A longing for the Auld Country

[Livingston]

Dee, If you want to feel it without the cost of a trip across the pond, come out to the Longs Peak Highland Games in Estes Park, CO and listen to the pipes. The mountains, the weather, the kilts, the pipes......aahhhhhhh yes

[Alan H]

Yes...simply...

yes.

[GlassMan]

I totally understand what you mean. There are some things that just make feel right, no matter how far distant they are.

My life thus far has been full of such coincidences. My father isn't much into geneology but my Great Uncle is. However, since my Great Uncle lived in southern Virginia and my Father and Mother moved to Texas when I was a wee lad, it wasn't until much later that I had a chance to learn much about my ancestors.

Yet for all my life I have loved blue and green. Even more, it's specific shades of blue and green that appeal to me the most. So how shocked was I to see a tartan that just looked so beautiful to me and that used those exact two colors in it, only to then read on and discover that it's the Ancient version of my own clan tartan!

And I've always had a love to glass art even as a child. I couldn't keep me eyes off church windows. As I studied medieval history my love of stained glass only grew. Finally I learned how to make it and took to it like a duck to water. I hadn't been with my mentor for more than a few months when I was already being asked to make entire pieces by myself for her studio. And then, one day doing some searching on my own about the parts of my family that stayed in Scotland I discover that McKee's got into glass and even became quite famous for it in the 19th century! And that love of glass has reappeared several times in disparate locations throughout the globe wherever McKees have roamed.

And don't even get me started on the way the notes of a bagpipe stir my bosom. Yes, I said bosom. I'm still trying to lose weight and until I drop about 40 more it will still look like I truly have bosoms when I'm in a bathing suit. But yes, I love the sound of a piper.

And then the minute a kilt first wrapped around my waist I understood why I had been wanting to wear one since I was a child and I wondered why I had waited so long to indulge myself.

There are just somethings that can only be described as "in the blood" and no amount of distance or time can change that.

[GMan]

Dee,

I sense from where you speak. I know the holes in my family history are rather frustrating, but as been said earlier, once you feel the bagpipes, see the mist, you know it is in the blood.

It shall all come together, and I wish you well in the search.

[Pour1Malt]

Dee-

ai ken whit yur oan aboot ... yur richt alricht....

ai travel'de a' roon 'merica an roond England an it was fun...

but the first time ai set foot in Scotland... ai wuz hame!

an it is mai hame the noo!

[Cawdorian]

The lyrics of the song Mike posted do seem to express the feeling very well. I have never been to Scotland, but I know that is my heritage.

I have a copy of some family information put together by one of my older cousins (now deceased) that formed the basic core of the genealogical information I have on my mother's family. The information was all courthouse and graveyard researched because the information was compiled in the 1960's. I feel very fortunate to have this information. Using the resources of the internet I have been able to turn this small bit of information into volumes of genealogical information on her family.

It is wonderful to know that you have the blood of the Lamonts, Campbells, Bruces, McGregors, Dunbars, McAlpins and who knows what other clans flowing through your veins. As you read the history of the Scots you just know you belong there, you can feel the presence of your ancestors. We know and understand how we got the way we are and why we have the personal beliefs that we have.

I have always wondered why I was so fascinated by the culture of the Scots and why bagpipe music made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I do feel truly at home with the culture of the Scots. Like Glassman when I put my kilt on, I feel right at home in it.

[auld argonian]

Learn the history, read the stories...it's certainly wonderful to fall in love with a place and to find your connections to the past.
But be sure to learn the whole story and the truth and consider all of the bad along with the good. It does you no good to dwell in a romantic delusion. No matter where I go and no matter how nice I find the place there's always somebody who lives there who thinks that it sucks and can't wait to go somewhere else.
Still reading "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" and it has been an education to say the least. I'll bring up the work of Henry Louis Gates, the African-American historian: he's pointed out that much of what the African-American community thinks about their ancestors' lives in Africa is a romantic delusion...that the "story" is more appealing than the "truth" so the "story" is what gets more play. I saw a wonderful documentary series on the history of Ireland a couple of years ago that took the popular image of Irish History on and pointed out a few facts that made it look somewhat less "majestic".
Point for me is that many cultures and groups have endured great persecution and injustice and have risen above ignorance and misery because of the indomitable nature of the human spirit...legends are coined and actual events are sometimes "enhanced" as a way of expressing this triumph in a digestible way. If King Arthur was actually the King of All the Britons it was because he was the baddest SOB in Britain at the time not because he was noble or brave or annointed by some unseen hand. (See: Monty Python and the Holy Grail...he must be a king because he doesn't have $#!+ all over him).
Bagpipes give a lot of people the chills down their spine (and if I never hear Amazing Grace on bagpipes again I'll be eternally grateful...sorry) and I don't think that you have to be of Scottish extraction to feel some resonance there.
Not to be a cynic but you do have to look at the whole picture. Remember that Hitler dragged the German People along with constant references to the romantic myths about their collective past...enjoy the poetry of the story but be always aware of the reality.

Best

AA

[Valencian Kilted]

I am from Valencia, on the mditerranean east coast of Spain, and that means that in my ancestors I'll find romans, cartagenese, greeks, phoenitians, iberians, celtiberians, goths, arabs, catalonians, .... and also it's possible to find some jewish, french, or italian blood drops.... but as far as i've reached in history, the pressence of scots or english people here was quite rare and unusual, and just for short temporary periods as some wars,...

... but every time I read a history book or a novel about Auld Alba I can close my eyes and see myself ,... breathing,... on a rainy green land, sword on one hand and a blade and a small targe in the other...with a determined look at the front, while my face is covered partially with wet hair.... just instants before a crowd shouts wildly and a charge leads my companions and me to victory or legend...

¡Salud!

T O N O