Your first experiance with a kilt.

[LANCER1562]

I had seen pipe bands in parades and thought how great they looked but hadn't really given any thought to ever owning a kilt. Years later I remembered a rather morbid conversation I'd had with my mom. She told me that when she died (she passed away in November 2003) she was going to leave me a good some of money (but, of course, she didn't say how much) and that she wanted me to spend it on something I really wanted. In June 2004 I recieved my inheritance. I bought a car which I needed and then thought about what do I really want. The Highland Games were coming up and I decided I really wanted a kilt in my family tartan to wear to my first Games. So I went to the local kilt store, got fitted and perchased my first (and, so far, only) tank. Then for some reason I put the kilt away and never wore it again until about three years ago when I found this site and started learning about all things kilt.

I've gotten a lot of very useful information from this site. When people ask me questions about my kilt like: where they can get one, when is it appropriate to wear one, do they have to wear a family tartan, etc. I tell them to look here and all their questions will be answered.

[piperdown]

The first time for me was at my brothers wedding. I had just received a hand sewn 8 yd ancient hunting Macintosh for a 40th b-day gift from family and friends.
I had to ask my brother how to put it on, I didn't have a clue. I will always remember lying on my bed trying to do the darn thing up and then trying to get my hose/flashes and shoes on AFTER thinking there must be an easier way.
I cringe looking at those photos of white hose, tartan flashes and tartan bowtie, black tux shirt and PC.
I have learned a lot since then and have received some great ideas looking at the photos on site.

[GMcNab]

My first kilt was given to me as 6 year old.

We were living in South Africa where I used to do Highland Dancing (I remember I hated doing the dancing...terribly sissy for a 6 year old, I thought at the time) and was about to take part in my first Highland Gathering. A package arrived from family in the UK containing my first McNab kilt, a pair of hose flashes and a McNab tartan tie.

I don't remember the Highland Gathering too much as it is over 30 years ago, but it nigh on took a crowbar to separate me from that kilt. I used to wear it every where. Mother's being what mothers are, my dear mum still has it packed away.

[Jack Daw]

My first experience with bagpipes and the kilt was probably "Wee Willie Winkie" on some afternoon TV broadcast when I was a kid. This only planted a seed. In 1998, a buddy named Buchanan said that there was a Highland games that August; so, we went and saw those in kilties as idiot-fools. But, this did not stop me from a buying a couple of souvenirs, such as a MacIntyre mug. Not long after, while I was working on my genealogy, I discovered that my great grandfather had indicated to one of his sons that we were in North America because a distant McIntyre was at Culloden. This turned on a light bulb. So, I started reading about Culloden, the Jacobites, etc.; the I ordered my first kit (kilt, sporran, hose, flashes, and belt) and went to the Salado Highland Games and Clan Gathering in November 1999. I've been a goner ever since. I started playing the pipes about a month later. I now have 9 kilts. Here's a pic of that day at Salado that remains one of my favorites (I'm on the far left):

[Cowher]

I was only about 5 when I went to Epcot in Orlando Florida USA. It was the end of the day and we were rushing to see the electric light parade. I was talking about seeing Mickey for a few days at that point. That's when I heard them. I stopped my mom and with eyes bulging out of my head I asked "what is THAT?!?". "bagpipes" she said "there from Scotland". As soon as She finished speaking I saw the pipers marching around the corner. I was shaking. She tugged on my arm "hurry your going to miss Mickey mouse". "I don't care" I told her. I watched then go by and was blown away. We hurried along and I still got to see Mickey.
Fast forward to 4 years ago. I was selling advertising on coffee cups in little mom and pop breakfast joints. I was given a lead and called the woman. She told me she wanted me to talk to the pipe band and get them to agree to advertise on the cups. I did. They advertised. And I moved on. Soon after I found that the person I was working for was unbearable and decided to quit. Six months later I woke up bored out of my mind. Made myself some coffee in my French press and grabbed a mug. I sat to enjoy my morning brew and I looked at one of the ads. It was for that pipe band. I looked them up online and found that they offered free lessons. I went that night and joined. After a long time I was able to join the band in gigs and inturn got a kilt.
My first time was weird and uncomfortable. It was a SK and it felt just wrong and told then I didn't want to wear a kilt so I probably wouldn't perform publicly. Some one close to my size let me try on their kilt during the next practice and I loved it. It just felt comfortable and when we went outside to practice the big pipes the people walking by came to me as if I knew more because I was kilted. That night I went online and found this place. Lurked and joined. Now I'm considering entering kilt rehab.

[Larry124]

Many years ago I was a regular attendee at the Delaware County Scottish Games at the Devon Horse Show grounds in Devon Pennsylvania.
Kilts from dawn to dusk, but not on me. I was envious.
Many years later on a dare by my daughter I bought an AmeriKilt at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
I was hooked.
Now my daughter calls my kilts (of all kinds)“my dad’s hobby”.

[Bill aka Mole]

Back when I was 6 or 7, my parents had a Christmas party in our home for all of their friends. Throwing a party was not unusual in itself; in this circle, parties occured about every two months. But this party was different in that their friends were suppossed to come dressed as their nationality. My parents good friends, Pam & Bill MacMillan, had called everyone on the list shortly after my mom called them and told them that everone comeing over to our house was going to be Scottish: Kilts, Prince Charlies, the whole kit and kaboodle. So, instead of ten couples coming as different nationalities, they all came as Scots.

Seeing all of those kilts at one time did leave an impression: Even in a Tuxedo, my Father never looked as suave or at ease as the gents did that night. While my Dad would walk about stiffly in a suit going to work, everyone of Scottish heritage (and used to wearing the Kilt) that night walked about with a sense of style and comfort that my Dad never had. But my Dad had told me that a kilt was a type of dress and at that age, unmanly wasn't going to happen.

Fast forward a few decades and at the ripe old age of 51 I said to myself to heck with Dad (he'd been wrong about a few things in life) and bought my first SportKilt. Not knowing how a kilt was suppossed to fit, that in itself was an experience. That was last August. it took abit, but I did buy a stillwater Heavyweight which fit like it was made for me. While I look back and wonder why I took so long to do this, I am having a grand time and enjoying being kilted.

[Father Bill]

I was a little kid in the 50's so post-war pipe bands were a really big thing, and I LOVED them! In grade eight, I wrote a 100-page essay on tartans, kilts, Scottish history, etc. Obviously hooked... but without the ability to identify a Scottish history I did not want to "intrude" on a tartan. Being ordained to the clergy made it easy.

Fast forward... it arrived the day my wife came home from Vegas. I met her at the car kilted with my black barathea Argyle jacket, dress shirt and black bowtie. That was fun!

[Geoff Withnell]

I always though kilts were VERY cool. A few years ago, while at the Maryland RenFair, I was in Wolfstone Kilts booth, (drooling) They had a 5 yard piece of double wide wool-poly blend in an approximation of Royal Stuart, they were selling as a great kilt. The price was doable. Michele said OK. They took me in back, helped me on with it, and I was hooked. THIS is the way a man is supposed to dress, at least that is the feeling I had. I still have the great kilt, but almost never wear it, I really prefer the tailored version. But I only wear trousers when there is a compelling reason not to be kilted.

[EagleJCS]

When I was in 8th grade (about 13 years old), I went to Highland Middle School here in Louisville. (The area the school is located is the ‘highlands’ of Louisville. They're some of the higher elevations near the city - except for the knobs in the SW part of the county – with lots of hills. Most of the streets in that area are named for various places and families in Scotland.) The school mascot was, of course, the Scottish Highlander. That year, there was a new band director for the school brass/concert band. At the spring concert, he and one of his piping students played Amazing Grace for us. After that, I pestered my parents to get me a cassette of the 48th Highlanders (Can) Pipes and Drums from either NPR or the Smithsonian (we got a catalog in the mail). That tape was eventually worn out and has since been replaced with the CD.

Fast forward a few years. My family moved across the Ohio River to Southern Indiana (still in the Louisville area) and my sister attended Floyd Central High School, whose mascot also happens to be the Scottish Highlander (because the community of Floyds Knobs is in the "highlands" of Southern Indiana). My sister played clarinet in the band, and one of her good friends (a flautist) decided to learn to play the bagpipes for one of the marching band competition seasons. The band director at Floyd Central happened to be college roommates with the Pipe Major of the Louisville Pipe Band, and the pipe band provided lessons to several Floyd Central students in exchange for the students playing with the pipe band for a while.

I decided to get contact information for taking lessons through my sister’s friend, and also attended the pipe band’s concert that year. Through my piping instructor, I found out about the Highland Games, and went to listen to the pipe band compete. At the first Games I went to, I found out that 1) there is a Clan Scott (surprise!), and 2) there are several tartans recognized by the clan. I started doing some family tree research to see if I could find a connection to Scotland through my main family line. I didn’t find one (still haven’t, but I keep hoping), but I decided on the strength of the family name to go ahead and join the Clan Scott Society and order myself a kilt in Red Scott (my avatar).

The first time I wore it I was with my family visiting my aunt down in Owensboro. They were all a bit bemused by it. My father and brother still aren’t sold on the idea of wearing a “skirt” themselves, but since I’ve joined the pipe band and performed with them, at least they don’t tease me about it anymore. It’s just something I wear from time to time. Now, I’ve just got to break my nieces from calling it a skirt. (My s-i-l’s mother calls it that, even though she’s been corrected and asked not to. GRRR. )