Valley Forge Kirkin' - Report from the scene

[CameronCat]

First, an editorial note...this is my first attempt at posting pics. I followed the directions elsewhere but have possibly screwed it up anyway. If so, apologies. I shall keep calm and carry on.

Next, a hat-tip to McBean for the initial post reminding us of this event.

Borrowing McBean's words, "The Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge National Park [held] its annual Kirkin' of the Tartans service on Thanksgiving at 11:30 am.

This exquisitely beautiful little Chapel was founded as a memorial to George Washington and his generals. It is worth a visit anytime you are in the area, but on this day it [was] filled with kilts!"

Amen. On a perfect, clear and cool day, approximately 150 attended the Kirkin' service. Many came kilted or wearing a bit o' tartan. We were greeted outside by the Valley Forge Highland Band.

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The Reverend Roy Almquist presided. He referred to his Swedish roots and noted the links between Scandanavia and Scotland.

"

The pipe band played several tunes during the service. It is a very small chapel, seating perhaps 120 or so, and the band filled the front right up.
The chapel is 100% stone and wood so the sound was quite brilliant.




Attendees rose to their feet spontaneously when Scotland the Brave was played as part of the recessional.



I had told my son about the Kirkin'. In turn, he alerted two of his friends at the Valley Forge Vol. Fire Company. They all chose to wear their kilts, Class A shirt and tie, plus on-duty pullovers. (Sounds odd, looked great!) Since the church is only a mile from the fire company, they brought a truck for some extra community relations. Son of Cat is on the left.



Requisite pics were taken, so you'd know it happened. From left, Son of Cat, CameronCat and McBean. (Mrs. Cat and Mrs McBean were behind the truck, chatting.)




All around a great day, with the required PR shot for the fire co. at the end. Yes, the sky was that blue in SE Pennsylvania today, and no, neither the carillion tower nor the trees taper or lean in; didn't have the right lens on the camera.



Happy Thanksgiving.

JT

Evening edit: Sorted! It appears that Photobucket works while (whilst) ImageShack provides clickable thumbnails only. I've transfered the pics and reset the codes. Apologies to anyone who passed thru here earlier and wonder WTH was going on.

The answer was simple; just copy+paste the IMG code...no other inserts or clicks required.

Sorry to do all this learning in public.

[MacBean]

Thanks Jim. It was lovely to see you and your family again. All looking exceptionally fine today!

I know nothing of Imageshack, but if you find a photo the size you want, you can right click and choose Properties, the drag across the Address (URL) link to get the right code to paste here using the yellow "Insert Image" button above.

I had no trouble looking through the photos; they all seemed to come out well, which is wonderful considering how dark the chapel is. Well done!

[Steve Ashton]

Here ya go.

[CameronCat]

Steve,
Thanks so much. You posted that while I was figuring out the mojo up top.

How did you resize them? That was next on my list of things to do.

(PM is fine if you don't think worthwhile here.)

Many thanks again.

/JT

[Mipi]

The sound of the band must have been great!

[Steve Ashton]

I didn't re-size them.
I simply followed the link to you imageshack account, found the same photos you posted and then clicked on the embedd button.

I copied the URL address in the embed button and pasted the address here.

for example the last photos has a URL that starts with http.

*http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2485/dsc0376xx.jpg*

And ends with .jpg

I then simply typed [IMG] before the URL. (This is called the opening image tag)
and then typed [/IMG] after the URL. (This with the / is called the closing image tag)

[Kiltboy]

Beautiful photos. Thanks for posting, they look great.