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Fergus bagpiper closes out nightly shows for frontline workers (7 photos)

'It's a little sad that this is over but it's not because we're moving forward,' says Peter Hummel

FERGUS – Long after the noise from people banging pots and pans for frontline workers died down, car rallies at hospitals stopped and people began to live with COVID rather than respond to it, Peter Hummel kept playing the bagpipes. 

The Fergus resident has become almost a household name in the area for his spin on frontline worker support by playing nearly every night at 7:30 p.m. on his porch and livestreaming it for the past two years.

Hummel has decided to move on from his nightly bagpipe performances, but not before one more performance Saturday evening. 

“I just wanted to bring something positive to my neighbourhood and my community that is kind of in the spirit of Fergus,” Hummel said in an interview before the performance.

“This is what I came up with and my family, neighbourhood and most of my friends supported me in it.”

He said he decided to stop at two years because most pandemic mandates have been lifted and he feels ending the performances sends a good sign to the community. 

“With discussions with my wife, we came to the decision that, you know what I think it’s time,” Hummel said. 

He also said he felt he has done what he set out to do in spreading support for frontline workers who continued working through the pandemic. Although he remains humble, he recalled many moments of being stopped in the streets and being thanked by frontline workers or their family members.

“People would tell me a story about having a family member that’s working in a hospital in another province and they’re going through this and they passed a video on when I played this particular tune in it and it really helped them out,” Hummel said. 

“I’m like ‘wow.’ I don’t know how you properly respond to something like that except your jaw drops.”

After weather delayed his last performance by a week, Hummel went live on his street in north Fergus one more time on Saturday evening. He brought special guests John Bridges, a drummer from the Guelph Pipe Band, and bagpiper Mathias Ho from Mississauga.

Around 20 neighbours and family members came out to watch Hummel play some tunes, including 90-year-old Rosemary Boles who said she used to play bagpipes. Boles watches Hummel play most nights and said she met many neighbours who she hadn’t known previously. 

Debbie Smeltzer also said she didn’t really know anybody else on the street until she started going out and watching Hummel play when there wasn’t much else to do during the early pandemic days. 

“We’ve become a family, a community, it’s pretty special,” Smeltzer said. 

Smeltzer also coined what has become a catchphrase of sorts for regular Hummel watchers, “one more” referring to asking Hummel to play an encore. She and a few neighbours put it on a shirt featuring a graphic of Hummel which they wore at the last performance. 

“It’s sad but kudos to him, he’s played for two years,” Smeltzer said. However, she said she’s hopeful he still may come out on the occasional night to play for old times sake in the future.

When the sun went down and the streetlights went on, Hummel played one more song and closed his show with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. 

Before he played that, Hummel got emotional as he addressed the crowd.

“I can’t thank you enough, it’s been two years, it’s a little sad that this is over but it’s not because we’re moving forward,” Hummel said, encouraging people to continue to mingle and socialize safely. 

“We’ve had two years of not socializing properly, let’s teach the next generation to socialize better, that’s our job. For the last time, on behalf of myself, my family, my neighbourhood, please support your frontline workers, healthcare workers, support workers and those education workers.”