Vicki and Sam Overstreet at the New Hampshire Highland Games Sept.17-19, 2010

NEW HAMPSHIRE HIGHLAND GAMES
Loon Mountain
Lincoln , NH
Sept. 17-19, 2010

This year we rented a tent, already set up, so that we wouldn’t have to fight the wind. So naturally, we had no wind. Just a gentle breeze all weekend with a few gusts on Saturday. The only rain we had was a heavy downpour on Thursday night, so all in all, it was a perfect weekend to celebrate our 15th anniversary of hosting the Colquhoun tent. When we arrived home Monday afternoon, we checked weather.com for the Loon weather. It was a cool 56 and the wind was 15 with gusts to 29. So nice of it to hold off until after the Games.

Speaking of hosting a tent, we had several past and present Colquhoun tent representatives stop by: Chuck and Ann Stoodley from Florida , Rosalie and Lance Oliver from New York and Corey and Laura Gilpatrick from Maine . Corey would like us to pass on the word that he has relaunched his web site http://clancolquhounofthenortheast.blogspot.com/. He leads off with the story of the 3rd Gurkha Regiment, which was raised by Sir Robert Colquhoun in 1815 and who adopted the Colquhoun tartan.

We had many visitors stop by, including those we like to call ‘regulars’ and many for the first time, who we hope will become ‘regulars’. We also had the usual number of non-Colquhoun’s who were just looking for information and from whom we always learn something about other clans. It seems that hosting a tent is a never ending learning experience.

Dr. Curtis and Lynn Penney were in town from North Dakota for their annual visit. Curtis always competes in solo piping competition and this year he was pleased to win two 2nd place medals. Well done and congratulations.

Deborah Cahoon (Didick) and her daughter, Erika Brien, marched with us in the Parade of Clans. Deborah has done much research on William Cohoone of Block Island , RI , her 8ggrandfather. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and sent to the colonies as an indentured servant. He is considered to have been the first Colquhoun in North America . Deborah very graciously presented us with a copy of her book, Famous and Infamous Cahoons. Many thanks, Deborah.

Ken Marsh returned after an absence of a couple of years. Ken has always been very helpful in assisting us in manning the tent and he also marched with us. Welcome back and thanks, Ken.

When you only see people once a year, and then only for a very short time, it’s hard for us to associate names and faces. Sam is very proud of himself for recognizing David and Jean O’Sullivan this year. Hang in there, Joe Kirkpatrick. Your time will come.

Kathy (Ingram) Byrne, whose husband John is the brother of Dave Byrne, 2nd Vice President and New England Commissioner of Clan Buchanan Society International and maker of Sam’s walking/leaning stick, stopped by. Her daughter was married in 2007 and since it was a Scottish wedding, Dave had borrowed some Colquhoun tartan from us to display.

Speaking of Clan Buchanan, they were Honored Clan this year and had their AGM here. Dave said that they had close to 300 members show up. It sure looked like it with Buchanan tartan and Black Lion T-shirts everywhere. Sam was able to talk a couple of times with Buck Buchanan, a Past President of the Society. We hadn’t seen Buck since our California days 6 years ago.

Thanks to all of the others, too numerous to mention, for stopping by and showing your support. We appreciate it and it makes hosting the tent worthwhile.

And last, but not least, a special welcome to new members Richard Rohla and Rick Tustin. Thank you for your interest in the Society.

Entertainment wise, Red Hot Chili Pipers and Albannach, both from Scotland , Brother (who we hadn’t seen in about 10 years), The Brigadoons, Alex Beaton (an old California favorite of ours) and Rathkeltair all provided us with good music.

Friday evening we went to dinner with our ‘adopted sons’, Ken Marsh for Vicki’s Colquhoun side and Doug Williams (Clan MacFarlane New England Commissioner) for Sam’s MacFarlane side. We had planned to go to Vita’s but it was closed, so we went to the one and only Mexican restaurant, which used to be our Thursday night stop after set up. It apparently has new owners (again) and while the food wasn’t bad, service was terrible. We will take that one off our list. We did, however, discover two new places that we highly recommend – The Common Man and Brittany ’s Café, both at the Kancamagus Motor Lodge, just down the hill from the Games.

That’s it for this year and we will see you all again at Loon Sept. 16-18, 2011, if not sooner.


Vicki and Sam Overstreet

New York/New England Representatives
Clan Colquhoun Society of the United Kingdom

US: http://www.colquhounclan.com/
UK : http://www.clancolquhounsociety.co.uk/

Fort Ticonderoga Scottish Festival And Black Watch Memorial June, 20,2009

From Vicki and Sam Overstreet:

FORT TICONDEROGA SCOTTISH FESTIVAL AND BLACK WATCH MEMORIAL

Fort Ticonderoga, New York

June 20, 2009

Boy, are we ever late getting this report out. This has been a long, boring and wet summer. It seems like our lack of attendance at Scottish activities this year has drained us of our motivation. It’s time to get back in the groove and get moving again.

The Festival at Fort Ti was small but nice. It was their first year and we have to give them credit for attempting it, considering the economy. They had advertised band competition but apparently dropped it, perhaps when they saw what it would cost. It sure doesn’t come cheap.


We had helped them by furnishing local leads to clans and vendors. When we couldn’t get anyone to bring a MacFarlane tent, Sam borrowed the banner from MacFarlane’s New England Commissioner and set up his own tent while Vicki hosted the Colquhoun tent. Sam insisted that since there were several MacFarlane’s in the Black Watch at the battles of 1758 and 1759, they should be represented. Other clans were Dunbar, Hay, Donald and one other that we are embarrassed to say that we have forgotten their name. They were a young couple from New York City who had rented a car to come up to the Fort and this was their first time hosting a tent. There were also 3, maybe 4, Saint Andrew Society tents there. It was fairly quite so it gave us a chance to talk to Bill and Betty Wolf, of Clan Hay, whom we hadn’t seen for a while. Several reenactors stopped by to chat and Sam, who went to high school in Ticonderoga , was able to reminisce with some of the locals. Not many Colquhoun’s up in that area, but Justin Potter, of Crown Point , NY , (another famous battle site) stopped by. Thanks, Justin, for making Vicki’s day. There is a good chance that many of you didn’t realize that Potter is a sept of Colquhoun.

In September we are off to California for our son’s wedding. We arrive back in NY at midnight on Tuesday, Sept. 16th, which gives us Wednesday to pack up all of our gear so that we can head out to the New Hampshire Highland Games at Loon Mountain on Thursday to set up the tent. If you come by the tent and we are napping, please wake us up. We look forward to seeing many of you there.


For those of you in the Hartford , Conn. area, we would like to call your attention to the musical event called Pipes in the Valley on Sept. 26. In addition to massed bands, they will feature the Red Hot Chilli Pipers from Scotland , who will also be at the Loon Mt. Games the weekend before. Also Seven Nations, who were at Loon in ’07 and ’08; Gaelic Storm, who were in the movie ‘Titanic’; The Wicked Tinkers, from the West Coast, who were one of our favorites when we were doing the California Games circuit in the 1990’s and early 2000’s; and Mactalla Mor, a favorite at many New England Games. And best of all – it’s FREE! The website is http://www.pipesinthevalley.com/.

And this just in. Corey Gilpatrick, up in Maine , has launched a new blog called Colquhoun of the North East, http://clancolquhounofthenortheast.blogspot.com/. We wish you success with your new endeavor, Corey, and we will be checking in often.

Vicki and Sam Overstreet

New York/New England Representatives

Clan Colquhoun Society of the United Kingdom

US: http://www.colquhounclan.com/

UK : http://www.clancolquhounsociety.co.uk/

Another Report From Sam & Vicki

GLASGOW LANDS SCOTTISH FESTIVAL
Northampton, MA
July 19, 2008

Well, we set a first for ourselves this weekend. In the ‘It can’t happen to us’ category, IT DID. In the thirteen years that we have been hosting the Colquhoun tent we have seen our share of tents blown over, so we guess that it was finally our turn. We set up Friday night in our usual fashion – tents up full height with banner and flags flying. Thunderstorms were forecast, but we have survived them before. As we sat in the motel that night watching the Weather Channel radar, we saw the bright orange blob go right over Northampton and wondered if we would have a tent in the morning. When we got to the grounds in the morning we found the remains of our two tents. Jonathan Tucker, the Clan Coordinator, had been called out Friday evening after the storm. Apparently a microburst had hit the area. He had very graciously picked up our stuff and stacked it neatly. He even set our flags in stands for us. With the help of Dave Byrne, 2nd Vice President and New England Commission of Clan Buchanan, Stuart Greenlaw, representing both Clan Stewart and SAMS, a roll of duct tape and rope we were able to get our front tent presentable, even though it had five bent and broken trusses. Our back tent was totally useless in that it had three bent legs, bent almost at 45 degree angles. Anyone need three steel tubular hockey sticks?



Other than that, it was a rather uneventful day for us. It was hot and humid, which we have come to expect for this Game. Jonathan had the Clans on and off the field for Opening Ceremonies in record time, for which we were all very thankful. We were short on visitors to the tent, probably due to both the weather and the economy. Tyler Cowan was the first by. He is one of our several Colquhoun pipers and plays with the Berkshire Highlanders. He was hoping to get an early draw for his solo competition in order to beat the heat. Charlie Smith came by a couple of times. He is planning to buy a kilt after he buys his motorcycle gear. In what seems to becoming a tradition, Kevin Surprise came by in the morning and his sister Laura stopped by in the afternoon. Our thanks to all for braving the heat.

Vicki was a judge for the Bonnie Knees contest and the contestants voted her ‘Best Judge’. Must be those ‘Magic Fingers’.

The aforementioned Dave Byrne made Sam a hand-fashioned walking stick or hiking staff (what’s the difference?) or as Dave calls it, a leaning stick, to give his knees some relief. He made it from a maple sapling, utilizing the root. It looks almost like a dragons head.

Our next stop is the Central New York Scottish Games in Liverpool, NY on Saturday, August 9. Hope to see some of you New Yorkers there.

Vicki and Sam Overstreet

New York/New England Representatives
Clan Colquhoun Society of the United Kingdom

US: www.colquhounclan.com
UK: www.clancolquhounsociety.co.uk

Report From Sam and Vicki Overstreet

WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS HIGHLAND GAMES 2008

Greenfield, MA

June 28, 2008

As they had been for the past month, the Weather Channel was forecasting possible thunderstorms and since we ran into a couple of showers on the way to the Fairgrounds on Friday, we thought that we would just set up the tent that night and put out the displays on Saturday morning. When we got there it wasn’t raining and it wasn’t too awfully humid so we went ahead and unloaded the trailer, on the chance that it might be worse in the morning. We also set up our second tent next to us temporarily to save a space for the Macfarlanes (Sam’s clan) who would be coming in Saturday morning. Since the Macfarlane tent is a one-man show, Sam planned on helping him on occasion. More on the Macfarlanes later.

Saturday turned out to be fairly decent, even though they were still forecasting possible thunderstorms. The attendance was down and it certainly showed on Clan Row. It was noon before a lot of the Clans even had one visitor. The low attendance was attributed to the weather forecast, the price of gas and the economy in general or a combination of all three. We are hoping that this doesn’t hold true for our future Games.
Society members Carolyn and Eric Ness came by and visited for a while. Last year we had mentioned that Eric was thinking of making a stained glass mirror of the Clan Crest. Poor Eric took that as a mandate and felt obligated to do it. And do it he did! He hasn’t finished it yet, but the glass is cut and ready to be finished off. He very kindly brought it to the tent for us to see and it certainly is a work of art. A job well done, Eric, and thank you for bringing it.

Their son, Will Ness, also a member, came by a little later, excited about his purchases. He had bought a huge Glenfiddich mirror for his brother. Needless to say, Sam was very envious. The only other visitors we had were Jennifer Moore and Beth MacDonald. Our thanks to all for stopping by.

In May, we traveled to the Rhode Island Games. Since there is usually a Colquhoun tent there, we went to help in the Macfarlane tent. They were Honored Clan, and as we said, it is a one-man operation, and we wanted to give our support. Besides, it finally gave Sam a chance to wear his Macfarlane kilt to a Game and Vicki very graciously wore a Macfarlane sash, although when we mentioned this to a friend in Scotland, his reply was that Vicki looks better in Colquhoun Blue than Macfarlane Red. As it turned out, there was no Colquhoun tent there. Norman Bliss, who usually hosts the Colquhoun tent, had a prior commitment in the morning, but stopped by to chat with us for a while in the afternoon.

Our next Game is Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival in Northampton, MA. So far the weather looks promising.

Vicki and Sam Overstreet

New York/New England Representatives

Clan Colquhoun Society of the United Kingdom

US: www.colquhounclan.com

UK: www.clancolquhounsociety.co.uk

Jacksonville, FL Pictures

From Chuck & Anne Stoodley the weekend of February 23, 2008 (Chuck's birthday!)

At the reception. That's Mike & Elaine Davidson from NC on the right. Mike is president of Clan Davidson.



Chuck & Anne.

The Jacksonville Games have moved to a covered pavilion instead of out in the open with tents.







The Stoodleys set up a nice memorial to Sir Ivar.

With Vicki and Sam Overstreet.