*A few years back a group of local families were attending a “birthday beach barbeque” at a local beach.  In attendance was a family from Connecticut whose extremely talented 12-year old daughter was visiting Cape Breton to learn “Cape Breton fiddling”, hoping to add this skill to her already extensive violin repetoire. 

Also in attendance were five local athletes, four guys and a girl, all members of the Nova Scotia Cross Country Ski Team.  These skiers, all in their late teens, had just completed a two-hour trail run on an especially challenging and muddy trail that terminated at the beach.  Arriving late, they ran up to the bonfire just as the attendees started singing  “Happy Birthday”.  At the conclusion of the song, the youngster from Connecticut lifted her violin and played a particularly moving version of the tune.  Upon its conclusion, as the applause died, three of the four muddy runners borrowed her instrument and played variations on her theme, while the female athlete dug out her chanter from her mother’s backpack and accompanied the young men.

Then all the runners ran down the beach and dove into the waves to rinse off.