Until last Tuesday, bagpipes were high on my jokes list. 

Yes, until last Tuesday.

That's when three fourteen-year-old girls visited the Three Hills weekly farmers market in the curling rink. Bagpipes tuned and ready. Music in the air, heads turning, and nods of recognition. Never mind the smattering of applause, the girls were profile building for their shared passion: Highland music and the bagpipes—never more to be on my jokes list.

Sisters Isabella and Elliana Debruyn, from Kneehill County, and Emma Lyons, Calgary, characterized their visit to the farmers market as "fun", but reality paints a warmer picture. "We are fundraising for our pipe band's two-week spring trip to Scotland," explained Emma. That's why they had a table full of home-crocheted dolls.

Their nearly fifty-year-old Calgary-based group, the 78^th Fraser Highlanders, conducts an array of youth (10 to 17) training opportunities, many dating to the 1757 era, ranging from participating in historical interpretation through period uniforms, Highland piping, drumming, Highland dancing, marching drill, and community service. The program teaches Canadian Scottish history, leadership, teamwork, and the safe handling of traditional black-powder muskets in a disciplined military heritage framework.

The farmers market was in the morning, but in the heat of that early-August Tuesday, the girls were at it again, this time at the Golden Hills Lodge, filling the lawn with music from their $2,000 instruments to a lawn-full of seniors relaxing with ice cream.

While that day in Three Hills was busy, a serious side lives back in the Fort Calgary Garrison—period uniforms and muskets, marching drills, military-style discipline, following orders, and that hard-to-pin-down sense of belonging that only those in service learn and appreciate.

And that is no joking matter.