Official Return

It's commonly thought that you can re-join the piping scene, but until you play at Maxville, you're not really back.

Last weekend I played in Grade 1 at Maxville (a.k.a. the North American Pipe Band Championships) for the first time since 2001

In the words of George Costanza: "I'm back, baby!"

And while, I'm absolutely ecstatic about that, I couldn't help but notice how some of my one-time contemporaries were doing. Without naming names (or linking to results and thus implying names), various people that I regularly competed against in the amateur grades back in high school won and placed fifth in the Canadian Gold Medal for Piobaireachd (the classical music of the bagpipe), won, placed second and placed fourth in the associated March, Strathspey & Reel contest, and then one of them even placed third in the Former Winners MSR. Not to mention that one of the above pipers is the Pipe Sergent of the reigning North American Champions, another plays with the reigning World Champions, and still one more guy I played against in an ivitational contest in 1998 is the Pipe Major of another Grade 1 band.

Small world, I guess, but still. That was quite a generation that I moved up through the ranks with. I can't help but think that we spurred each other to greater heights, and I look forward to renewing acquaintances with them on the field for years to come.