It all began with oatmeal. Well, that's as close as I came to anythng Scots growing up in East Texas, but I've always loved oatmeal. Anyway, then came the pipes. As I grew older, I enjoyed them and felt a certain something when I heard them, but I knew of no Scots ancestry. A few summers back, I attended the Maine Highland Games and when the pipe and drum bands began to play, I melted and tears came to my eyes. But, "I wasn't Scots", so I just ignored these feelings.

Then in January, on a drive up to Quebec, I listened to an interview on NPR with Steve Villegas, founder of Utilikilts. Interesting, but not something I could even consider, but a spark must have been kindled and a few weeks later, I was thinking about it and went to the UK web site. There were links there to other kilt-related web sites. I read and through about it. I bought a kilt (SWK Black Watch). I was hooked. Now I own eight and I haven't even had my legs in a pair of trousers in a month. (I can thank you guys for your support and advice which has been a big help to me over the past few weeks.)

Oh, by the way, I have since discovered that I have three family lines of Scots ancestors, who came to this country as early as the late Seventeenth Century. So maybe that's why I like oatmeal so much!