I well understand the urge to make a cutting riposte when we overhear or receive what to us is a rude comment about the kilt we are wearing.

However is it possible that what we see as rudeness is really just ignorance-or maybe amazement at seeing a man going about his day to day activities kilted.

So our riposte rather than furthering the acceptance of kilt wearing, purely alienates a person as a consequence of their innocent though to our ears stupid-rude remark?

Here we must accept that whilst many will have seen the kilts being worn on TV and in the media-the actual sight can come as quite a surprise-possibly the reason for someone thinking and saying skirt rather than kilt-or making some other, to us silly/rude remark.

Here I'm ignoring the very rare and they are very rare, intended offensive remark-less than the fingers on one hand in over sixty years of wearing the kilt: for they are best ignored.

However there have been many occasions when what I could have taken as an offensive remark-when instead I smiled and made a friendly comment-resulted in a positive chat. Even on a later encounter a smiled 'I'll get it right this time, your kilt'.

So what I suggest is that a more positive and less aggressive response can in the longer run do more to enhance/popularise kilt wearing-than to respond with all guns.

By the same token we as the kilt wearing community do go out of our way to attract comments-with our 'coy' references to wearing the kilt correctly and the like. So no wonder people will be curious: for all too often we set up the situation for that curiosity in the first place. However again by taking a soft approach-what could have been a negative exchange has been turned into a positive one.

Certainly each and every one of us must decide how to react-so I'm not trying to be prescriptive, rather commenting upon an approach which has worked for me. Too I must accept that my reactions at the age of sixtynine and after wearing the kilt since childhood-will be very different to a chap who only adopted it recently and feels the need to prove their actions.

James