Your first experiance with a kilt.

[OC Richard]

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.

Wow, the workings of Fate!

Like several of the people above, my kiltwearing came about due to piping.

In my early teens I listened to my Dad's bagpipe albums over and over (those and his Bach albums) and I keenly watched for Pipe Bands in each year's Rose Parade on TV. But seeing pipes and kilts in person didn't seem to be a possibility, living as we did out in a remote desert place.

Then in my third year of High School, at lunch break one day, what did I see but one of my fellow students marching about in a kilt playing the pipes? He was the very image of the piper, freckles and red hair and all. It was a huge school- around 4,000 kids, and I hadn't met or known of this guy.

I ran up to him when he had stopped playing and told him that I really wanted to learn the pipes. He steered me in the right direction, telling me to get a practice chanter (the existence of which I had not imagined) and the COP Tutor and ideally to go up with him to Canada each summer to Piping School.

I visited his home a couple times and met his charming Scottish parents and got a few tips on playing. Having never seen pipes or kilts or anything up close before, I was fascinated to see his kilt hanging in his closet like ordinary clothes (which looking back seems foolish- where else would he have his kilt?) and to see his lovely silver and ivory pipes in their case shoved under his bed (which also amazed me, because for some reason I didn't imagine pipes being kept in cases like other instruments).

So I tooted away on my practice chanter diligently and a year and a half later when it was time to graduate my Dad asked me what I would like as a graduation present and I immediately said bagpipes. That was my first set- made by Lawrie in Glasgow- and I thought I had won the lottery the day those came, in the summer of 1975.

About the kilts, the only thing I knew about them was what I could glean from The Scottish Shopper catalogue, a place in Seattle that did mail order (this being long before the internet). It was so interesting to look through- ghillie brogues! Montrose doublets! Evening and Day sporrans! Sword and targe kilt pins! I had no idea any of this existed.

My first kilt was made by my grandmother, out of plaid wool bought at an ordinary fabric shop. I wonder where on earth that kilt is today.

My second was also made by my grandmother but this was made from actual tartan, MacDonald of the Isles Hunting, got from The Scottish Shopper.

My first "real" kilt was loaned to me by the first pipe band I played in, after we had moved to Greater Los Angeles, in 1976 or 1977. It was a heavyweight MacLaren Ancient kilt. That band wore the whole kit- doublets, feather bonnets, horsehair sporrans, etc for gigs and I was very excited the day I got issued all that.

Oh, here's a photo of my second kilt, which my grandmother made around 1976, from Scottish tartan got from The Scottish Shopper. The doublet is a home-made affair as well: I bought a navy blue suit coat from Goodwill and cut it up and turned it into what you see. Since I didn't know how to operate a sewing machine, every stitch was by hand. My new pride and joy was the feather bonnet bought with the money I won in an art contest.