The St. Andrew's Society Burns Night Dinner was held on Saturday, January 19 at the
Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club in Prior Lake. A crowd of over 90 people attended. It was a
grand evening, despite the bitter cold weather. A social hour was held and guests got to view and start
the bidding on many fine items in the silent auction. Two swords donated by Wells Wright drew some very
spirited bidding. One of them will be available for bidding again next year.
Neil Johnson was the emcee for the evening and started it off appropriately with a
Rabbie Burns poem entitled "Winter". The entire group sang Flower of Scotland, and then, everyone's
favorite Celt, Wild Bill Watkins gave the traditional toast to the immortal memory of Mr. Burns. Bill
did a wonderful job and everyone enjoyed his great wit. The haggis was paraded in led by piper Patrick
McCormack and Jack Barker addressed the Haggis with his usual aplomb. Dinner followed and the food was
excellent. Dave and Liz Michaelson then favored us with their clever toasts to the lassies and lads
respectively. Finally, the first annual Scottish Community Service Award was presented to Barbara
Harkey and her family. The award is for a non-Scot who has provided service to the Scottish
community. Barbara and her family have, for many years, provided a meal in their home for a Canadian
pipe band that comes annually to their home city of Little Canada to march in the parade there. This
has become a great tradition, both for the Harkeys and the band. Before the dinner ended, everyone sang
a round of Auld Lang Syne. Folks then retired to the lounge for further socializing and to finish off
the silent auction bidding. The silent auction brought in over $1100 to be used by the Society for
scholarships. Many thanks to all who attended, and to the donors and the bidders at the
auction.
Also thanks to the members who helped organize the dinner and decorate the dining
room. The dining room never looked so beautiful, thanks to Joanne Wahl. It was a wonderful, special
evening that everyone enjoyed immensely. We are already looking forward to next year's event.
Check out the pictures on the inside of the newsletter.
You've all seen them at Scottish festivals . . . kids nine to sixteen tagging along
after their parents, looking utterly bored and disinterested and wishing they were any place else but with Mom and
Dad. They're too old to have their faces painted, too immature to be left home alone, and too young to
participate in athletics and clan activities. You can almost hear them whine, "There's nothing here for
me to do and I hate that stupid Scottish food."
I can't do anything about the ones who dislike Scotch eggs and deep-fried haggis,
but several years ago I developed a program just for kids who don't find anything of interest at our festivals,
those under-served and under-appreciated young teenagers. My program is about medieval swords and
daggers and the boys who learned how to use them, and it features a display of several uniquely Scottish swords
that I own.
This age group is not interested in a lecture; that smacks of school to
them. What they enjoy is a chance to hear a story told in a relaxed, informal setting about how kids
their own age became sword fighters. We talk about why wooden swords were used for practice even by
adults, and about why one kid learned to read and write and wore fancy clothes, and why another went home to his
village after classes and mucked out the cow byre. And what's the best way to bring down a charging
horse, and why a sword fight lasted only a few minutes, not twenty or thirty like in the movies.
I developed the program with boys in mind, but to my surprise girls are also
interested; it must be those fantasy movies and video games. And parents and grandparents get sucked
in, especially when I use Grandpa to demonstrate why blood grooves in a sword are useful when a swordfighter runs
someone through.
