Writer Inspiration & Highland Games

HIGHLAND GAMES

Bagpipes, the Loch Ness Monster, castles, whisky, the Highland moors…these things instantly bring to mind small—yet steeped in history—Scotland. Many American and Canadian citizens can trace their roots back to Scotland and some of these people celebrate these relationships by organizing, volunteering at, and attending Highland games. When I first met the man I was destined to marry, his grandfather and father had already done immense research into their Scottish ancestry. Both a grandfather and grandmother hailed from clans, in this case Gunn and MacBean. We have attended the New Hampshire Highland Games from the time they started back in 1975. In the early 1980s, my husband began his long stint as volunteer. I stayed home with the boys until the youngest showed an interest in his Scottish lineage, then also volunteered. Marching bands, odd looking food, and colorfully dressed kilts amid the spectacular fall foliage of the New Hampshire’s White Mountains makes for a memorable day.The NH games has turned into an annual three day event, now visited by over 40,000 people! We volunteer as a family and, even though my husband and I moved to the south, we still travel to the NH games annually where we offer our service in the information tent. Our sons join us there to help us sell official programs, hand out maps and schedules of events, and sell raffle tickets, the proceeds of which fund scholarships.This annual celebration has turned into a major undertaking and the Board of Directors and office staff work tirelessly to coordinate the many entertainment venues, clan representatives, venders of food and goods, and hundreds of volunteers, in order to bring the sights, sounds, and flavors of Scotland to New England.Volunteering every hour of the three days is too much to ask of anyone, since there is so much to do and see, so my husband and I gather several hardy individuals to share the load. This affords everyone with time to either go watch the sheep dog trials, taste the shortbread, scones, bridies,  meat pies, shop the venders, or listen to rock bands. No one wants to miss the athletes as they toss the caber, a tree length wooden pole.

This entry was posted on 3. July 2010 at 10:22 and is filed under articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.