A landmark: I joined the band in a parade for the first time--not to carry a flag, as it turned out, but to "fill a gap" by droning along while pretending to play! We were short on pipers, including our distinguished Major himself; my instructor the Pipe Sgt. had to run this show. The event was an annual celebration of local history at a town a good distance down the road from here. My brother's wife happens to hail from the area. A quote from my journal:

I marched imperfectly on the outside, behind our current commander--whose later words implied he hadn’t actually led a band before!--& ahead of the bass drum, which ran into me once. Naturally I was somewhat nervous about being gawked at...We got rained on, which bothered me less...What perhaps bothered me most was my failure to get the breathing right.

My brother afterwards confirmed that his whole family had been there as witnesses, on "my" side of the street, in fact, though I never saw them.