| Bringing the Highland home |
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| Written by Jordan Gray - Argonaut | ||||||
| Monday, 26 January 2009 | ||||||
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 In celebration of Scottish poet Robert Burn's birthday, locals gathered in the SUB Ballroom Saturday night with kilts, bagpipes, haggis, a Scotch whiskey tasting, and a surprise wedding. Part of the event also took place across the street at St. Augustine's church. Judy Moser/Courtesy Photo
Robert Burns aficionados know how to throw a birthday party. For the
Scottish poet’s 250th birthday, people in everything from full kilts to
suits came to celebrate the event with a Scotch whisky tasting, the
ever-popular and somewhat infamous haggis, dancing, bagpipes, drums and
even a surprise wedding.
 The haggis gets piped into the SUB Ballroom during the Robert Burns 250th birthday celebration Saturday. Judy Moser/Courtesy Photo “My son and I started playing bagpipes,” Hunter said, “and I organized Burns Night. My son and his wife have become really involved.” Ben and Jessie Hunter piped and danced, respectively, throughout the show. “Without Jay, this would never happen,” said Ross Coates, who gave the “Address to a Haggis.” “He manages to pull solutions out of his hat.” Moscow’s Robert Burns Night is gaining more than just local attention. “The BBC interviewed Ben this year,” Jay Hunter said. “They found us on Google because we are like the fifth hit.” Hunter’s bagpiping skills have come in handy when teaching others. Tom Urquhart, member of the Border Highlanders, performed during the dessert course and during what the program called a “Special Ceremony.” Urquhart has been playing for 10 years because of Hunter. “He started offering free bagpipe lessons,” Urquhart said. “And I took him up on it.” The Border Highlanders draw their members from Moscow, Pullman, Clarkston and Lewiston, and have been performing as a group since 1974. “We typically do like a dozen gigs a year,” Urquhart said. “We practice for months to get ready for (Burns Night).” The Lewiston Firefighters Pipes and Drum were featured during the dinner portion of the evening, sporting bagpipes that looked as though they had been cut off firefighters’ jackets, complete with green and silver reflective strips and fire department insignia. “We wanted something with a firefighter motif and we have the name of the band of the pipes,” said Jeff Jenson, a member of the group. “And they do come from Scotland.” This is the group’s first year performing, and the members are drawn from the Lewiston Fire Department, but not affiliated with it. A traditional Burns Night typically includes a “Toast to the Lassies” and then a “Reply From the Lassies.” In a slight deviation from the program, Sam Scripter, who gave the first toast, tacked an addendum to the end of his. After reading Burns’ poem “A Red, Red Rose” he turned to fellow toaster Marsha Farrow and said, “Will you here and will you now, will you marry me?” Farrow went through her own toast, a humorous lecture on the qualities and follies of the laddies, before she added her own lines, “Ah Laddie Sam, you’ve stolen my heart away. So the answer to your proposal is yes.” Then with a quick set change, an arch was flipped around which bore the standard “Sam and Marsha.” Scripter donned a top hat to accompany his kilt and Farrow a ribbon circlet to go with her full-length tartan skirt and the couple was married on stage in a short Highland wedding. Scripter put his arm around Farrow’s shoulders as they listened to the ceremony before exchanging vows and rings. According to their wedding program, the couple met in 1944 in first grade at Washington School in Ashland, Oregon. Their lives took separate paths after high school, but almost 50 years later they reconnected at a high school reunion. The newly-married pair then shared their first dance with a line of couples that stretched the length of the ballroom. Two shorter lines were added to accommodate all the dancers who wanted to learn the steps to a reel taught by dancer Jessie Hunter. Sam and Marsha Scripter then accepted a bottle of champagne from the Border Highlanders before the entire audience joined in singing the Burns’ classic, “Auld Lange Syne.”  Add as favorites (70) | Views: 1063
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