Today was the Tartan Day Parade in New York City , and your humble correspondent was there.
But want i wanna report was the absolute THRILL, i mean i almost teared up, when the bagpipes started, and we, as members of the St Andrew’s Society of New York, began marching up Fifth Ave behind them.
WHY did it get to me so? i mean, joining the Society wasnt a matter of merit, after all, it only took digging up an ancestor from Prestonpans… but I dk, i looove the pipes and drums!
We were right behind the gents who were carrying the Society’s banner, which was a good thing cuz one of thise gents hadnt worn his kilt for awhile, and—it started falling off of him! He was blissfully unaware that it was slipping down below the level of his knee socks, so my BMD had to step up and bear the standard while the man darted to the sidewalk to re-gird.
Anyway— all i wanted to tell you is that this feeling i had today is the same one ive had whenever i ever hear The Star Spangled Banner played when I’m on foreign soil. A great choking sob of pride.
What purpose does this feeling serve? is this why men go to war? is this the lure of ”glory”? And is it good or evil?
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
“What purpose does this feeling serve? is this why men go to war? is this the lure of ”glory”? And is it good or evil?”
The feeling you describe is Love, Hypatia, and it is good!
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Around here, among the people I know, anyway, there are usually pipes at a funeral, for some reason. And at weddings, but whenever we saw pipes at a funeral, Robin would chuckle, and he would say “Somebody’s deed (dead), bring out the Scottish guy.” He found America’s love of Scottish pipes very endearing.
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Not everybody loves ‘em. I hired a bagpiper for a party I gave my brother once, and found one of my guests cowering in the kitchen. “I’ve never…been this CLOSE to one before..” he murmured, as though I had brought a rhinoceros or sump’n into my living room.
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LOL 🙂 One of my cousins plays the bagpipes, I think they are awesome 🙂
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Love, and the willingness to *defend* what is loved. Surely, at times, a mixed blessing but a blessing, nonetheless. (So glad for you and yours Hyp! I can practically hear the skirling!)
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Thnx u, dude, for the visuals – not!
Outlaw the kilt then clear out the Highlanders.
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The Highlanders will rise again.
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Yes, I’ve read that “Highland dress” wasn’t actually that big a thing till after Culloden, when it was proscribed. But then Sir Walter Scott convinced George IV to stuff himself into a kilt when he visited Balmoral; he was, after all, the king of the Scots too, despite being a kraut.
Sadly, it appears to have been mostly the Scottish Lairds themselves who were responsible for the Highland Clearances.
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Hypatia is spot on as per usual.
John Prebble’s book ‘The Highland Clearances’ quotes a highlander to the Scottish Lairds: “Since you have preferred sheep to men, let sheep defend you!”
America is about to get some of that, I fear.
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