Porte Bandera

June 14th is Flag Day. It was also the birthday of a fellow I used to work for, James Maxwell Baldwin. He was of British descent and sort of starchy. Which agrees with a sturdy flag.

O’er the ramparts… imagine Betsy Ross making the first flag without a sewing machine. Durable in rain, sleet or artillery. Symbolism, but also it was a key guiding the followers, held aloft for visibility. And the brave individual who had the task of bearing it.

The closest I ever got to leading the unit was during my bagpiping days. In that case, our band was led by the Drum Major, a very large man who kept the rhythm with his staff and stride. When we won the competition, I preceded him carrying the trophy, proudly. But no one was firing guns at us. It astonishes me to think of what it must have been like. Belief in the cause had to have surpassed any other feeling. And the sense of proof – this shows all!

And of course there was the celebration afterward. The ceilidh. My Gaelic is a little sparse. Also, I was too young to drink whiskey. Later, in college, I was on tour with the U. Of Iowa Scottish Highlanders. We took a train from Edinburgh down to London. In the bar car I tried Glenlivet scotch. A taste one must acquire. I’m trying to remember if we had a Drum Major? I don’t think so.

When I was learning to play bagpipes, my teacher was Jim Solan, Pipe Major of the Balmoral Highlanders in Syracuse, NY. He was kind, but strict. He threatened to strike my fingers with a ruler if I didn’t keep them straight. I never curled them and he never pulled a ruler. It was important to keep them straight to produce the 64th timed grace notes which are ubiquitous in pipe compositions. After months, I became the first female, possibly youngest member of the Balmoral Highlanders. Because my mother thought pipes were “too masculine”, she insisted I learn the dancing, too. Dancing was something I’d always wanted to do. Way before my fixation on bagpipes. I was delighted.

Why Bagpipes? The first time I heard them, they were invasive. Spiritual, mysterious, impossible to ignore. And yet quite contained in the total immersion of instrument with human body. The bag breathes. It is the player that provides the air flow. They have to work together. With a band, you multiply that.