Originally Posted by
Alaskan Celt
.............................. forums do not create the interest; interest creates the forums.
I visit the forum(s) for options and ideas, the interest is in my blood.
That may be true - for some, but not all. I know full well that I would certainly not be where I am today had it not been for Tom and his most excellent "Tom's Café".
I did not find the Café; I had no idea such forums existed - I was introduced to it by a friend. It was Tom and the Café 'patrons' of six years ago who gave me every encouragement to come out of my shell and to face the world face on. It was they who introduced me to the early forms of contemporary kilt, who showed me that there was more to kilted life than the formal and semi-formal Scottish 'uniforms' I had been wearing exclusively for Scottish Country and Highland Dancing appearances for so many years. It was because of Tom that I was able to re-invent myself after I retired. Yes, I have much to thank him for and, in my case, it WAS the forum that created the interest.
Most of those whom I am now able to call close friends, I first encountered through 'visits' to Tom's Café. Tom, himself, became a particularly special friend at the time of my first visit to Washington DC last June - a year ago next week! It was he who organised a splendid restaurant evening there so that I could get to meet so many wonderful people whom I'd previously known only by name. It was he who, despite his illness, took the best part of a week away from his home and family to guide Dave W. and me around the sights of the Capital, some days in extreme heat. He was a cheerful, amusing and caring host, and he IS a wonderful man, a gentleman, to whom I shall always be indebted.
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