Figure 1.--

As a boy, I wore kilts to lots of Highland clan meetings here in Australia. I commonly did this from about age 6 to 16 years of age. I remember hating the kilts when I first had to wear them. None of my friends were Scottish and I had never seem boys wearing them. My mum insisted and said that I was being silly and rediculous. The kilt seemed to much like a girl's skirt for my 6-year old tastes. I clearly remember my first kilt. I also got a new hair cut. I went through all machinations of having my hair cut rather short but nicely styled and well groomed and getting in a strange outfit light years of what a 6 year old Aussie redneck was used to and was transformed in to a dignafied bonafied little Scottish boy who scrubbed up like a blue diamond from a piece of black coal you could interpret as a poorboy from Australia. After a year or so I got more udsed to it, especially because at the Highland Gatherings there were other boys wearing kilts.

When I was about 10 years old I made a new friend. He like me had a Scottish parent. He also attended some Highland Gatherings, but he adamently refused to wear a kilt, although his parents encouraged him to do so. He continued to refuse even after e became friends and I always wore a kilt to these events. Actually we discussed this. I told him that he was being a tad silly.

Created: October 26, 2002
Last updated: October 26, 2002