Got the bagpiper question at a celtic event

[usndoc]

Last night I attended a wonderful concert put on by our Scottish Highlands Foundation. This concert featured Talitha MacKenzie and Rhiannon Giddens singing a combination of Native American and Gealic songs. During the break, I went to the giftshop to wander around and give my eyes a rest as I had been taking pictures. I shoot with a digital SLR and sometimes it causes my eyes to blur a bit.

While walking around the gift shop a lady walks up besides me and asks if I play the bagpipes. My response was simply "no, I am a photographer, I never learned how to play them." I know that my response was not what she expected. I guess it was then she saw the big camera in my hands. She tried to shift gears and tell me that her nephew plays the bagpipes and a neice plays the drums.

I know she was trying to make small talk and I just happened to be the only other guy there in a kilt. But, even at a celtic event the assumption still stands that if you are in a kilt, you are a piper.

Go figure,

Doc

[Bob C]

Maybe she was hitting on you, Doc. I don't know your marital status, but maybe you missed an opportunity!

[usndoc]

She may have been. She was a bit older than me. As in my mothers age. And my fiance walked up at about the same time and said "What you doin sweety" So that probably put an end to the conversation too.

[Shotdir]

Well, I would have thought you could have been a drummer since you weren't draggin your pipes!

[Southern Breeze]

Being asked if I play the bagpipes and are you Scottish make up 95% of the questions I'm asked.I politely say no which leaves the door open for further conversation.Bagpipes and kilts seem to be what everyone thinks goes together.

[dano9672]

I like:
"Sadly no, I can only play CD's." I pause a second for the setup and add, "Sometimes I play CD's of bagpipes, does that count?!?"