Wearing a kilt is not a "Journey", with "stages"

[Alan H]

OK, so I'm writing about my experience, eh? This is how I see it and I grok that others may view things a different way.

First of all, "kilts" are not that important. Fun? yes. Nice looking? Yes. A connection with family (for some), yes. Comfortable? Yes. But Important? No. Well, what's important, then? Oh, things like integrity, decency, kindness, challenging yourself, having air to breathe and water to drink and food to eat are important. Love, family, your relationship to a higher power (if you believe in one) - those are important.

Along with the degree of importance there can be a level of stress, when things go wrong. When a family member that you love is sick and dying, that's a reason to be stressed, anxious and upset.

Kilts are not a reason to be stressed, anxious and upset.

At this point a number of members of the forum will laugh their heads off, remembering some heated exchanges here on X Marks in the past. However, those exchanges got me a bit hot under the collar not because of the KILTS, but because of perceived attitudes. That's different. Also, I "write hotter than I actually am". Anyway, I digress.

Back to the "journey" thing. If I had a kilt "Journey", it lasted maybe three weeks, at most.

Day One...see Utilikilt at Sonora Celtic Faire, and think that I could wear such a thing. Find out how much they cost. Fall over in shock.
Day Two ... search online for other options. Discover X Marks the Scot, and register.
Day Four ... discover Stillwater Kilts
Day Six ... order Stillwater Standard in Black Watch, browse X Marks some more and look at pictures

It actually took them two days to get it to me, so I can't go back to Day Five, though that seems to be Jerry's usual shipping method. He's so fast it's like walking backwards in time!

Day Nine ... try on kilt with pouffy Ren Faire shirt. Watch Joan's extremely disapproving reaction. Come down harder than I ever have on Joan about how I make my own decisions and she can keep her opinion to herself. (the number of times I have done this is 30+ years of marriage may be counted on one hand, BTW.)

Day ten... order sporran and some black boots on ebay. Browse X Marks some more.
Day thirteen .... wear kilt, sporran and boots to Sailing Scoiety meeting. I didn't realize that I needed to take out the basting stitches. I got some looks and a couple of comments but no big deal. When I got home I realized that I probably should take out the basting stitches because after my initial outing, I knew I wasn't going to be sending the thing back to Stillwater.
Days fourteen and fifteen ... browse X Marks some more
Day twenty .... wear kilt, boots, sporran and belt to work for the first time. I was very paranoid. What would people say? Who was going to get in my face and abuse me? I walked around all day with a chip on my shoulder the size of Alaska. Answer....nobody gave me grief.
Day Twenty One .... wore kilt, boots, sporran and belt downtown for the first time. Got some nice comments, most people just ignored me. I went to a shopping center primarily ferquented by hispanic people and if ANYBODY isn't going to "get it", it's going to be young, macho hispanic guys. Again, I had a chip on my shoulder the size of Alaska. *Nothing* happened. CONCLUSION.

This kilt thing is not that big of a deal, after all. It took about three weeks to figure it out.

All the rest of the past six years has just been having fun with it.

Now, some folks may point to six years of kiltmaking, but I don't consider that a "Journey". That's just something that I do for fun. "Journey"? Wow, what a pretentious word for "sewing". Others may point to my competing at the Games as a "Kilted Journey" with "stages" Bunk. Like my friend Kelly Niklasen says..."We're throwing rocks and sticks, get over it!".

[Tobus]

Methinks you're not really appreciating the philosophical side of things.

Everything in life is a journey, of sorts, if you view it that way. It's part of the pleasure of life. Discovering, growing, learning, changing. Kilts are part of that to many people. Even you, though you refuse to recognise it as such. Why must you kick your inner philosopher in the crotch? Embrace him, man!

[Alan H]

As I drove to work I considered that I probably should add a small addendum to this post.

One...I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and work at Stanford University. That's about as "accepting" a place that anybody could ask for.

Two... I might have compressed things a bit. It might have been four or five weeks until I figured out that all this stuff was really no big deal.

Tobus, I DO have an inner philosopher! I'm a navel-gazer extradordinaire. That used to drive the plumbers and HVAC apprentices crazy, back when I was teaching them Health Science as part of their general education curricula at the College of San Mateo. For example, I did things like have them write out their own funeral service. WHY? they'd ask. Because, DUDES.... if you think about your death, maybe it will give you insight on how you want to live your LIFE.

I'm philosophical like that. Not so much about the cloth I wrap around my rumpus.

Anyway, I wrote this so that some of the lads here who are stressing about wearing a kilt, might see that for one fellow, it turned out to be Not A Big Deal pretty darned quickly. I figured that it might help ease the passage.

[Benning Boy]

Many will consider that LaoTsu (translate that as Old Dude)wrote, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." What he really said was something more like a journey of a thousand li (yiwan li) begins with a single step. That's a journey of only 333 statute miles, approximately, not nearly as arduous. You see, although sometimes things get lost in translation, other times things get harder in translation. It seems to me kilt wearing is like that. It's gotten harder in translation, so to say. Of course, if the intent of the journey is merely to cross a line, then a single step is all that's necessary to complete it.

[tundramanq]

When I started, I tiptoed around for a week or two with no ill effects. So, I decided to "get over it" by immersion - nothing but kilts for a month. Lost all shyness about kilting and "the hunted look". Started an addiction what has not seen me in p**ts in nearly four years and kept all that excess cash happily spent.

Most people are curious and I generally turn it into a sales job on the virtues of kilts.

Any guff only comes from "the sheep people" who are afraid to venture from the herd. They are a boring lot and the kilts shoo them away.
The kilts have caused me to meet a lot of interesting people that I would have missed otherwise.

[tpa]

First of all, "kilts" are not that important. Fun? yes. Nice looking? Yes. A connection with family (for some), yes. Comfortable? Yes. But Important? No. Well, what's important, then? Oh, things like integrity, decency, kindness, challenging yourself, having air to breathe and water to drink and food to eat are important. Love, family, your relationship to a higher power (if you believe in one) - those are important.

I think love your neighbour as yourself probably covers all of that. Not too literally of course, if the neighbour is female, the wife might complain. In truth, once the basics are covered, there is not a lot that is really important enough to get stressed about and kilts are certainly not one of them. Even my (adopted) daughter, who bounces off the ceiling with no provocation at all, doesn't rate my kilt wearing as anything out of the ordinary. Mind you she will dress up at every opportunity. I was fortunate enough to go to school with someone who had a dad who had been a Japanese prisoner of war. From him I understood the real meaning of importance.

[CDNSushi]

While kilts themselves may not be a journey, their wearing thereof, IS, for many people. Whether it's developing the chuzpah to wear one in public, or building an environment where family members accept you wearing it as a legitimate clothing option, a lot of the people on this forum use kilts as a means to achieve a greater level of self-discovery.

That said, if you, on the other hand, feel that you're the same guy now as when you first got interested in kilt-wearing, then absolutely -- that is your prerogative to say that there was no "journey" for you. But I guess it may depend on how you define and delimit that word. Maybe the way you envision a journey is far bigger than the sum of all the little things along the way... Or maybe, would it be fair to say, that the kilt is the catalyst -- not the result.

[BBNC]

Whether you consider kilt-wearing as a series of steps, or a philosophical exercise, no need to stress over it. As has been discussed on X Marks at length in the past, think of your kilt as a somewhat different pair of pants or shorts and go with it.

As David Farragut is reputed to have said during the Battle of Mobile, "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead". (US Navy tradition)

[OC Richard]

Day One...see Utilikilt
Day Two ... search online
Day Four ... discover Stillwater Kilts
Day Six ... order Stillwater kilt

My experience couldn't have been more different, because none of the things you mention existed in the 1970s.

Like many Americans the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' mega-hit Amazing Grace (1972) got me all fired up about learning the pipes, though my father already had a few piping albums and I was already interested. Living where we did, my only exposure to kilts was from old movies such as Tunes Of Glory shown on TV.

With no place to get anything, I went down to a local fabric shop, bought some plaid wool, and pinned up a kilt as best I could based on what photos I had (including an old National Geographic article on Highland Games) which my grandmother sewed. As best I can remember, the 'tartan' looked like this



My father and I drove for hours to see The Black Watch on tour in 1976 and in the program was an advertisement for The Scottish Shopper in Seattle. I got their catalog and from it ordered my first sporran, kilt buckles, hose, and some real tartan from which my grandmother made my second kilt. We still did not have any pattern to follow and had to guess at things from photos. At around this same time my father and I drove for hours to attend our first Highland Games (Santa Monica) and we discovered a little Scottish shop in Beverly Hills, JR Christie, which we would visit every once in a while (it was an all-day round trip). At this time I got my first set of pipes (from Scottish Shopper) and shortly afterwards we moved to the Los Angeles area where I discovered, and eventually joined, a pipe band. The kilt that band issued me was the first "real kilt" I had ever seen up close.

This all began a lifetime of fascination with the pipes, the Celtic languages, Highland Dress, tartans, the Highland regiments, and so forth. I bought and read every book on the subject I could find. (Remember no internet then, so books and direct in-person experience were the only way to learn.) I went to a huge Gun Show every year (in the late 70s) that always had several booths with vintage Highland Dress. It was there that I had the opportunity to get hands-on exposure to dozens of vintage military kilts, sporrans, jackets, and so forth, which gave invaluable insights that books alone couldn't provide.

My journey continued with decades of playing in pipe bands and attending Highland Games and visiting Scotland and working in a Highland Outfitter shop and doing Country Dancing and so forth. During this time my attitudes about Highland Dress were always evolving.

A massive eye-opener was acquiring the book The Highlanders Of Scotland, and starting collecting vintage kilt photos, and collecting vintage Highland Dress catalogues. I had always 'taken the long view' of Highland Dress but now I began to pay attention to the details.

A big contribution to my journey was coming across X Marks the Scot. Here I 'discovered' things which had always been in front of me but that I'd never paid attention to.

My journey is still ongoing; my knowledge is always increasing and my attitudes always evolving, 40 years on.

[BBNC]

I guess if you want to consider kilt-wearing a journey, mine began a few years ago when I was working on the genealogy of my family. My mother's grandfather was always considered to be Irish, because his father and mother came to the US from Northern Ireland. Further research indicated the name Morehead (or Moorehead) came from the Scottish Muirhead, and that neither Muirhead nor the Morehead derivative was a native Irish name.

Then I came across the Muirhead Clan Society, which while not a clan in the true sense, and created in modern times, did offer some research going back to a region of Lowland Scotland between Glasgow and Edinburgh (Lanarkshire). I've found no proof yet, but I suspect a distant ancestor was involved with the resettlement of Lowland Scots to Northern Ireland under James I of England.

Anyway, I was pleased to discover there was an actual formal kilt outfit which came to America with a family named Muirhead in the 1850's; the tartan, while previously unregistered, has been officially registered as a Muirhead regional or family tartan through application by the Muirhead Society. Imagine my surprise to find that same outfit residing only about an hour and half from me, at the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, NC.

Where my journey will end is anybody's guess.