On her birthday, Wilkes piped “Happy Birthday,” and the girl’s mother sent him a picture of her daughter’s beaming smile in response. Her mother wrote him a note about how the little girl loves his bagpipes. Like the 6-year-old girl with curly red hair who lives in the purple house a couple of blocks away. The piper even knows his neighbors farther afield now, too. “We got to meet all these really great people, and that will last.” “We live on the first floor,” explained her partner, Boston Nyer. “I didn’t even know we had a roof deck!” she said with a laugh. They wrap homemade cookies, cakes and bread in aluminum foil and toss it to each other “deck to deck,” Wilkes said.īethany Fisher moved into the building nine months ago and knew nobody before the nightly piping performances. They share a text chain and always ask if anybody needs anything when they head to the grocery store.

They’ve held socially distanced rooftop and backyard potlucks. Now that time has slowed and there are few places to be but home, they’ve become fast friends. In fact, Wilkes’ neighbors near 18th and Sanchez Streets are exponentially more neighborly than they were before March 17, the first night the Pied Piper of the Castro played for them, his music carrying from the valley in which his apartment building sits to the hills all around it.īefore the pandemic, his neighbors in this typically bustling city barely even said hello. Hal Wilkes plays his 111th and final bagpipe performance to delight his weary neighbors. They’ve reminded us that COVID-19 can snatch away so much, but it can’t rob of us music, art, love or community. He’s one of several artists and musicians who’ve donated their time and talent to entertain and console us. There’s plenty to be anxious and depressed about these days, and Wilkes acknowledged he’s been “horrified” by the spike in coronavirus cases around the country and many of our fellow Americans’ refusal to wear masks and avoid crowded bars, restaurants and gyms.īut kindhearted, generous San Franciscans like Wilkes have made our harrowing spring and summer a little easier to take. But no one said ‘Shut up!’ It’s been so nice.” You don’t want it to go on and on and on. “I’ve never played more consistently in my entire life,” Wilkes explained.

Usually, he plays in jeans and a sweater, but this was an important night. On Sunday, Wilkes donned a red plaid kilt, and due to his rooftop perch and the windy evening, the appropriate undergarments. And any good performer knows when it’s time to leave the stage - especially when you’re playing the bagpipes. But as our weird purgatory between staying almost entirely at home and re-entering semi-normal life drags on, Wilkes had to call it quits.

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