Polish Festival

[Kid Cossack]

In honor of Poland's Constitution Day (3 May) the local Catholic Church (Polish congregation) held a Polish Festival. The weather was threatening earlier, but it cleared up so I rounded up mah clan and we headed over. (Wife and two bairns, small clan but ferocious!)

The golubki weren't that great, but the pierogi were, and the kielbasa on a stick, and the draught pilsner to boot. The sun shone down like God was smiling down from Heaven. Music and dancing and folk costumes, oh my.

Natcherly I was kilted, in the freshly arrived five yard, thirteen ounce USAK worsted wool USMC Leatherneck tartan. What a kilt! Rocky and Kelly used the same measurements that they've used for my last two USAKs (a pair of semi-traditional PV eight yarders in blue Ramsay and the custom Army tartan) but it fits even better. Boys, this is my first true worsted wool, custom tailored kilt!* But far from my last. For a Houston day that was already nudging 90 degrees, the five yard thirteen ounce felt great.

Deep down, I'm still a fan of the box pleat, but for a "newfangled-style kilt" (i.e., knife pleated) this one rocks, and rocks hard. (The knobs go all the way up to eleven, if you take my meaning.) The leatherneck tartan isn't especially distinctive, but looks sharp, and Rocky and/or Kelly did a masterly job putting it together. If I was going to pick any nits, I'd mention that the waistband tartan is a little off---but I'm not looking to pick nits.

I dig on this kilt mightily. And so did the Polish folk at the festival. I got winks, smiles, leers and friendly conversation all the way around. If anything, my speaking Russian caused more frowns than the kilt did. I had conversations about the SNP, the Marine Corps (ours, fellows, ours---not yours whom we have emulated to some effect) and the Polish emigres to Scotland. (Oddly enough, this morning on NPR I'd heard a Scots-Canadian author talking about how Scotland had received less subcontinental and Carribbean immigration and more Eastern European immigrants, primarily Poles . . . )

Many photos were taken by hosts and guests. Not one kilt lifter in the group. (Although some of them fine Polish lassies, if I was ten years younger and unmarried . . . RRRRRRR! I'd have flipped my pleats past them in the hope of encouraging some kilt lifting . . . ) Nice weather, fine company, fabulous food and the first time out in a fabulous new kilt. I'd call it a good day.



* have custom tailored kilts in PV and tweed, from USAK and Matt Newsome

[Yaish]

I remember the Polish Festivals from back home in Buffalo. Such good food! Everything fried in butter, pierogi's are little heart attacks that make my mouth happy!

[cessna152towser]

Sounds like a great day out. Yes there are a lot of Polish immigrants in Scotland. Many Polish families came here a couple of generations back to flee the onslaught of nazi Germany; others came post war to escape the advance of the iron curtain and more recently since Poland joined the E.C. many have flocked to Scotland on cheap one-way flights to find work such as driving buses and lorries, or working in shops and cafes.