Correspondent photo / Bill Koch Patty Claudio, who has been playing the handbells for more than 50 years, brought several different types of handbells to the Denny’s meeting room in Liberty on Saturday morning. She was the speaker for the William Holmes McGuffey HIstorical Society’s monthly Memories of a Lifetime series.

LIBERTY — Two dozen people learned the history of handbells Saturday at the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society’s monthly Memories of a Lifetime series at Denny’s meeting room.

The lesson was given by Patty Claudio, a retired teacher from Lake County. She has published numerous articles, especially in children’s magazines, but she also has played the handbells for more than 50 years and is in a group known as the Decibells.

Claudio warned the audience that she would be telling “bad Dad jokes” along the way. Anyone who correctly answered a trivia question, and pretty much everyone else, was handed chocolate, which of course was in the shape of a bell.

Claudio went back to 8,000 BCE, when people would express themselves by shaking rocks and gourds. By 3,000 BCE, the beginning of the Bronze Age, tin and copper lent a shinier sound.

In early Hebrew culture, mothers would sew bells into the skirts of their virgin daughters as a warning system. In India, bells were worn on ankles and in necklaces. In the 400’s BCE, Chinese royalty adopted them.

Although bells are very old, handbell choirs have a more recent history. In 1902, Margaret Shurcliff introduced a handbell choir in Boston known as the Beacon Hill Ringers. It was not until the 1950s that they became popular throughout the country.

Today there are about 15,000 handbell choirs in the United States, with the vast majority being connected to churches. Their talents will be honored next month in Cincinnati at the National Seminar of the Handbell Musicians of America.

Claudio thanked the audience for its attention and for allowing her to “embellish.”

Amy Krepps of Hubbard said, “She was amazing. It was informative, and I loved her display of instruments.”

“I loved it. It was very entertaining,” said Youngstown resident Debbie Janesh, who operated the front table, along with Denise Walters-Dobson of Youngstown.

“Now that I’m retired, I’ve been here about every month. Richard (Scarsella, society president) is able to ferret out pieces of history and culture that may not always be evident. And we get cookies,” Walters-Dobson said.

Next month’s presentation will be July 18, when Ph.D. candidate Jacob Harver will give a presentation on the Youngstown neighborhood known as the Monkey’s Nest.