You never know what's out there

[Benning Boy]

The other night my girlfriend googled my name. She was looking for an op-ed piece I had written for WSJ long ago, but which is by happenstance available on-line. Much to her surprise she found on eBay an 8x10 glossy black and white photo of me looking at a set of bagpipes in the Ironside's Scottish Shop, in the Seattle area, way back in 1967, just before becoming one of the Benning Boys. The picture is now on it's way to me. How weird is that?

I had forgotten that day in June, 1967, but my memory was jogged and basically I remember that coincidentally a reporter from the Seattle PI was doing a piece on the shop, and asked me to pose for a picture. Visiting the shop was a real thrill for me. Being just a kid from the Kansas High Plains, where Scots are uncommon, and bagpipes even rarer, the shop was a wonderland. Mr Ironside spoke with a distinct Scottish accent, wore a kilt, tweed jacket and tie. Mrs ironside was wonderfully polite and helpful. In that tiny part of Seattle, at least, no one spit on soldiers. I didn't have much money to spend, but did buy my mother a grouse foot pin, which she still has.


To think that someone would have kept this photo and the identifying information from its cut line all these years, and then to put it on eBay, as if someone would actually buy a picture of a nobody in an obscure shop on a long ago long ago day just amazes me. Be careful what you do, even things you did decades before the Internet might just still pop up on-line.

[Highlander31]

So true. Things can and do pop back up.
I warn my children about that constantly. A photo on Facebook in jest today, might lead to embarrassment tomorrow.
Sounds like you were stationed at Ft. Lewis. I spent some time there in '71.

[Hawk]

You'll have to post it and share with us here, when you receive it.

Hawk

[MacGumerait]

Benning Boy , it's very refreshing to hear someone bring up The Scottish Shopper ! I have quite a few items from Jack Ironside that I either received as gifts or that I bought back in the 70's from him . Somewhere , I still have an old catalog of Jack's store .

I think perhaps that yourself , OCRichard and myself might be some of the few that remember " ole Jack Ironside " .

Cheers , Mike

[OC Richard]

Is it this one? This is the image from the Ebay listing with watermark.



How cool! Yes you never know.

The Scottish Shopper was my first connexion to kiltwearing and piping. My father had taken me to see The Black Watch and there was an ad for The Scottish Shopper in the programme (which I still have!)

We got the catalogue and wow... page after page of stuff I knew nothing about. I'd been reading everything I could find about the kilted Highland regiments, but had had no exposure to civilian dress. Tweed jackets, Montrose doublets, a whole page of sporrans... it was fascinating. For some reason I was especially taken with the page of sterling kilt pins. I wish I had one of those catalogues now! (Perhaps MacGumerait can scan and post his copy?)

My father ordered my first set of pipes, in 1975, out that catalogue, Lawries. It was Christmas all over again when those things arrived! (An aside: at that time when you ordered pipes, you ticked off what tartan you wanted for the bagcover and matching cords/tassels. Nowadays these things are virtually extinct, except in the Army.)

I only saw Jack in person once or twice, up at the Santa Rosa Highland Games in the late 1970s. I really liked that cool vintage sporran he wore, the same one that he's wearing in the photo there.

[Benning Boy]

No, that's not the picture of me, although that piper was there at the time as I recall. That sure is Mr. Ironside. Wouldn't it be neat if that photo were in color? The china in the background would really stand out. I'd like to have that picture too. The photos remind me of a guy I used to know, a naive, bedazzled kid with a head full of dreams. Somewhere along the line he died.

I didn't know they had a catalog. I'd love to have a copy too.

I'm not sure how I found out about the shop. When I'd get weekend passes from Ft. Lewis I'd go to Seattle. The bus station was downtown. One day I went walking all over the place, the city fascinated me. I heard a pipe band in the distance, headed that way, and soon found them practicing at a place on the edge of one of the lakes. I visited with them for quite a while, and I think it was through them I learned about the Ironside's shop.


The next time I got a pass, I went looking for the shop. Started walking from the bus station. Being a fit young infantryman walking wasn't a concern, but damn, that shop was a hell of a long way from the bus station. It seemed to be getting farther and farther away. Finally a guy driving by asked if I wanted a ride, he thought I might as I was walking where people seldom were seen walking. He took me right up to the front door. What a relief. I had started downtown, roughly 1st Ave. and as I recall the shop was well over 100 blocks from where I started.

As you say, the shop was full of Scottish riches. I had no idea there was so much more than just kilts and bagpipes. Mr Ironside's TCHD amazed me, and gave me lots of ideas.

While Mr Ironside talked with the reporter, and posed with the piper, Mrs. Ironside showed me around the shop, explaining what everything was. Like WOW! She was showing me pipes, when the photographer asked if he could take my picture too.


I already had a set, Grainger & Campbell ordered from a place in Vancouver in 1966. They did come with a tartan bag cover. I wish I could remember what tartan it was. I do remember it was a district tartan, and was predominately black and green, but not so "black" as Black Watch Modern, the colors were more distinctive. I don't know whatever happened to that bag cover. I bought a blue velvet cover and matching blue cords from the Ironsides.


I never did learn to do much more than make squawking noises on the pipes. I had only the Green Book as a guide, and that was it. Playing Army became my main delight, and the pipes went into storage. I still have them. I've recently ordered new instructional material, and am starting to teach myself again. There is a rag-tag pipe band here so I'll be able to get help from experienced pipers.

ETA: I just clicked on the photo and it took me to a Photobucket account, were the picture is labeled Ironside 1966. That picture would have actually been taken around June of 1967. I arrived at Ft. Lewis sometime in April of 1967 for eight weeks of infantry training. I was nearing the end of it, maybe completed it, when I visited the Ironsides' shop. I was held over a few weeks awaiting an Infantry OCS unit to take me, and had lots of free time then. The photo could have been taken as late as July 1967.

Further: Just did a search and immediately found this obituary of Jack Ironside: http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...8&slug=2765294 It says he grew up at Burien, WA. I remember he had a Scottish accent. Maybe it wasn't as thick as I recall. Also took a look a Google Earth. It was a hell of a long way from the downtown Seattle bus station to the shop in Burie!

[Benning Boy]

Here is the picture I mentioned at the start of this thread. Mrs. Daisy Ironside showing me a practice chanter, I see. I thought we had been looking at bagpipes. I was 18 at the time. Damn, that was along time ago. Don't know why I was wearing khakies. We usually wore civies when off post.

[Phil Campbell]

Great photo! Thank you for sharing and for your service.

[OC Richard]

That's awesome!

The Donald MacLeod set of tutorial records is the very thing I learned with!

[Blupiper]

Yeah, I remember the shop in Burien when I was growing up in the Seattle area. It has been gone a long time now. It was in (at the end) a small strip-mall kind of development down toward the SeaTac airport. I believe that all its inventory ended up with the Hector Russell shop downtown Seattle, before the Hector Russell shop closed, what, nearly a decade ago? Aren't Mr. Ironside's grandsons Jack and Terry Lee? Pretty good piping DNA, if my memory serves.

JMB