HI! I’m Julie Ostrow Schreiber. My husband is Joe Schreiber, who is a bagpiper and the band’s Quartermaster.
What is a Quartermaster? Good question: The Quartermaster is responsible for band equipment and supplies, issuing and collecting uniforms, and ensuring that uniforms are worn properly. (It is important to look spiffy when in the competition circle and when marching in local parades.)
Call it being helpful. Call it being supportive of your husband’s endeavor. In our house, I’m known as the “roadie.”
It all started at my first Chicago Highlanders weekend excursion—Alma Highland Games; Alma, MI; Memorial Day Weekend 2010.
We get off the bus at the games. I begin to grab Joe’s bagpipe case and a chair. “I’m being helpful,” I thought. And, “No big deal.” And, “Hey… this is going to be a fun weekend.”
Then, the Drum Sargent at the time calls out, “Must be nice! What are you?… His roadie?”
The name stuck for a bit. Although my duties of bagpipe roadie have lessened over the years — by choice. I didn’t get fired — I still enjoy the life of the wife of a bagpiper.
Once a bagpipe roadie, always a bagpipe roadie.
Julie Ostrow Schreiber