From the CEO
April 2010: Tartan Day Parade
Random scenes from the Bonnie Brae Knights performing at the 2010 Tartan Day Parade in New York City:
- The Scottish minister, Grand Marshall of the Parade, would like his photo taken with the Knights. His small entourage beams. A simple enough request. However I have just finished getting the boys to stop banging on their drums. So now I ask them to pick them up and play a bit more. They oblige. They smile. Under blue skies and sun they are great ambassadors.
- Parading is about much stopping and starting. The drummers would prefer to march, no stops. When we do stop the boys stop drumming. The crowd applauds, some cheer loudly. When the parade starts again the boys are inspired to play louder. The surrounding sky scrapers amplify the sounds. We sound as if we have a hundred drummers instead of eight. The guys love the amplified sound and bang louder. Again, the crowds cheer!
- We are surrounded by magnificent Scottish bands composed of bag pipers and drums. These bands play traditional Scottish tunes. They sound wonderful. We, the Bonnie Brae Knights, know no Scottish tunes. We do know two very simple beats. We play one series of beats. Pause. We play the next series of beats. Pause. The good news about a parade is that since the band is constantly moving no one realizes that we have a fairly limited repertoire. No mind. We are the loudest of bands. Will they ask us back next year?
- At the finish of the parade high atop a double-decker bus is our very own Bill Reid, the promoter of our Bonnie Brae Scottish Games. Bill stops the parade to praise our group. They respond by playing louder. The crowd cheers, Bill beams.
- Excited still by the crowd's reaction to their performance the guys decide to drum their way back to our waiting vans. So for three blocks we play hard. People stumble out of bars and restaurants to check on the merry disturbance. Seeing our joyful procession they applaud and cheer. A homeless man gives us a thumbs up salute. For once no one complains about the walk or the weight of the drums. We are mid-town Manhattan celebrities.
- To celebrate we roll down Broadway through streets packed with people enjoying the warm spring day. Our destination for dinner is the food court at South Street Seaport. With million dollar views of the East River and Brooklyn as a back drop each student drummer is given an envelope with money for dinner. This "traveling money," although small in amount, is big for our guys. It represents freedom. It represents choice. Of course, this being Bonnie Brae, it also represents challenge. Mark, at eleven the youngest of our drummers, quickly returns to the tables with his dinner choice: a chocolate ice cream cone! Hence the following conversation:
Me - Tell me that's not all you bought for your dinner.
Mark - No.
Me - What else did you buy?
Mark - Just this (Mark produces a second already melted paper-wrapped ice cream cone from under his jacket!).
Me - So, okay, now that we have dessert let's get some real food.
Mark chooses a sandwich with the balance of his dinner money and we all head for Bonnie Brae happy!
Just another day with the Bonnie Brae Knights!