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| For Charles "Chic" Thomson and his daughter, Lynn Hunt, both originally of Scotland, the Celtic Highland Games is an opportunity to share their heritage with others and connect with a past, present and future that is decidedly bright and undeniably Celtic. Many thanks for their contributions to MidWestIrish.com. — the editor |
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Tim Miles • Our Heritage, Our Stories Charles "Chic" Thomson with Lynn Hunt • From Michigan to Missouri to Downpatrick Mike "Ezra" Micham with Nancee Walker-Micham |
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Our Heritage, Our Stories is one of a series of stories devoted to supporting the Celtic-Highland Games of the Quad Cities. To link to the home page, click here.
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• MidwestIrish.com is a part of Lucky13Studios Design Family. For more information, see JoshuaHeston.com•
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Charles "Chic" Thomson with Lynn Hunt
LYNN: Well, I think that dad had an integral part in bringing the passion of the Celtic ancestry to the Quad Cities and we grew up around that, so my passion grew in sharing the culture — how fun the Celtic people are, number one, you know? They have a really good time. There's a lot of tradition — a lot of history, a lot of family ties. You want to know everything about everyone around you who has that Celtic background. So with that, I'll let Dad tell more about his story —
CHARLES: I left Scotland in 1967. My daughter was two years old and my son was nine. We came here and I got involved in the Scottish-American Society. And it was later on the Celtic Highland Games came in so we are actually part of that. I had seen a lot of the stuff in my years in Scotland.
Anyway, when I came here I joined in with the Celtic Highland Games and it has been a lot of fun. It's great to see the Highland "coos" as they call them over there — that's the long, shaggy brown animals — cattle. And of course, the Clydesdale horses. The Clydesdale horses came from the River Clyde area — from the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. The ones with the hairy hoofs, you know?
And I love to see these things out at the Highland Games, with the kids on their back.
LYNN: There's the Scottish-American Society here that you're an officer in here in the Quad Cities and I think that's spread the love of the Celtic way of life into a lot of people that attend the Highland Games.
CHARLES: Certainly. And naturally, I got my full kilt outfit and that. And I've just got that about wore out with my Scottish things that are going on!
I go to some of the libraries in the city and talk to the kids and the first thing they ask me about is the Loch Ness monster. But I sing some Scottish songs and some lullabies for the kids and they really enjoy it. In fact, they send me letters after I go do these visits, and I get maybe 40 different paintings of what they think the Loch Ness monster looks like. I tell them some weird tales and that. But I do tell them it's up to themselves what to believe or not — that it's a legend.
But we have a lot of fun with that kind of stuff.
[At the Highland Games ] It's nice to see the folks from the Isle of Man, Brittany, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales — they just come from all over. And some of the events that go on — there's a group called the Andorras and they do some fantastic sword work from the Medieval days.
We have an education tent, too, where the people — and the kids — can learn a lot about the Scots, Irish, the Isle of Man, all the places. There's some good backgrounds of what's going on.
And of course, the Games themselves, the heavy games? Throwing the caber? Well, this caber originated in Scotland. It's essentially a big telephone pole, you know? And this is a terrible heavy thing to throw. It's not as far as you can throw it — when you do throw it, it's supposed to go up and land on its end and then go all the way over, 180 degrees. And that is the best shot of the day.
And that's a tough throw.
There's also the sheaf throw. With the fork, you know? Throwing it over the bar, which they keep raising all the time. It's really fun, you know? And the stone throw, the hammer throw, we also have a tug-of-war, rugby — we just have a fantastic time.
LYNN: And the event was voted number one in the Quad Cities and we are a festival-heavy community. We really are. We have something every weekend and it was voted number one by the River City Reader by the public — in saying it was the best festival in the Quad Cities in 2005. So we hope 2006 will be as good.
CHARLES: And I'm sure it will be. It gets bigger every year. Bill Gillies — he's the one who more or less originated the Games. He took the clipboard and ran with it. He got it going. And Lisa Lockheart, and the whole group. We just got together and absolutely worked our butts off to get it going!
LYNN: It's a good time and we really would like to expand the clan area. You know, so that more people can connect with their history and heritage. And some ideas are out there, like "click-the-clan," getting it out to the websites and the schools. So the kids actually fill out a survey, figure out where they are from, and then decide which clan they are with. And start some sort of contest or promotion to get the youth involved in where they came from too.
July 25, 2006 interview
August 23, 2006 posting