A couple of days ago a friend of mine and I were out for a kilted day on the town. Because of careers, family, and life in general we don't get a lot of time to just plunder around town, and so when we do we take advantage of it. Anyway, his mother invited me to dinner that evening because she knew my wife was out of town and didn't want me to starve to death. So we stopped at Wal-Mart to grab some last minute eatables. While walking in the frozen food isle we were spotted by a group of three african-amerian teenagers. They looked exactly like you would expect them too, sagging pants, baggy t-shirts and sideways ball caps. I have to admit that my first thought was that we would be taking some abuse from said "hooligans." The leader of the gang stopped us and asked if we would be going to Heroes, a local watering hole where the local Irish punk band "My three Kilts" plays regularly.
Of course, we are friends with the guys in the band and we had a pleasant, if short, conversation with these young guys. We then proceeded to pay for our items, and as we left the store we were accosted by a middle aged couple. The woman proceeded to make unnecessary and quite offensive comments about our kilts. I am proud to say that while I had a deep desire to throw these uncouth people through the closest plate glass window I withstood desire.
On the drive to my friend's mother's house I pointed out to him that I would have expected the two encounters to be exactly opposite than how they turned out.
My bonnet off to those young lads for their acceptance of what they no doubt considered unusual.

Graham