Mike and Audrey have been making the rounds of the Scottish festival
circuit, selling Audrey’s Scottish Island Novels. Here are some of their observations.
Kansas City Scottish Highland Games: Bam! Bam! Bam! The pounding on
our travel trailer door at 2 A.M. was followed by an urgent, "Emergency! Evacuation! Back in five minutes
to pick you up!" As promised, the security guard came racing back in an ATV to drive us across the
festival grounds -- all of thirty yards -- to the Chase County Sheriff’s mobile command center, a huge motor
home. There we were told that a guy with a shotgun was loose on the festival grounds where we were camped. He’d
fled his car after crashing in a ditch during a high-speed police chase. We spent an hour in the company of
five other hapless refugees, staring at the walls of the motor home, anticipating bursts of gunfire and
terrified screams any minute. Then the police sergeant poked her head inside. "Nothing on the grounds but
bunny rabbits. Y’all can go back home", she said, and left, not even offering us a ride back to our
trailer.
Glasgow Highland Games, Kentucky. Mike’s comments: Had Ben gone
home? I hoped so -- he’d been a pest -- but I would miss the little fellow. He’d attached himself to me like an
adoring puppy the day before and by mid-afternoon had memorized the entire script of my talk, "Becoming a
Medieval Swordfighter." He was eleven years old, intense and super-active, adept at rounding up
friends and bullying strangers into a crowd for my presentations. Our last show yesterday had been to a group
of Boy Scouts. Ben had talked, acted, demonstrated, and completely run the show, while I loafed on the
sidelines. Then I heard, "Hey, Mike!"
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If you attended any of the Scottish community events
this Spring (using that term in a very loose sense), you know that we were very fortunate, weather-wise. In an
otherwise cold, wet, snowy, gray season, the Tartan Day celebration on April 5 and the Minnesota Scottish Fair
and Highland Games on May 17 were blessed with very hospitable weather.
Tartan Day was honored on April 5 with a parade at the State Capitol, followed by
a wonderful dinner and concert at Kieran’s Irish (for a day, Scottish) Pub. The parade kicked off at 3 p.m.
with a march from the Veteran’s Building to the Capitol. It was followed by a ceremony on the steps of the
Capitol honoring the day and our Scottish heritage. St. Andrew’s own Neil Johnson was the master of ceremonies.
The invocation was led by another SASer, Reverend Barbara MacKinnon. Leah McLean, news anchor on KSTP Channel 5
was an honored guest. The annual Lifetime Achievement award this year went to Liz Michaelson for her years of
work in organizing the annual Scottish Ramble and the Scottish Fair. Congratulations, Liz! The celebration then
moved on to Kieran’s, where dinner and liquid refreshments were enjoyed, followed by a lively concert by Rising Gael, a youthful Celtic rock band from Madison WI. They were very entertaining with their great selection of music and their high energy. All in all, it was a great Tartan Day, put together through the cooperative efforts of TCSC, MCSC, St. Andrew’s, and the Tartan Day Cooperative.
Weather also cooperated with us on May 17 for the 5th
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