An Amazing Couple of Days

One of our church members arranged a special bus day-trip for anyone interested. On such trips we’ve seen some beautiful sights, not so far away that it would prevent us from returning by four in the afternoon, after leaving at 10:30 in the morning.

This trip was from White Rock to Maple Ridge, BC, to visit Arte Vargas Glass Blowing Inc. The Vargas father and son team demonstrated their specialty of “hand crafted art glass.” Most of us had never witnessed the process of producing a piece of art in blown glass, so this was an experience about which to tell others. Two kilns are heated to 2200 and 1800 degrees F. An oven holds the finished article at 500 degrees and is allowed to cool during the night.

The Vargas team asked our group to suggest an ornament they could make for us. My suggestion was, an angel, and they accepted the challenge with gusto. After many procedures such as shaping the body, adding the head, arms, hands and halo, it was given the finishing touch, which were the wings. The son said, “Every angel must have wings.” When it was finished, it was beautiful in shape, size and color and was immediately placed in the cooling oven. It would be presented for sale the next day and could be shipped to any part of the world. Their web site is, www.aratevargas.com. One can custom order from them or select from hundreds of vases and ornaments they’ve made.

As an optometrist I was anxious about their eyesight because they have to look directly into their kilns which radiate harmful light rays. These can cause “glass-blower’s cataracts.” The father has a filter in his glasses, but his son doesn’t wear glasses. I had to impress upon him that he must wear protective lenses even though they may not contain any power.

After this exciting exhibition of artistry, we drove to Clayburn Village Store and Tea Shop in Abbotsford. This is a 100-year-old general store that at one time sold everything from groceries to dry goods. It was central in a town that manufactured bricks. Today, it specializes in all sorts of candy and at the same time, it’s a Tea Shop where people can satisfy their noon-day hunger. We enjoyed red-pepper soup and a sandwich, topped off by a small piece of coconut cream pie. Our expert bus driver delivered us back to the church by four PM. The trip had been most enjoyable.

Our pipe band practice is on Thursday nights, beginning at seven o’clock, so there still was time to drive there and prepare for the Legion’s Remembrance Day Celebration in November. This definitely made it a full day.

The next day was also very special in that we had tickets for a musical concert in our church. The acoustics are considered so good in the sanctuary that choirs and instrumentalists elect for this church venue. Friday night we were guests at a piano extravaganza, consisting of four seven-foot grand pianos with two duo pianists, namely a father and son team, Alexander and Daniel Tselyakov from Brandon Manitoba and Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann from White Rock, BC. The audience consisted of about 500 enthusiastic classic music lovers and they were not disappointed. The music was wonderful.

The web site for these concerts is, www.whiterockconcerts.com and one may Email either, rickgambrel@gmail.com or gzuk@telus.net to learn more about them.

An Embarrassing Situation

We love it when our pipes are “going like bells” as the saying goes, but it’s with despair when they respond less than perfectly. I’d like to pass along an experience to other soloists to prevent the same thing from happening to you.

I was invited to play for a memorial service in our church, for the processional and recessional. Twice before, I had played for the family, for another memorial service and a wedding. I had two weeks to prepare and I practiced conscientiously, having selected several hymns to lead the family into the service and to play while they were leaving. I planned not to play too long, but have a hymn or two to spare.

I practiced in the church recreation hall and in the local forest and the pipes were sounding well. On the morning of the service, on blowing up my pipes, I was astounded when it was impossible to get air into the bag. It was ten o’clock and at two o’clock the service would begin.

Did I need a new Wee Mac valve, or could the neck of the bag be choking off the air? I replaced the Wee Mac with a Moose valve, which I had in reserve and I tried cutting a flapper valve out of one of my work gloves but the problem still remained. Through constant bending of the neck of the pipe bag, to put the pipes in their case, the leather had become flattened and it adhered to the end of the blow stalk choking it off completely. There was no way of correcting this in the short time before the memorial began and I telephoned the pastor in charge to inform her of my predicament.

To my relief I was assured that predicaments can happen and that I was not to worry. Once corrected, it probably wouldn’t happen again. There would be a next time and I could look forward to the next invitation to play in church. I’m thankful for such compassion.

Since then, I lubricated the inside of the pipe bag in the area of the blow stalk, and also installed an angled pipe in the chanter stalk. I intend to do likewise for the blow stalk, to prevent the bag from ever flattening and sealing it off.

If anyone else has experienced this constant training of the bagpipe’s neck, which causes it to cut off the air from the blow stalk or to the chanter, I would be interested to know how you solved it. I wonder if a deeper throat to the pipe bag’s design would help? I’d be glad to hear from anyone who has had the same experience. If you’ve never had it happen, be sure it never does, because it’s a tough experience, especially when the piper is counted upon to be a part of an important ceremony.

In the meanwhile, here is a video entitled "Epic Bagpipe Malfunction".  I think it represents every piper's worst nightmare.