Bagpipes and Hospitality
A portrait of local resident and bagpiper John Recknagel
The sound of the Great Highland bagpipe elicits images of rolling, green hills; its low, steady moan hums like a cascade of wind across a Scottish pond. This is the tune of tradition, of culture. A man who knows this melody by heart is John Recknagel, Pipe Major for the Atlanta Pipe Band and long-time resident of Tucker. "The pipes have [always] been instrumental in my life … I met my wife through them," he says. "She was a Scottish dancer and we met at various competitions around the eastern [United States], as she is a Delta employee." Now, they both teach and adjudicate: she with Scottish dancing, he with the Highland Bagpipes. Their relationship is so well intertwined that often they will be asked to "do a gig together as a husband-…
