The Tent This Year Stone Mountain 2008

Not too many new things at the tent, but some of it may be arranged differently.

Alice Calhoun's movie playing. I explained how I set this up in the post about the Savannah Games held in the spring.

One thing I've been trying is to gather to one spot all the pictures and paraphernalia about one subject. In addition to the pictures for Rossdhu there's the Loch Lomond shortbread tin, the Old Rossdhu t shirt for sale, and a copy of Executive Golfer with the Manor/Clubhouse on the front.

I've taken some of the individual pictures of Sir Iain Colquhoun and tried to put them in one big frame. At the bottom of this frame is a copy of "Highland Gatherings" visitors can pick up and look through plus two volumes of "Sir Iain in The Scotsman newspaper."

The copy of "Highland Gatherings" we have out is actually a photocopy of the 1927 book. Across from the title page is a photo of a kilted King George V.

A few years ago The Scotsman offered a digital archive of their newspaper going back to 1817.

I found about 100 pages from articles on Sir Iain in The Scotsman. The first mention I found of him was in 1910 when his father Sir Alan died. Sir Iain's name is misspelled in the 3rd paragraph from the bottom on the page above.

The note written to Sir Iain above was from King George VI (the current Queen's father). George VI had just ascended to the throne in 1936 after his older brother's abdication. He is the second eldest son of George V (pictured above in "Highland Gatherings").

Mostly Sean Well's family (Rachel belongs to our presidents son).

Dr. Liz used to work with Sharon when she was invited out to the festival one year. Dr. Liz liked it so well she volunteered for the Clan MacMedic. She normally doesn't handle emergency room situations but she's had several experiences at the games, including restarting another lady's heart two years ago. Dr. Liz has no Scottish affiliations, but we're proud to adopt her as a Colquhoun. She wears our tartan and marches with us in the Parade on Sunday.

Mike Cahoon "came home" to Stone Mountain to visit this year. Mike sets up tents for us in the Northwest now. He's with Mickey Kennedy.

Tom Hewett came by to get his new Heritage Of Scotland kilt christened.

We don't know who these mothers were, but we liked their clothing and grabbed them to pose as they were walking by.

Beth Gay of Beth's Newfangled Family Tree and Richard Halliley (past president of Clan Davidson). Beth makes the rounds to each clan tent with a "little red wagon" full of goodies. Richard, Jane (Kirkpatrick), and son James are often our "roomates" where ever we're staying for the games as they were this weekend.

On the front of Beth's wagon.

Guests At Stone Mountain Highland Games 2008

My friends know that I really don't like to have my picture taken, at least my wife is well aware of this. I guess I was having such a good time at the Stone Mountain Games I forgot myself and posed a few times. Honored Guest this year was Sir Malcolm MacGregor. I weaseled my way into a picture with him with the help of "The Cowboy Colquhoun" Ken Winkler who works with the visiting bands.

Another guest was Billy Kennedy whom I've met several times before. Billy has written several books about the Scot-Irish influence on the Southeastern US.
His latest book is # 10 in a series. This one highlights Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, and David Crockett.


Billy is also the editor of "The Ulster-Scot" newspaper which he graciously sends several copies to us to pass out at the tent. There's hardly an event we go to where we don't meet someone whose ancestry is Irish and they love to get a copy of this paper. All of the John C. Calhoun descendants have an interest in this since Patrick immigrated from Ireland.
Clan MacGregor's secretary also attended. Guy McGregor is a County Councilor and Cabinet Member in Suffolk. He and his lovely wife were very entertaining, and we enjoyed meeting them very much.

Maw Broon's Cookbook (off topic)

Since we're talking food, we had to share this with you from the Stone Mountain Highland Games this past weekend.

In my "Second Clan", MacMillan, I have three sept names: Bell, Baxter, and Brown. Sir Robert Bell loves to point out that I have quite a bit of MacMillan blood even though I carry the "Calhoun" name. We love Sir Robert and Lady Susan, by the way, and didn't get to spend any time with them as is the way of a busy event like Stone Mountain, but we'll catch up.

"Brown" is "Broon" in the Scots vernacular (if you're American like me, be sure you give an extra "rr" sound to "Broon") .

I'd always loved cartoons and was naturally attracted to "The Broons" and "Oor Wullie" (Our Willie) when I'd seen the books here in the States from our freinds Jim, Sheila, and Kathy's Scots Corner. Another Colquhoun friend, Valerie, editor of the Scottish Banner, told us about "Maw Broon's Cookbook" which she said was the best selling cookbook in Scotland!



If this were just another cookbook it really wouldn't be worth a mention on a blog page, even tho' it's a cartoon character who bears the name of my Great' gt' Grandmaw Broon. The wonderful thing about this book is that it's printed up like your grandmaw's cookbook complete with coffee stains and grandchildren's drawings on the pages.

(the juggler you see at the bottom right of the page is on several pages and can be seen "juggling" as you flip the pages of the book. Drawn by one of Maw Broon's grandchildren when she wasn't looking!)

Valerie told us that she had one customer come up and request a "clean" copy of the book who didn't realize that the whole appeal was the home-made, taped together, hand-written in, and generally weather-beaten look of the book. In fact, if you look at the cut outs and ads in the book, it looks like it was put together in the 1940's-50's. The "weathered" tape is a particularly nice touch to a "Boomer" whose Mom lived through WWII.

We make homemade Shortbread to pass out at the Colquhoun tent. One thing we haven't mastered yet is the Empire Biscuits:




It's basically two pieces of shortbread with jam in the middle and icing on top with a piece of cherry.

Empire Biscuit made by Georgia Daughters of the British Empire devoured shortly after picture was taken.

Each year these are sold by Daughters Of The British Empire at the Stone Mountain Games. I've never noticed this before, but the Georgia Chapter doesn't seem to have its own website.

The GA Chapter of the DBE are out there every year, and they have Empire Biscuits that my Grt' g' GrandMaw Broon would have been proud of because they're wonderful!

When we pass out our homemade shortbread at the Colquhoun tent we use this tin:

A few people who collect tins have told me this one is very desirable. I look each Christmas when the decorative tins usually come out to see if I can find anything like it.

McCowans Highland Toffee

We are so very proud to be an internationally visited website, even by countries whose language in no way resembles our alphabet. Most of our web hits are from The States, so for many of you may I introduce McCowans Highland Toffee!

Emphasis on the "Cow"

I've seen this before but had forgotten about it until I saw it again at a vendor at The Stone Mountain Highland Games. The vendor didn't give a card or flyer out with my purchase (I also picked up some jars of Indian curry and jalfrezi I haven't found anywhere else), but I'll bet it was Union Jack in Peabody, MA after a little detective work in the SMHG program this year.