Quote Originally Posted by davedove View Post
I appreciate the analogy, but some folks think that if you haven't worked a ranch, or at least ridden a horse, you haven't "earned" those clothes; you're just a drug store cowboy.
Okay...but just think about all of those folks who make their living making and selling cowboy accoutrements. I'd bet that there are at least a couple of towns out West that wouldn't still be there if it weren't for the tourists and their buying the hat and the shirt and the boots when they blow into town...not to mention the meals and the lodgings and the trail rides and the dude ranches...I won't get into skiing. I've heard about the great fun that the gen-u-ine ranch folks have picking out the dudes in Jackson Hole...but if it weren't a tourist destination, who would ever have heard of Jackson Hole (and I know the whole thing about it not really being Jackson "Hole"...I'm just refering to it as that because it's become the popular way to refer to it).

Point being: I've never heard of a kilt shop demanding a certificate of clan membership before they'd sell you a kilt. If tartan ownership was that limited, there wouldn't be many kilt shops or manufacturers. One could conjecture that that would make tartan even MORE costly than it already is...they'd be weaving one or two kilts worth at a time. You might be ready to pay twice as much for that tank in your family tartan but what about your "poor relations"? Are they to go kiltless because of the cost? Should Clan associations shoulder the additional expense...sort of a kilt grant program for clan members?

The vast majority of the foks who are active in this forum are honorable and understand the ins and outs of tartan...they are the ones who educate the mass of poor unfortunates who DON'T know from tartan or kilts. I expect that anyone who finds a tartan that they desire will educate himself/herself about the tartan's associations and won't do anything to dishonor the clan (...so think twice about that "last" pint once in a while...). One of the first questions that is asked of anyone in a kilt is, "Is that your family tartan?" Why? Because people have a need to have things that make them at once unique and at the same time part of a group...the questioner projects that need on the questioned. Has anyone else seen the let down on their faces when you politely explain that, no, you do not have a proper family tartan but you are wearing the Campbell of Cawdor because...face it, they don't really want to hear the long explanation, it was merely a polite bit of conversation.

Try this tactic next time:

them: "So...is that your family tartan?"

you: "No. Say...do you think that they have any Guinness at the bar? I could murder a pint...how 'bout you?"

...thus you have gracefully sidestepped giving a long explanation that no one really wanted to hear in the first place.

But, as I said, if it was really totally limited, there would be only a very small business in tartan and kilts and not the blossoming kilt renaissance that we seem to be experiencing now.

Best

AA