Tradition is wearing thin for bagpipers' kilts

[Silverlake_Punk]

Maybe some Xmarks folks can hook the kids up with some less pricey kilts? Here's the band's website: http://hphsband.com/main.html

From the Dallas Morning News, 25 August 2005:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....1de4e5e0.html
Tradition is wearing thin for bagpipers' kilts
Highland Park: Theft, deterioration take toll on high school custom



By KRISTEN HOLLAND / The Dallas Morning News

Dirges are sounding for the blue-and-gold plaid kilts of the Highland Park Highlander Band.

"I have been deeply saddened to not see them as much as we used to," said Cindy Kerr, a 1971 Highland Park grad. "Highland Park is the Scots, and the kilt is part of that. I think it would be like A&M not having the Corps, like Texas not having the Longhorn, Arkansas not having the Sooie pig."

Former head piper Jody Magers, a 1968 graduate, said the crowds roared when she and her fellow pipers stepped onto the field at Highlander Stadium in full uniform.

"The traditions of it are what I think were so overwhelming," she said.

"It was wearing the uniform. It was that we were the only school with bagpipes. It was that we were truly Scots."

What's happened in recent years with the decline of the kilts "makes me sick. I don't understand it," Ms. Magers said.

Relatively little is known about why or when a Highland Park football coach changed the school's mascot from the Coyotes to the Scots. But the history of the school's kilts is well documented in yearbooks and newspaper archives as far back as the late 1930s. The Scottish wool plaid uniform didn't really gain a foothold, however, until the Highlander Lassies marched onto the scene in the 1950s.

According to a September 1959 article in The Dallas Morning News , "The Highlander Lassies are fast becoming a trademark of Highland Park and a symbol of Scot spirit. Fourteen Hi Park girls, dressed in Scottish kilts and playing bagpipes and drums, will be seen during the halftime activities of each Scot football game this season."

The name "Lassies" was dropped in the late '80s – when males began participating – in favor of the more gender-neutral nickname "Pipers."

Today, many of the original bright red plaid kilts are lost or damaged. Those that remain are tucked away in an upstairs storage unit at the high school. The same is true of the current blue-and-gold plaid uniforms first purchased in the late 1950s for about $600 each.

"The kilts that I wore, that my friends and classmates and the ones before us [wore] ... they're almost gone," Ms. Magers said. "They said that people came by and stole them. There are even bagpipes that are just gone."

Highland Park senior and head piper Paula Arzac outfits some of her pipers with what's left of the decades-old uniforms. Others opt to purchase their own, but the expense is prohibitive to many.

"It costs about $1,000 to fit" someone in the kilts, Highland Park band director Michael Cruz said, adding that only the band can purchase the uniform because the tartan – a plaid textile pattern to designate a distinctive Scottish clan – is registered.

He said that the students who don the uniform "are very honored." They're true school ambassadors, Mr. Cruz said.

In the past three years, Paula has represented the Scots at a variety of functions, including community parades, competitions and even a wake. "They always want you to play 'Amazing Grace,' " she said.

The bagpipers have numbered in the dozens over the years, but Paula hasn't marched with more than a handful during her career. Currently, including Paula, there are four pipers in the award-winning band.

"The thing about bagpipers is that you always get a lot of people, but only a few of them stay," the 16-year-old said. "Right now, we've got three pipers [in training] who hopefully will be on pipes" within a year.

Mrs. Kerr said the lack of interest in the age-old tradition is disheartening.

"Everybody has always been proud that we were the Scots and we wore the kilts," she said. "The kilt is equally as important to me as the bagpipe part. I don't want to see the tradition go away."

E-mail kholland@dallasnews.com

[Alan H]

You know, if they could get those kilts woven up in Polyester-Viscose, I bet they could get them for a LOT less than $600 a pop.

Hmmm.

[Alan H]

I e mailed the author.... we'll see.

***************************

I just read your article about the problems that the Highlander Band pipe band is having getting their kilts and uniforms. You write that it can cost as much as $1,000 to outfit a band member.

that's certainly true if all of the bands kit is made of imported Scottish wool, but there are other options. If you'd be so kind as to either

A. give my e-mail address to the girl who's the leader of the band,
OR

B. send her this URL: http://www.xmarksthescot.com

I think that I and the online kilt-wearing members at X-marks can show her some MUCH less expensive options in terms of alternative kilt-making materials that she might be able to get the school to fund.

Thanks...

[macwilkin]

There is a large contingent of Scots in the DFW area, and across Texas in general -- and in June, the Arlington Games are held -- they might be able to do some fundraising in cooperation with the local Scottish societies.

In Springfield, we have all-girl drum & bugle corps that wear Highland attire -- the first contingent, the Central High School Kilties, were formed by a Scottish immigrant, R. Ritchie Robertson, in the 1920's -- over time, all five high schools in Springfield had their own corps:

Parkview HS Lassies (Gordon tartan)
Glendale HS Glengarry Scots (Lindsay)
Kickapoo HS Bonnie Buchanans (Buchanan)
Hillcrest HS Highlanders (Dress Stuart)
Central HS Kilties (Royal Stuart)

Sadly, only the Kilties and Highlanders remain -- the others were disbanded due to lack of interest. The Kilties are the most successful, and even got invited to march in the Lord Mayor of London's New Year's Day parade in 2002 -- our Scottish society dontated funds to help send them.

J. Higgins is usually pretty good to work with bands for kilts and other kit -- that seems to be one of their specialities.

Cheers,

Todd

[Planopiper]

Highland Park is one of the richest communities in the area. They don't need charity from the rest of us. If they thought the uniforms or the pipes were important they could make it a priority themselves.

And they wear a specific tartan which is special order. That's not going to be available in a poly-blend fabric.

[macwilkin]

Highland Park is one of the richest communities in the area. They don't need charity from the rest of us. If they thought the uniforms or the pipes were important they could make it a priority themselves.

And they wear a specific tartan which is special order. That's not going to be available in a poly-blend fabric.

Since some of us do not live in DFW, Planopiper, so we're not aware of the socio-economic levels of the various parts of town (Save North Dallas, of course!) -- thanks for sharing that bit of information.

However, I wonder if the school is placing other things above the band from a fiscal standpoint -- other priorities. That's what happened at the schools that had the kilted drum & bugle corps here -- and two of them were in rich communities.

In any case, it's sad to hear of this, since the kilt & pipes were being introduced to high school students in a positive light, and the band served as kilted ambassadors for the school.

T.

[Alan H]

Highland Park is one of the richest communities in the area. They don't need charity from the rest of us. If they thought the uniforms or the pipes were important they could make it a priority themselves.

And they wear a specific tartan which is special order. That's not going to be available in a poly-blend fabric.

I agree. Not without a custom weave. But wait a minute. Don't we know someone who can do a custom poly/wool weave in pretty much any tartan as long as they have the pattern? Don't we know a mess of kiltmakers?

If the Band could get 20 yards of stuff made for $40 a yard, that's $800. Fraser and Kirkbright can do that. That's enough for five, eight yard kilts. If they were six yard kilts there'd be enough for seven, maybe even eight kilts. That's enough to re-outfit the current band in new kilts.

Let's pretend that USA kilts stitched these up in their traditional model. That's roughly $200 a kilt. If there were seven kilts, that makes $1,400.

$1,400 plus $800 = $2,200 for seven new kilts. Call it $2400, and that pays for shipping. That's about $343 a kilt rather than $600-plus.

I'm not saying that X Marks members should buy the Lassies their kilts, but those young ladies may not know a darned thing about kilts, and the number I just pitched out there may be a big surprise to them.

Can you raise $2,400 from car washes, parents chipping in and the local Saint Andrews Society? Sure you can. But if they think those kilts are going to cost $800 each, for a total cost of nearly $6,000, that's a totally different story.