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. )