The pipes are calling. . . in Clayton
Clayton firefighter/ paramedics Jason Hildebrandt and Brian Zinanni play their bagpipes outside the Clayton Firehouse last week.
(Karen Elshout/P-D) |
The sound seems better suited for an ancient graveyard instead of floating through the office towers and happy hours of Clayton.
Bagpipe music, with its squeal and drone, never fails to grab attention. But it really stands out when the piper is very tall, very bald and standing alone on Forsyth Boulevard squeezing a $3,000 bag of air.
Meet Brian Zinanni, 40, a Clayton firefighter and the driving force behind the St. Louis Firefighters Highland Guard.
"When I came to St. Louis five years ago to take this job, I asked about a firefighters' pipe band," said Zinanni, who is single and lives in Webster Groves. "Most big-city departments have one.
"I was shocked to find St. Louis didn't. So we set out on a mission."
Taking matters into his own hands and lungs, Zinanni enlisted several other firefighters, including Clayton colleague Jason Hildebrandt. They solicited support from area departments, met with professional bagpipers and began taking lessons "graciously offered free of charge" from those pros, Zinanni said.
"It takes a year of practicing on a chanter (the flutelike appendage fingered by pipers) before you even move up to full pipes," Zinanni explained.
Now, the guard plays at about 100 ceremonies and funerals a year.
To keep sharp, Zinanni and Hildebrandt play while they work — usually about
6 p.m., after dinner at the firehouse.
And as one would guess, they take truckloads of abuse from their colleagues.
"Who's killing the cats out here?" firefighter Travis Ivy asked as he walked outside. "Oh, it's just you guys."
Firefighter Aaron Rhodes said times were tough when the two were learning to play.
"Those were some painful evenings," Rhodes said. "Actually, we think the honor guard is great. But we have to give them hell. That's just how it is in a firehouse."
Every so often, the two work the same shift and double the listening pleasure.
Zinanni said, "It's fun to be in front of the house and watch people out on the sidewalks looking around, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from."
Recent case in point: Karen Summers of Maryville and Mona Sowers of St. Louis were eating at a restaurant around the corner from the firehouse.
"At one point, I said to Mona, 'I think I hear bagpipes.' Then I heard them again a little later," Summers said.
Added Sowers with a laugh, "Then we started talking about whether they wear anything under their kilts, and the conversation went downhill from there."
As they walked to their cars, they spotted Zinanni and Hildebrandt belting out "Scotland the Brave," and they stopped to watch. They applauded and waved at the pipers.
"That was neat," Sowers said.
Alas, not everyone has embraced the musical interludes.
"There's one attorney in the Pierre Laclede building (next door to the firehouse) who's called the cops on us twice," Zinanni said.
Hildebrandt, 30, of St. Clair, said he likes playing the pipes because they are unusual.
"A lot of people play the drums, or guitar or the piano," he said. "But how many bagpipers do you know?"
Hildebrandt's comment drew a laugh from Zinanni, which is not unusual, for Zinanni's face usually carries a friendly grin. But that changed in a blink when asked to name his favorite piping moment.
"We were at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Maryland, and we had played 'Amazing Grace' at the monument. So afterward, I'm standing off to the side and this little boy maybe 5, 6 years old, comes up and asks me if I had been playing.
"I said yes, and then he said — and I'll never, ever forget this — 'Thanks for giving me some music to remember my dad by.'
"Bottom line, that's why we do this."
From above: hear pipes and history.
jholleman@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8254 
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