Red,

I received nothing but positive comments while in Chicago. I wore a caramel UK workmen's and a tan UK survival on three trips downtown. I'm sure there were snide comments (I heard one guy quietly say "maybe it's a skort" to his friend as I walked by), but none to my face.

On the contrary, numerous positive comments were made to me. On my first day downtown, my wife and I were walking along Navy Pier (shops, restaurants, boat trips on the lake, etc. - very touristy area) - a large (muscular) African American man who was walking with his wife/girlfriend called out to me "man, I like that!" with a big thumbs up and a wave. Up on the observation deck of the Sears Tower, I heard a girl whispering to her companion "I think that's one of those Utilikilts like I saw on TV..." Her companion then told her to ask me - I waited about 3 seconds and she appeared on my left "Excuse me, is that a Utilikilt? Where did you get it?" After I explained that it was indeed a UK and it was from Seattle, she told me about the TV show that covered Steven Villegas's story etc. As she walked away I heard her say "I can't believe I saw a Utilikilt - I have to tell everyone..."

Most people didn't pay much attention that I could tell, anyway. I think they've seen it all, so a kilt doesn't faze them much.

By the way, my UK workmen's made it through the metal detector at the entrance to the Sears Tower - I was surprised at this, given the number of snaps and the key hook.

One final note - my mother was concerned that my grandmother (94 and quite opinionated) would not like the kilt. She saw me, said "that's an interesting thing you're wearing" and liked the fact that it was very similar in color to an Irish saffron. No negative comments at all. My uncles made lots of negative comments, just joking around, but then one of them revealed later that he'd been considering purchasing one too.

Ah, one more final note. Wore the kilt to a couple of south side Irish pubs - no one even batted an eye.

I couldn't have imagined a better Chicago kilted experience.

Don