23rd Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[Morris at Heathfield]

As I left the Dance Tent area, I overheard some people in a discussion about when they could hear some piping. I confidently informed them that the solo piping competition would be at 5:30 in the Dance Tent. After all, that's what it said in the program I paid one dollar for.

Afterwards I had some dinner. No Scotch eggs this time. I had a Scottish meat pie and a meat pie from two different vendors. That was enough to stave off hunger. Then I decided to wander around looking for XMarkers. I saw one Matheson tartan, but I was fairly certain it wasn't McMathTX, as he was wearing cream hose, not black. After several false alarms I eventually found Wolfhawk, who was wearing a Texas Bluebonnet kilt. He seemed to be on his way out, but he told me about where he had seen several other XMarkers. The names that stuck in my mind were Stewart and Mackenzie. I didn't see any Mackenzie tents around, but I did pay a visit to the Stewart tent. I asked about X Marks the Scot, but none of the Stewarts seemed to know anything about it. One of them said that maybe the person I had been referred to was the fellow in charge of the tent, who was not there at the time, and for whom they were waiting. I hung out at the Stewart tent for a while, but eventually I decided to leave and take a peek at the open piping competition.

When I got to the Dance Tent it was completely empty. Or rather, there were actually people seated there watching the weight toss, which was still going on. I wandered around and was passing the Rahr & Sons booth when I noticed a fellow wearing a short-sleeve button-down shirt with World War I aircraft on it. At the same time he noticed the Force Unleashed t-shirt I was wearing. We got to talking, and I asked him if he knew when the solo competition would be. He didn't, but he got the attention of his friend, who was a piper. His friend informed me that the solo competion was already over. It had taken place in the southwest corner of the stadium complex, and probably ended well before the Highland dancing did. So much for the accuracy of my program schedule.

The piper friend asked if I was a piper, and I told him no; I had just wanted to watch the competition. Then he asked me if I was drummer. Guess where he was going with this?

So I got invited to join the Fort Worth Scottish Pipes & Drums. I'm going to their practice next Thursday to check them out.

Apart from the two fellows I just mentioned, I also noticed that the judge of last year's (and this year's) open piping competition was there at the Rahr & Sons booth wearing his Ogilvie kilt. I talked to him briefly last year, but I'm not sure if he remembered me from then. I followed the three of them to the Glencoe tent, where Bob Richardson (the piping judge) met up with Alex Beaton (wearing a MacLeod of Harris Ancient kilt) and another fellow (wearing a Stevenson kilt). Apparently these three were schoolmates in Scotland.

At some point Bob Richardson offered me a dram. If I recall correctly, that's the first time anyone has offered me alcohol. I declined, telling him I was a teetotaler. Still, I thought it was pretty cool.

By the time I got back to the Stewart tent, all the Stewarts who had been there before were gone. In their place was a couple. The husband was wearing the Stewart of Appin tartan, but I mistook it for the Grant tartan at first sight, and when I entered the tent I said something like "So, have the Stewarts all left?". The man in the Stewart of Appin kilt was, of course, kscaddo. While I was hanging out at the Stewart tent for the second time, medic78 showed up wearing a Smith Ancient Sport Kilt. So now I've met five XMarkers in person.

After that, I couldn't think of anything much I had left to do, so I decided to head out. First, however, I stopped by Scotland Forever to take another gander at their swatch books. The member of the Fort Worth Scottish who I had talked to told me their tartan was the Inverness Modern. I had no idea what it looked like, so for that reason I was perusing Scotland Forever's swatch books. When I found Lochcarron's Inverness sample, I realized it was the same tartan I had earlier mistaken for the Sinclair. The House of Edgar's Inverness sample looked totally different, with thick yellow stripes.

I realized that Scottish country dancing was now going on at the dance tent, so I decided to stay a little while longer to watch. On my way there I passed a fellow wearing a Mackenzie kilt pleated to the white stripe. I noticed it because the vast majority of kilts I had seen that day were pleated to the sett. I later discovered that the fellow I passed might have been attworth.

I arrived at the Dance Tent and found that my camera had recovered enough to take a couple of pictures. This is the better of the two:



I hung around a little while, but when they started collecting members of the audience to go up on stage I decided to make my getaway.

I noticed that the vendor selling the Ingles Buchan ties also had swatch books—from Marton Mills as well as the Big Three—, so I hung around looking at swatch books for a while longer. Then, finally, I left.

The thing that struck me, overall, is how many individual people I actually recognized from last year, although I suppose it shouldn't surprise me.

[Highlander31]

Sounds like you had a good day. Thanks for posting the photos.