At Saint Peter Chanel Catholic church in Roswell, on the morning of Saturday, February 28th, I arrived early, about 9:50, to play from 10:15 to 10:30 before a memorial service. I was also expected to play after the service at about 11:30. I noticed that the church had a pre-school and elementary school, so I offered to play a bagpipe demonstration for free at the elementary and/or the preschool, and the preschool gladly accepted. So, after I played before the mass, and the mass started, I walked around back to the preschool playground.
The teachers had gathered all the preschool children and one of the children had a birthday that day, and was wearing a birthday crown. So, I introduced the bagpipes, and talked a bit about how bagpipes work. Then I played “Happy Birthday”, and then played again while everyone sang “Happy Birthday”. The birthday child was so excited and it was tons of fun for everyone. Has anyone ever played “Happy Birthday” for you? If not, you might try that some time or hire me to come play for one of your loved ones.
Then we played “name that tune” with the “Amazing Grace” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. We talked about the amazing life of the Scotsman John Newton and his life history of how he was the captain of a slave ship and how he came to repent and write the lyrics for “Amazing Grace”.
We also talked about the meaning of the word “Hallelujah”. One of the little girls at that preschool raised her hand and really impressed the socks off me by saying, “Hallelujah” means “Praise Jesus”. Way to go St. Peter Chanel Preschool and parents. That is a well educated child! We talked about how that song’s name is pronounced the same, and has the same meaning in all languages. The fine principal of the preschool, Rebecca Vandeventer, came forward and correctly announced that the song was also used in the movie “Shrek”, and most of the children recognized that. Do you remember that song in the movie “Shrek”?
Then, I finished by discussing the tune “Scotland the Brave” and we marched back to the school while I played “Scotland the Brave”. I hope and pray that all those children will be a little braver in their faith and testimony and I was happy to teach a little bit about the bagpipes and about our shared history! Then I went back and played at the end of the memorial service after the mass ended.
Looking back, many of the teachers took pictures and videoed the fun, and I’m hoping they’ll send me the pictures and upload the videos so I can post those pictures here and link to those videos.
Anyway, after playing at the memorial service and the preschool I drove over to a motorcycle shop nearby in Roswell to look at some motorcycles. This motorcycle looked pretty good, but I probably ought to learn to ride motorcycles first! I’m taking a 3 day beginners class at Harley Davidson next week. Wish me luck! I think a good caption for the picture below is, “Careful, you could put an AYE out! ;-)”. Please send me your suggestions for captions for this picture.
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