Top-1, some kid after seeing me playing a low-D in the park:
“Mom, why is that man singing?”
I still don’t know the answer.
Yep, marriage can be a compromise! Don’t blame your wife, straycat! My wife likes whistle, but let’s face it, the high D and even C can be kinda rough in the high range (including on a disc). I have sensitive hearing like your wife so I generally play with earplugs in. I hardly ever play in the same room with my wife or anybody else because of this. When I play outside with my wife, she sits apart, not right beside me. She especially likes the music from far off! And before the jokes start flying, it’s because of the etheral sound of the whistle when its wafting through the trees. Though I don’t deny that many would like to hear me whistle from FAR off!! 
Nah, I don’t blame my wife. Trust me, she more than makes up for her lack of interest in Irish music with her wonderful personality, appreciation and talent for visual arts and many, many other things.
I’ll admit I’ve daydreamed about how it would be if she were as passionate about music as I am but I can hardly hold that against her 
Yeah, my daughter plays silver flute beautifully, but my daydreams of whistle-flute sessions evaporated when she said she would never play in front of another person. I said, “But you played in school band!” And she said, “Yeah, but there’s lots of people playing.” Besides, she has no love for IT music. Poof! There go the dreams!! 
Top-1, some kid after seeing me playing a low-D in the park:
“Mom, why is that man singing?”
When I play Low D, people often say the reverse: “Why isn’t that man singing/doing anything besides playing that tube/getting a job”
Well…
If we’re speaking of the “comments” of our spouses/partners/better-halves/families…
My wife’s “comments,” at this late date, are SILENT. Yes, fellow whistlers, I KNOW when, where, and how to whistle, vis a vis her whereabouts. This ain’t rocket science…
Distance makes the heart grow fonder? sigh…
Whistle on, Garth…
“Hey, can you play anything from Zelda?”
And the ever-popular, when I’m playing my low D - “Where’s the snake?” IT LOOKS AND SOUNDS NOTHING LIKE WHAT SNAKE CHARMERS PLAY!
And of course, much like any other whistle player has heard time and time again “You play that recorder really good.”
I make a point of not playing in front of people. But occasionaly I do.
1 strange looks
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Your playing sounds good.
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Can you play something else? (When it occured to me that I was playing THe Blackthorn Stick way too much and I should probably find some other jigs I liked…)
Comments 2 and 3 come from friends and family.
You’ll have to get 'em to die at times that suit your work-schedule and suchlike
We have one gentleman who wants “When the Saints go Marching In” - I’m hoping that his wife outlives and over-rules him!
Funny!
Reminds me of the walking tour I took in Co. Kerry last year. Some of the tour-mates twisted my arm to play a couple tunes on the minibus to a trail head. The Irish minibus driver said, “Not bad, you should go busking in Killarney.” I might have gained a coin or two from tourists because I would have been the only fool on the street playing one.
Then I spent a day at the “World Bodhrán Championship” in Milltown, Co. Kerry. A whole entire day - and not a bodhrán to be seen.
Now, that’s just nasty!!
Ah. Yesterday I’ve also got my first “well, why don’t you take a real instrument - a recorder, for example?” :))
Still, that girl took her words back when I started playing
I’m fortunate to have a wife who is a primary school teacher that teaches the whistle to her class. She’s so used to 30 kids mangling Fainne Geal an Lae for 9 months a year that she does not mind my tootling at all
Living in Mozambique has some advantages, because I am white and American, nobody expects me to do anything the normal way, and thankfully the recorder is yet unknown.
so my project partner asks, "“Tony why do you always have that flute in your pocket and never play infront of anyone.” (translation from Portuguese)
the Village children just track me down ( steam bed, mountain, under a Baobab ) and sit around and stare
My Boss in Beira (a large city) I like it tony but do not play it before 7 AM"
Here in Singapore, the people who see me with whistles are those in my church. They used to go:
- what’s that? OR what’s that flute thingy?
- were you playing a flute today?
- [those who see my many whistles of varying lengths and makes] you mean they are all whistles? OR you mean they are all the same instrument?
- can my kid have a look at that? OR can you play a little something for my little kid, who is fascinated by [your flute thingy]?
Very few actually mistook them for, or called them, recorders. I think because they really don’t sound the same.
I don’t often field questions 1 and 2 nowadays, since the congregation have got used to seeing me play those thingies.
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“Dad, STOP PLAYING!!!” (80% of the time)
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“Hey, that was really nice! What’s that thingy?” (18% of the time - passers-by)
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“How lovely! I used to play that at school (they meant a recorder) but not that fast”. (2%)
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happened once: “Can you play me some Latin-American music?”
I think we may have forgot one :
"But why do you need all of those different ones ? Don’t they all do the same thing ? "
TC
"But why do you need all of those different ones ? Don’t they all do the same thing ? "
Yes, today I was asked exactly that about my three D’s - Clarke, Gen and Waltons. The answer is - “this one is in tune, but I don’t like the sound, this one sounds well, but not in tune, and the last one is not in tune, has bad sound, but is easy to play.” That guy still thinks I was kidding
I played one of my Gen D’s in a christmas program last year and someone asked me later “was that some kind of horn you were playing?” I also like the response that I often get from my overton low D, “you could kill someone with that!”
The kids ran thinking it was the ice cream van.
Looks like a toy, but sounds good.
Ironic…you play that tiny thing, but you have to carry your wife’s harp.
It makes me think of fairies dancing.
and
Do you mind if I interview you for the local newspaper?