When the Heat’s On

July 17, 2011 on 6:39 pm by Michael Grey | In Humour, Pipe Bands, Random Thoughts | Comments Off on When the Heat’s On

For anyone who has to regularly play their bagpipes in a place that’s hot, well, you may already know this secret.

I’m a guy that for much of the piping high season has to honk in the heat – and relative to Borreraig, I’m talking real heat: plus 30 Celsius and beyond. Add in the melting humidity of summer in southern Ontario and that heat only intensifies. In Canada, we call it the humidex.

Anyway, the piping and pipe band world is full of secrets; most all of them little unsaid, unspoken bits and bobs that sort of make the whole twisty piping world turn round. Of course they’re unsaid, I know – they’re secrets – but many of these secrets come to be known by those of us who hang around the game long enough. Here’s one I learned very recently only after the holder of the secret was in what I suspect was a weak, heat-addled, beer-infused moment.

I’m going to share this secret with you today.

Maybe I’ve been out-to-lunch and oblivious to the ordnariness of what I’m about to tell you, a well-kent obviousity – more common knowledge than secret. Whatever. Here’s what I’ve recently learned:

On hot sweaty days in the summer – or anytime, I guess – many (many) people evidently wear a garment commonly called “spanx” under their kilt. This spandex delight apparently prevents chafing and painful TCHR (thigh-centric heat rash).

Anyway, I thought this pretty funny; funny in that lower-case ‘f’ way. But funny. Maybe because its not a kilty-piping issue I wrestle with.

Whatever. If chafing is getting in the way of your marching and phrasing and, um, pipe major-ing, on you go and get yourself outfitted with a funky pair of spanx.

Stay cool.

M.