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/
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