…full set collecting dust. How do I know? Because nigh on ten years ago when I was busking in the Queen St mall with my half set of concert pitch Jefferies pipes, an elderly gent, very elderly, was sitting watching me. A short time later he approached and asked me if I was playing the Irish pipes. I said, “I am”, to which he continued, “They look very small”.
“Oh”, I queried.
“Yes…I have a set I brought over from Ireland, made by Leo Rowsome. I don’t play them any more, but they looked much bigger than these”, he said, referring to my pipes.
“Oh???” I responded, eager to know more.
I can’t remeber much more of the conversation, all I know is I was itching for him to invite me to see his set of Leo Rowsome pipes. I was at that point strapped in and also trying to politely avoid becoming too involved with a gaggle of elderly ladies wanting to know what I was playing and why I was not wearing a kilt.
In desperation I tried to maintain his interest in telling me more, but alas, it was all in vain. Into my pipes case was placed a fiver by a passing chap sporting pink mohawk and Doc Martin boots. I politely extended my gratitude but at the same time lost eye contact with the elderly, nay, very elderly, gent with the Leo Rowsome pipes. When my eyes returned to what was his position before me, he had retreated to be swallowed by the passing Saturday morning crowd.
My only thought now is that this elderly, eldery gent has passed on from this world leaving his Leo Rowsome set in its case, under his bed or in his wardrobe collecting dust. Perhaps they were discovered by a grandchild or worse, an estate agent, not recognised for what they were and discarded or sold for pittance.
Oh..woh…woe is me…(to be sung to the tune of Niel Young’s version of ‘Lonesome Me’.).
Slán,
DavidG
