Tartan week in NYC

[jsrnephdoc]

I decided NOT to walk in the parade, mostly because I wanted to SEE the parade, but also because my son came to midtown Manhattan with me and I'd not gotten him a parade participant pass. For some reason I MISSED seeing the Murray of Atholl clan group, and I didn't see a "Robertson" group, either (the organizing committee had emailed me that there would be one), but we left the parade route at about 330, and perhaps you and they came later. We assumed the parade itself was finished because a pair of police cruisers passed us with no more units following them (we were just a half block north of 46th St while watching.

There were many kilted parade watchers, and also a steady stream of other pedestrian tourists cruising 6th Avenue who hadn't the slightest notion of what "tartan" is, but still were delighted by the bagpipe music.

We wandered around the staging areas a bit and heard a Glasgow high school band (imagine THAT! A high school band that gets to take an INTERCONTINENTAL trip just to march in a parade in a drizzle)! They were quite good, actually (MUCH better than the NYPD marching brass band). They warmed up in the same area as the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo band, and they played in tune (both their drones and their chanter harmonies) although they didn't march with the same military precision and pride as the ERMT group. The Military Tattoo contingent included a rifle team whom I assume were Scottish Military vets, because some of them were almost as old as I, but they were obviously proud to march with their pipers). Both bands tuned their drones with an iPhone app that does frequency analysis, a remarkable demonstration of how a 21st century tech can enable a 19th century experience.

I never saw a drum major fling his staff into the air, but the uniforms of both the high schoolers and the ERMT band were just STUNNING.

One casualty: I lost my plastic trinket Sgian Dubh! It's probably more irreplaceable than a "real" replicate from Gaelic Themes, because the Museum Store at Montana State University (at one of the WORLD's best paleontology museums), no longer carries them.

Did you march in your new kilt?

[RGM1]

I saved my new kilt for the Hoolie at Carnegie hall.

No one seemed to care about participant tickets. I just walked out of a pub and joined my clan. Our spot was just behind the Murray of Atholl highlander regiment. They were pretty cool to watch.

Long wait for our group to start.

After we finally, I doubled back and watched the tail arrive.

Hoolie was well worth it. Great bagpiping, Gaelic music and dancing. Will do it again.