseshoe tournament “is huge,” Smith said. “They get serious about that horseshoe tournament down there.” It includes teen and adult categories, and contestants can sign up the day of the festival. The number of participants usually depends on whether there is a home Razorback game,” she said.
“This year should be a good crowd because it’s an away game,” she said.
Karen Womack and her husband, Sid, are in charge of the crafts.
“We’ve been here 30 years; we’ve only been involved with the chamber for 10 or 12,” Karen
Womack said. She looks forward to Ozark Memories Day. “I
enjoy the crafts. They have games for kids, and they have the music groups who come and perform and, of course all the food — and the parade, and the old cars are in the parade.”
Crafts often include crocheting, wreath-making and woodworking. More craft vendors are needed, Womack said, and information for vendors and attendees is available on the website doverchamber.net.
“I quilt, and we’re going to award some Quilts of Valor,” she said. Seven Pope County veterans are on the list to receive quilts, and presentations will be made on the amphitheater stage between musical acts, Womack said. Recipients are anyone who served in active duty overseas. The quilters, A Second Tour Quilts of Valor Group, plan to have a booth set up to take donations and provide information on their activities, Womack said.
It’s not a festival without food, and volunteer Joan Vance said a group of women will hold a “spin-the-wheel cakewalk, and that’s going to be fun.”
A pie contest is popular each year, too, she said. After the judges make their decisions, slices of the pies are sold.
“We have a barbecue truck that comes in, … and they’re wonderful,” Vance said. In addition, she said friends of hers plan to sell Mexican food, “more familylike meals.”
Smith said a man will give Dutch-oven cooking demonstrations, and samples of the food will be available. “Normally, he’s been doing some kind of cobbler,” she said.
A pumpkin decorating contest will be open to students in kindergarten through the
eighth grade.
“They bring their own pumpkins, and they get judged at 9:30 or 10 a..m., so they’re ready right after the parade when everybody starts walking by,” Smith said. “They’re right at the entrance so everybody can look at them.”
Two years ago, more than 100 pumpkins were entered, Smith said. The pumpkins were taken to the elementary school and transported to the high school.
“Nobody wanted that responsibility,” she said, so the event wasn’t held last year.
This year, the rules have changed. Participants can bring their decorated pumpkins to the high school
between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 23.
“It’s going to be a little more work for the parents,” Smith said. “Then we will set [the pumpkins] outside that
morning (Sept. 24).” Pumpkins can be entered until 9:30 a.m.
The festival will end with a chicken dinner, sponsored by the Dover Band Boosters, at 5:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Smith said she usually doesn’t get to attend the dinner because she’s working to make sure other events go smoothly.
However, she’ll also enjoy the day, but she said she isn’t sure if she’ll participate in the skillet-throwing contest.
“Some people don’t want me to because I’m six months pregnant,” she said.
As if that matters.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.