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My name is Ron Baker. I was born to
non-Scottish parents on October 30th, 1951 in McMinnville, Oregon.
My interest in the pipes started very early in life. When I was just
five years old, my parents took me to hear a pipeband
playing at Washington Park in Portland,
Oregon. I can't remember
the name of the band, but I still clearly remember the thrill I got listening
to that sound. I told my father that I wanted to play that
instrument. He instructed my older brother to take me down to meet the
band after the performance to find out what I would need to do to learn to
play. I was so overwhelmed with the uniform, the instrument and the
friendliness of the piper I talked to, I could not remember what he had told
me when I returned to my father.
That experience stayed with me all through
my young life, but it wasn't until I was 28 years old on a trip to Scotland that
I bought my first chanter. It had a cane reed and was very hard to
blow, and I broke the reed soon after returning home. My chanter stayed
in its box for a couple of years. Then I found the Scottish Shopper in Seattle. I got a
tape, a plastic reed, and started practicing. Within a year, I had
bought my pipes and was able to make some music. One day I was playing
in my back yard when a gentleman by the name of Bill Edmiston
heard me and stopped to chat. He invited me to come to a band practice
for what was then called the Oregon National Guard Pipeband.
I was on my way at last.
I've been with the band, now called the
Oregon State Defense Force Pipeband, ever
since. I believe I've piped with them for twenty-two years now.
It has been a wonderful experience and I've had the opportunity to travel
around the country as well as internationally.
I am a teacher by trade and started my
career in Australia
where I taught for two years. I moved back to the USA and
taught for two years in McMinnville. Then, I got a job in Salem at Bush
School where I've been
for twenty four years now. I teach first and second graders and love my
work.
Because I have teaching in my blood, I also
teach bagpipe lessons. My biggest thrill is to work with young people
and watch them grow into competent pipers. My hope is to provide them
at an early age with what I had to wait a quarter of a century for.
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