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The 2002 Cahoon-Hayth
Reunion was held Saturday,
Sept. 21, at the Springwood Baptist Church in Buchanan, VA. More than 100
people attended this first reunion of these two families. Hollis (Skeets)
Cahoon led the event. Plans are being made for
the next reunion likely to be held Spring 2004.
The 27th Savannah Scottish
Games were held on May 10th.
We were pleased to greet Lucy Avery and her granddaughter Lisa.
Mrs.
Avery is one of our longest standing members and was present at the
ceremony when this Society was formed in 1980 at these games. Also, the 2nd
annual Sgt. Rufus Calhoun Hodges Georgia Hussar award was presented at the
Savannah Games for overall Amateur Athlete.
Each year
a different photo of “RC” is featured from his time in New Guinea with
this Savannah based GA National Guard Unit.
The Two Great
Southeastern Games (Part One).
The Southeastern US was settled by a
large number of Scots and their descendants abound throughout the land! A
large number of these immigrants to the New World in the roughly 172 years
before the “American War Of Rebellion” settled
in the American Southeast. Clenath Brooks of
the Agrarian Movement of Southern Literature wrote an essay in the 1930’s
that compares Southern accents with “English” accents. It pointed out how
closely the accents were of this region and the Mother Nations (England,
Ireland, and Scotland). Not surprisingly we in the American Southeast have
many Highland/Celtic Games and Festivals. One of the largest gatherings
happens the second weekend of July at MacRae
Meadows in the shadow of Grandfather Mountain, NC. One of the founding
members, Agnes MacRae Morton, was a descendant
of the original settlers. We especially like the fact that Mrs. Morton
owned a
wheaton Scottie, like our aged
Seumas Colquhoun (a picture of whom you can
see in the Family Tree and the jigsaw portion of www.electricscotland.com.)
This past year was the 48th annual Gathering at this field.
These Games officially begin on the Thursday evening, making them
essentially a 4 day event, but for some it starts even earlier in the
camping area. Live music from the many entertainers gathered begins
Thursday as well as “The Bear”-an amateur athletic event with hard demands
on the participants’ stamina. The Bear is a 5 mile uphill run/climb up to
the top of Grandfather Mountain.
Clan
Colquhoun had two participants (please tell me if there were more!). 10
year old Mary Chesnut Smith and her brother 15
year old Nathaniel Smith (descended from a Kirkpatrick ancestor) both ran
and finished The Bear. Nathaniel was the 18th to finish the
entire race!
Mary and
Nathaniel belong to the family of Theodore Fitz
Randolph of Birmingham, AL and Banner Elk, NC who attend the GMHG
sponsoring their own Kirkpatrick family tent! Many of Ted’s grandchildren
participate in the track and field competitions. Events and the camping
area are blocked off as The Bear passes through the Meadow that has
started at the base of the Mountain. Later, an ancient tradition takes
place at the Meadow. “Raise the Clans” has been depicted in some of our
modern literature including Diana Gabaldon’s
bestsellers. Representatives of all clans present are gathered from the 4
points of the compass to answer the call and place their torch in a
saltire shaped holder. Clan members all join
hands in a circle around the cross when all the torches are in place, hear
a prayer, and then disembark to the four winds. This ends the first night
of the event. On Friday, many clans start setting up their tents. Events
on the field start at 9am and continue through Sunday. They include
athletics, dance (Highland and Country) competition, sheep dog demos,
Gaelic language classes, and music. Music is prominent at this gathering
all through the weekend. Besides the expected pipe and brass bands,
harpists, and fiddlers, there are 10 professional entertainers and groups
that perform at the Friday night Celtic Jam and all through the weekend at
the Celtic Grove bandstands situated all through the grounds.
There is
unique problem with the GMHG. They are held on a mountain.
There’s only so many people that can be
shuttled in a timely manner up and down a mountain. As the popularity of
the event has grown, so have the crowds.
Not
having any official figures, I believe the average number of visitors for
a typical GMHG weekend is between 20 to 30 thousand.
The weekend the year Mel Gibson’s movie
Braveheart
was released we heard estimates of 40 to 45 thousand people. It
was obvious there were more people there than we’d ever seen and talked to
before. Options open to you getting to this festival: You can stay
somewhere as near as possible off the mountain and purchase a sponsor’s
package that includes a parking pass to get you up near the event site. Or
you can park at the base of the mountain and wait in line for the school
bus shuttle to take you up. Either one of these options require you to get
there early. When parking pass lots fill up, you have to park off the
mountain. Get there any later than 10am and it can take hours to park and
ride the bus up. Another option is to camp on the mountain. There are 5
acres of primitive camping. There are two definite sides to the campground
divided by Hwy. 221: the curfew side, closest to
MacRae Meadows and able to accommodate RVs; and the
uncurfewed “MacRowdy”
side across the street. HQ for the Colquhouns is “Fort Potter” maintained
by Danny Potter at the same site since 1980. Danny started coming to GMHG
with his parents 28 years ago. Ft. Potter is located behind the large
rocks where the school bus lets the people out who shuttle up. If you look
to the left as you travel down the path to MacRae
Meadows, you may see a wooden sign stating “Dun
Creadhadair”, identifying it in Gaelic. Besides the obvious
advantage of not maneuvering up and down the mountain each day, camping
here has a few other advantages. Drawbacks include the lack of privacy and
the convenience of modern bathrooms for several days. The campground turns
into something resembling an almost medieval Scottish village for a week
(we did say primitive
camping). Long time campers have many stories to tell. The rocks in front
of Ft. Potter have been the scene of many weddings and
handfasts. A baby was born in the campground
about 15 years ago. A planned event with a midwife in tow, campers
contributed to a pool to guess the day, time, sex, and weight. Half the
pot was to go to the baby and half to the winner, but the winner ended up
giving his winnings to the baby also. All sorts of noise come from across
the road at the MacRowdy’s camp during the
night. One thing that you won’t see unless you stay on the mountain until
11:00 PM Sat. night or camp is an old tradition involving the Clan
MacNaughton pipe band. The band plays off and
on for several hours throughout the curfew side. At 11:00 Hwy. 221 is
blocked off and the band leads a contingent of the curfew side over to the
MacRowdy side where we are pelted with
marshmallows. The band stops and plays several tunes for the
MacRowdys as they set off fireworks. We are
then marched back across the street to go to bed while the other side
carrys on. If you’re willing to forego some
creature comforts for a few days, the Saturday night procession alone is
worth camping “with the big dogs” one year.
Thanks to Norman Bliss of Mystic, CT
for manning a tent at the
Rhode Island Scottish Festival May 17th. This was Norman’s
first tent and it was a job well done!
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