Is it still wedged between Dennis Murphy’s and John Ryan’s. 
I wuz thinking we might shoehorn it in next to the 42£ Cheque and make a four-hand set.
Bob
A friend of mine makes “Jethro Tull” comments whenever he sees me with a flute. I don’t even entirely know who Jethro Tull is.
You live in Western PA. I grew up in Southwestern PA. Perhaps if you told them you were playing the Slovak or Polish Flute, you’d get a whole different response. Those ethnic stereotypes still live long and hard in that part of the world. With my own family, I call them the “pennywhistle” and the “simple flute”. It’s not like my older relatives would shoot me or anything but they would have a completely different response.
it wouldn’t hurt to learn a bit of history
Bloody right, Denny. Funny thing is, I never would have known who Jethro Tull was if it wasn’t for Ian Anderson. 
b-b-b-but…who would?
Oo-ooh I don’t know … a farmer, maybe?
NO!!
I’m not sure how many of us know that part.
Probably a bit more of 'em here than in the general public.
When I started w/Boehm it was usually Jethro Tull, with a few Ian Andersons
oh, there was one Herbie Mann so much for the USS Constellation in in '72…
I figured that if it hadn’t been for Ian they wouldn’t a’let me live.
that and I was taller’n most of 'em
Well you’re right and I have first hand experience with that. My wife’s side of the family is 100% Slovak and her grandparents were from the old country. There are a lot of Irish here in Pittsburgh too but oddly enough only one session that I’m aware of.
Kirk
Ummm, maybe it’s different where y’all live, but … here in Kentucky it’s not the Irish part so much, it’s the flute: – i.e., guys who play any kind of flute are a little bit suspect.
I think I recall John Skelton wondering if putting one’s flutes in one’s truck gun rack would help, but … nah. Probably not.
Well, I kinda knew who Jethro Tull was before I started playing flute and later was rather puzzled when people who saw me playing, especially busking, would mention “him” - I’ve never followed pop music and had to have it explained to me about the pop band of that name and I.A. - then listened to some and hated it… ugh. Almost as bad as having people come up to you and say (especially in his highest profile hey-day in the 1980s) “like James Galway” and asking you to play fecking Annie’s Song.
It’s funny how things swing around, though - back then classical fluters were very derisive about Ian Anderson. Now he’s seemingly quite respected in at least some classical circles…
For the most part, our friends fall into two broad categories (with a lot of them falling into both): technical folks and musical folks.
A surprising number of technical people are also into music. Also–at least, in my experience, technical people are very likely to have very specific hobbies that the “wide world” tends to look at as being “odd,” and tend to be rather enthusiastic about them: retrocomputing, for instance, or collecting programmable calculators, or 18th-century cooking, or even keeping venomous insects as pets–these are only a few (real) examples of the hobbies of friends and coworkers that might make other folks shake their heads in puzzlement.
To these folks, playing Irish traditional music on nineteenth-century flutes sounds like a perfectly normal hobby.
Most of my musical friends are either into playing trad music themselves, or are early music enthusiasts. I don’t find that playing Irish flute is considered particularly odd by either.
Your mileage may vary–a lot of how your friends react is going to be based (of course) on who and what your friends are.
–James
I thought that was mostly due to him learning ta play the sucker over the years.
That’s a valid point you have there Cathy. I’m not sure which would matter more, being “suspect” or being “irish” among non-irish traditional folks. When meeting a person in that part of the world, a conversation starter is to ask where you’re family is from. Folks want to know where they’re from in the “Old County”. I’ve known people who moved there who didn’t know their ethnic background and they became “suspect”. We told them to just make up one.
My grandparents immigrated and they were Slovak. I married a woman of Irish descent (Oy vey!) but…her family had always been members of the Slovak Benevolence Organization (the Jednota Club) so I received not only a free pass but a pat on the back for pulling off that. New blood that was still an insider. My Mom is always buying us curtains, tablecloths, and bedspreads. My brother warned me once that Mom was on a roll again. He asked if he could give Mom any suggestions. I said yes, nothing with cabbage roses (her favorite) maybe something in a plaid. He wrote back. She said “No, too Irish.”
Opposite situation here. My wife’s family is 100% Slovak and I’m Scots, Irish and German. I just use whatever works best at the time. 
Cheers,
Kirk
Jethro Tull…Beverly Hillbillies right?
Mick
there ya go!
and Grannie’s grits 
Grannie’s “Rumatiz” medicine is what always helps my playing. 
how DO you tell? 