CLSNA' LamontCentral Forum

Well, the Plaque has travelled, and is on its way to the next handler.  

George Young sent me the plaque to take to the Andrew Lamont Young Society meeting in Staunton, VA, and while I had it, it asked to go to the Crabtree Farms Fall Plant Sale because it heard I was going to play one of its favorite tune medleys:  Campbell's Farewell to Redcastle / The Boys of Belfast / Campbell's Farewell to Red Gap.  You can see the first and last in the medley are realted tunes, the first from Scotland, and the last from American Old-Time.  But the middle tune is a fife tune version of it played in Ulster.  We heard it played in Co. Antrim where our Lamont-Young ancestors settled in 1646.  Only took a couple of photos before the sale started, but there we are...

Then the plaque went to Staunton, VA, for the ALYS meeting.  I picked 6 photos of it from all we took there:

Cousins Linda Baker and Roy Young with me and the plaque at the Edelweiss Restaurant near Staunton, VA.

Cousins Brian Young and Mike Stenberg

Haggis being served to the Plaque.

(Back Row L-R) Ed Young, Richard Wright, Rick Davis

(Front Row L-R) Ukn., Pat Zaccaria, Linda Hickey, Linda Baker, Jean Wilkins

The Plaque at our table.

Cousins Roy Young and Richard Wright with the Plaque

So that's it for photos.

Activities on Friday included genealogy sessions and workshops, talks on the Great Wagon Road and other roads important to migration to the Shenandoah Valley (where the Youngs settled in 1740), pictures of the 2010 Scotland Trip and Clan Lamont History. 

On Friday night was the banquet.  The group was piped in to the banquet by Alice (the piper).  She also piped in the haggis.

On Saturday, there were various field trips to churches, graveyards, and downtown Staunton.  Some of us (you know trying to herd Lamonts is like trying to herd cats sometimes), didn't go to any of those, but chose to go to the Frontier Culture Museum, which was a very nice place - all outdoors.  the plaque chose to rest at the hotel, though.  Their exhibits included an African farm bult entirely here from photos or info from Africa, but the rest were buildings disassembled in the auld countires and reassembled at the museum.  Besides the Arfican farm, they had an English Farm house, an Irish Forge (from Co. Fermanagh), anIrish farm (from Co. Tyrone), a German farmhouse (from the Palatinate), and several American farm houses from the 1700s, and 1820 and 1850. 

They had folks dressed in period dress at each place who were very knowledgeable, even down to the guy who drove the golf cart for those who needed a lift.  They had a woman in the Irish house spinning flax, with flax at each step of the process from plant to spinning.  And they had music - a fellow in the Irish house played "Haste to the Wedding" on fiddle. 

In the German house, they had a shietholt (pronounced SHEIT-holt) - and no, it doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.  It's German for "fire wood", showing the probably attitude of musicians who played other instruments (violin, etc.) toward this instrument.  here's a link to a picture of a sheitholt (right) and mountain dulcimer (left):

mountaindulcimer.ning.com/photo/dulcimer-3-and-sheitholt-1

The whole trip was fun, and it was good seeing these cousins face-to-face again after two years.