What brought you to wearing a kilt?

[GMan]

I always admired Kilts. Because of my Celtic background, I just decided to do it. What a great idea.

[Sammac]

I had wanted to get a kilt for 20 some years, but the cost for a Scottish handsewn was always a bit much. Last year my dad passed on and I thought I not getting any younger, so I ordered my first kilt. Following my dads wishes we did not have a funeral, he wanted people to remember him as he was alive. My mom held off having a memorial till spring so the weather was nicer. The first time I wore my kilt was to my dad's memorial, mom said dad would have been proud as he was proud of our Sottish heritage. Now have 2 kilts, another on the way and planning on more in the future.

[robthehiker]

I wore one for the first time at my wedding and was immediately hooked. And I was hooked on kilt-wearing too.

[gilmore]

EagleJCS,

In Washington County during the middle or late 1700's there was a rather disastrous fire that consumed a public records building that housed the majority of Virginia records. This is why anyone whose ancestors came through and lived in Va are typically hard to find.

Huh? This has not been my experience at all. Virginia has some of the most complete records of any of the southeastern US states. And the importance of some to be descended from FFV's has insured that Virginia's records are accessible and well preserved.

[Tony]

Wore a Moss Bros Dress Gordon for my own wedding. 5 years later again for my brother's wedding.
Then nothing until my 40th birthday when my wife was badgering me for a theme for my birthday party. As one gets older one gets nostalgic, especially about one's heritage. So I found XMarks, got a SWK Black Watch and proudly wore it for my birthday. Now I have 3 and feel the urge to wear 'em more and more.

[Zardoz]

What brought me to the kilt? Short answer; the internet.

Since I was a kid I'd always been interested in the idea, but had no idea how to go about getting any info about where to get started, if you looked up kilts in the Houston phone book 20 or 25 years ago you wouldn't find anything. The last time I did a serious search was before our wedding in 1989, and I did get some contacts, but it was gonna be too expensive and time consuming to do anything with before the wedding. After that I kind of had other things to worry about.

Fast forward to a few years ago. For years I'd see a kilt somewhere, and would say I want to get one etc. and my wife would say why don't you?, but I hadn't really put much effort into looking into it. But one day I saw a article in the newspaper about Utilikilts, and I thought "wow that's pretty cool, and affordable!" I was not sure that the style of Utilikilts was really what I wanted, so I typed 'kilts' into Google, found Kiltday.com and it's great links page, and here I am!

[Phogfan86]

A little over two years ago, a series of really weird events, including dreams, persuaded me to look into my heritage. I'd always been told that I was English and Irish with a little Welsh mixed in, but nothing about Scotland.

I discovered that the first of my ancestors to come to the colonies was a Scot named Lundie who arrived in Virginia from Balgonie, Fife, in the mid-1600s and that I have extensive Scottish lineage. But it was strange in that my discovery was a true "A-HA!" moment, like someone -- the universe, God, someone -- had wanted me to find this out.

Having done a lot of reading, I now tell people that I'm a Catholic with Celtic Christian leanings. Nearly everything about the Celtic people, their customs and their culture resonates with me in a place deep, deep inside me.

So, donning the tartan was a natural extension of this education and spiritual growth I was experiencing. Thing was, my early google searches only turned up kilts that were anywhere from $600 up, and that wasn't feasible. Then a friend, who just thought it was a hoot that I was interested in a kilt, found the Celtic Croft site where I could get an economy set-up (kilt, belt, buckle and sporran) for about $250. My first kilt was an economy Gunn Modern.

Then I stumbled across XMTS by mistake, and that turned me on to good folks like Jerry at SWK and Rocky at USA Kilts. eBay's gotten me in touch with Kilt Lifter (KL) Kilts. I do own a beautiful 16-oz'er from USA Kilts (Rocky got me a great deal) of which I am very proud, but once I saw that it was okay to own what I call "everyday" kilts that sell for anywhere from $30 to $130 or so and that not every kilt needs to be a tank, it was all over but the shouting.

I own 7 kilts now and wear one probably three evenings a week and most Saturdays.

[piperdbh]

I started 'piping lessons in '93 and soon began researching Scottish-ness, including kilts and sporrans and such. I was given a homemade Graham of Mentieth kilt (which is for sale, by the way) to wear when I played gigs, and after a little while my mother gave me the $ to get a Newsome tank in tartan Lockhart, which was my grandmother's maiden name. After she died (my grandmother, that is), the family connection took on a bit more meaning, and now I'm saving up to get a Newsome Carolina box, because (as some of you know by now) I live in North Carolina, which is the greatest place in the world.

[Detroitpete]

Ahhh, mine was a convergence of a few things. I've always been athletic and was looking for something 'new' to do when I stumbled on Heavy Athletics. I saw guys my age and size out there throwing heavy things with the big boys and thought I'd like it, so I started to get into it a bit...

Then,

My Grandfather said something--he was our family historian and I loved listening to his stories. He was going on 97 years old and one day he told me that despite our Swedish last name, "we're more Celt than anything else", so I started to do my own research to get at what he meant--and there it was plain as day, ancestors from Scotland and Ireland. He passed away and I've been deeply moved to continue researching my family history.

Then...

While boulder climbing one summer I fell and tore the crud out of my knee, broken bones, torn cartilage and ligiments etc, surgery and rehab all while wearing various braces and immobilizers...

Pants and shorts were a big pain to deal with, so I thought heck--why not a kilt? I had 2 that I wore for hiking and my new addiction-Heavy Athletics, so I started with them.

From there, well...more kilts, kilt nights, finding this forum and tadaah--I'm a kiltie!

[Ugly Bear]

I saw a Utilikilt on TV (on Patrick Norton, co-host of The ScreenSavers on TechTV, sadly no longer an existing station). I thought it was pretty cool. I had never thought about wearing a kilt before that.

That, exactly, is my experience as well. Patrick Norton really started something that day.