Fair Haven family marches to own drums
Daughter Jenny, then 6, was first to join after seeing drummers at Scottish festival
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

Photographs courtesy of the Brett family Above, the Brett family stands at attention in their full uniform: (l-r) Jenny, Ed and Leslie. Right, Leslie does a Celtic dance for spectators.

‘It’s all Jenny’s fault.”Mikki and Ed Brett, of Fair Haven, said simultaneously when asked how they got involved with the Pipes and Drums of the Atlantic Watch bagpipe band.

When Mikki and Ed’s 6-year-old daughter saw a tenor drummer at a Scottish festival, they never thought it would become a family interest for the next 10 years.

“I saw them twirling their sticks, and I said, ‘Daddy, I can do that,’ ” said Jenny Brett, now 15 and an accomplished drummer.

Jenny began drumming for The Pipes and Drums of the Atlantic Watch when she was 6.

“We approached several bands that day,” said Mikki Brett, Jenny’s mother. “They were the only ones who didn’t tell her to come back when she’s older.”

Then, one-by-one, each of Jenny’s family members became involved. Ed, her father, is drum major, Mikki plays bass drum, and her sister, Leslie, 17, dances and also plays tenor drum.

“I had no intention of doing this,” said Ed, who had played snare drum since grade school.

“The rule has always been, it’s time to stop when it’s not fun anymore.” — Mikki Brett

“I was just going to be a band mommy,” Mikki said. “Before I knew it, I was in the color guard.”

Mikki said that six weeks before the band traveled to Hawaii in 2003, her husband came to her and told her she would have to play bass drum in the performances on the trip.

“Who me? I play the flute,” Mikki said.

Mikki said that in addition to playing with the band, she is still “band mommy” and also takes on the responsibility of watching out for the young pipers, drummers and dancers.

She said that because of these added responsibilities, she has never actually been able to learn to play the bagpipes, which is something she has always wanted to do.

“I’ve never gotten to sit down and take a lesson,” Mikki said.

Not that she would have much time anyway, since it takes the family two days to get ready for a trip with the Atlantic Watch’s competition band.

“The main drive in wanting to be in this band is family,” Ed said. “We don’t have to worry about our kids.”

Ed said the band has a strict “no drinking while in uniform” policy, which he feels adds to the security he and Mikki feel when they are not playing at the same place as their daughters.

Ed said the whole drumline is made up of people young enough to be his kids, and he treats them as such.

“People ask why the band has such a military feel,” Ed said. “When you have this many people, this many young people, you need that hierarchy to maintain control.”

Ed said he and his family started when the band had about 25 members, and now it has grown to close to 90 people.

In that time, the band has become a central part of the Bretts’ life, keeping the family together much of the time.

“Sometimes it’s great,” Ed said.

“Sometimes it’s a disaster,” Mikki said.

“Leslie and I agree to disagree,” said Jenny. “We actually confide in each other now.”

“The band thing kind of exacerbates the sibling issue,” Mikki said.

“And car rides can be tough,” Ed said.

“I think [the band] has had a great effect on me and what I do with my time,” Leslie said. “Because I spend so much time with [my family], I feel that I am much closer to my parents than most kids my age.”

In addition to keeping the family in such close quarters, the band also gives them time apart from each other.

Ed and Mikki used one of the band’s many trips as a way to spend time away from their daughters, for the first time.

“When the band went to Hawaii in 2004,” Mikki said, “Ed and I went by ourselves. It was a thrill and a half.”

The band will be making its traditional trip to Scotland in August, which it does every five years. The whole family will go together to Edinburgh, as they did in 2000.

On that trip, Ed came face to face with Prince Charles of England, who had come to witness the annual festival, including the parade in which the Atlantic Watch marches.

“He shook my hand,” Ed said, “which meant he owed me a royal favor.”

Ed used his royal favor to have Charles wish the Queen Mother, the prince’s grandmother, a happy birthday.

“You could have knocked him over with a feather,” Ed said.

Ed has also been to Bermuda twice with the band, although he went by himself both times.

The family has visited Scotland, Canada and several states, including Hawaii and Louisiana.

In 2006, the band has been invited to play at the anniversary of Normandy in France, a trip the Bretts are looking forward to.

Ed said he is grateful to the band for allowing him to meet some “beautiful people.”

“We have friends from here to Hawaii and back again because of the band,” he said.

The girls are also trying to find a way to use their participation in the band to help get them into college.

Leslie, who will be graduating from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School this summer, is planning on attending Elmira College in New York, which, although it doesn’t have a highland dancing program, will allow her to do cheerleading, another hobby of hers.

She is planning on studying secondary math education.

Jenny, who still has two years of high school left, is already looking at spinning her drumming into a scholarship.

“St. Andrews Presbyterian College in South Carolina has pipe and drums scholarships,” she said.

Jenny said she is also looking at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania.

Scholarships will be a good idea for both girls, considering how much money their parents spend on their involvement in the band.

“I drove around 8,000 miles last year for the band,” Ed said. “And last year it cost me $9,000 just for myself for the band.”

The cost in money and mileage is a lot, but Leslie has lost more than that.

She has sustained so many injuries from her dancing, that she has missed a total of a year and a half of competitions.

Leslie said the injuries are her least favorite part of the dancing she does.

She has sustained a broken foot, on which she continued to dance to finish the performance, a broken elbow, again an injury she danced with and multiple other bruises and contusions.

And through it all, she still wants to dance.

“The rule has always been,” said Mikki, “it’s time to stop when it’s not fun anymore.”

They haven’t stopped yet.