The party is now behind me and I have to tell you that everything went off without a hitch. I went dressed as mentioned and I think that I really surprised my father and grandmother with how nice I looked. (Surprised me, too.) Makes me wonder just what they were imagining. Grandma saw me in a casual kilt once, so she should have had at least an idea. Oh, and we did take some photographs; I should at last have some pics to post once we get around to developing them and I get the scanner warmed up.

Despite being a bit overdressed for the restaurant as compared to most of the others in our party (as well as to those in the restaurant), I felt fairly inconspicuous in my 'day casual' highland attire. THERE IS DEFINITELY A DIFFERENCE in how one is perceived while wearing traditional versus casual contemporary kilt garb. I will entertain the theory that part of it could be me, as in I might feel more comfortable in terms of my image when I am dressed in a more traditional fashion, and therefore might exude more confidence. However, I think that it has much more to do with folks seeing something more traditional (read: recognizeable) and thinking to themselves, "Ah, a Scotsman / Irishman?", versus them seeing a fellow in hiking boots, T-shirt and camoflaged skirty looking thing who might just be a wierdo. We all like being able to classify to some extent those whom we meet, sorting them into piles based on things such as religion and politics, age, gender, whatever. I think that particularly unenlightened folk tend to toss anyone differing from them, and for whom a proper, acceptable label cannot be found, into that weirdo pile.

After all of this hubbub, it feels anti-climatic to report how well this went. I did take pants and I did offer to change into them. Grandma was concerned that I might be cold, but other than that she said little about my dress until I was getting ready to leave for home. At that time she told me I looked very nice and that she liked my kilt. I think that Jamie was onto something:


Quote Originally Posted by bikercelt1
Could it be that she is a bit shocked and uncertain about how others will recieve you, and by extension, her? Jamie
This had already crossed my mind, and I suspect it was the reason for her reticence. In fact, after her compliment she added,"No one really said anything, did they?" She meant something negative and, no, the only comments we heard were positive. One relative who decided to join our party thought it neat that we were all dressed in kilts. (My wife wore slacks but wore a tartan waistcoat that matched my kilt.)Grandma asked her if she didn't think that they looked like skirts and the relative said, "No, Aunt Mary, they look like kilts." Also, one member of our party was covered in tattoos, so there was that diversion <g>.

Back at the house I changed into a PK in charcoal and a Harley Davidson T-shirt . We wanted to go hiking. My father, who had been relatively quiet before about things of a kilted nature, pepped up and seemed to really like this look. I think that he liked the traditional look well enough but preferred the casual look because to him it may have looked less girly than wearing plaid. I am not sure because he didn't say and I didn't ask.

So, overall it was a very nice day.

I would like to take this point to state how nice this group is. Things do not seem to get ugly or personal here despite the fact that opinions vary. I am relatively new here, and I have not gone back too far into the archives and therefore could have missed some major tiffs or personality conflicts that have since been mitigated, but from what I can see this is one nice place to hang.

Mychael