I had ridden motorcycles on and off over the last 30+ years. Sold my Yamaha Venture Royal touring bike many years ago to buy my son a car. Well due to my disability I can no longer shift with my left foot, so I bought a scooter last week with a full automatic transmission. Scooter is sort of a misnomer for this bike. It's a 650cc Suzuki Burgman. It's the largest displacement scooter made - looks like a sport touring motorcycle, and has a top speed of 115 mph.

Anyhow, when I ride it to a local park for my daily walks, I wear jeans, boots, a sport touring motorcycle jacket with body armor, gloves, and a helmet. Then I go to the men's room and change into a kilt and sporran.

A couple of days ago, I passed a group of young people at a picnic table while making one of my walking laps. I was wearing an SWK Wallace economy. As I passed the table, the boys laughed, pointed, and one remarked, "Look and old guy in a kilt." I said nothing - just continued on my walk.

When it came time to leave, I went back to the men's room and changed back into full riding attire. Had everything on including the gloves and helmet, and was carrying my kilt and sporran.

As I exited the men's room, 3 of the young men that had been laughing at me were just ready to come in. I literally rocked them back on their heels with surprise. I'm a big guy - 6'0" and 260 lb. With all that riding apparel on, I must have looked like a linebacker for the St. Louis Rams carrying a kilt.

I said, "That's right gentlemen, I'm the old guy that was wearing this kilt. And that's my cycle over there. Now that we're meeting face to face do you have any additional comments you would like to make? One of them, looking down at the ground said, "Ah, no sir." I said, "You might want to keep me in mind the next time you see a man wearing a kilt - first impressions can be deceiving."

Anyhow, I got a rather good laugh out of it seeing the shocked, surprised look on their faces.

Darrell