My first kilt “moment” happened in early 1968.

I had just turned 15 and my dad, brother and I had formed a wee band called the Hamish Gow Scottish Ceilidh Group (snappy title !) a few months before. When we started in 1967, we wore a sedate outfit of black lambswool v-neck over a white shirt (my mum was a wizard at getting them so white), Gow tartan tie and black trousers and shoes. We played at ceilidhs in our town, then we started to get invites to play at ceilidhs in Edinburgh. We were amateurs at the time, just playing for petrol money and such. Then one day in early 1968, my dad decided the time had come for us to get kitted out in Highland dress. He knew a chap who had worked years before for a well-known, royally-appointed Edinburgh kiltmaker / outfitter and his claim to fame was that he had tailored a kilt for the late King George VI. (Did you know King George VI had a flat bum and all his kilts needed padding to make the pleats sit right and to make him look like he had a kiltie’s round rear-end ?).

When the kilts came back ready, they were in lightweight wool, using the “full colour” Gow tartan in red/dark blue/black. I wore a greenish woolly-tweedy kilt jacket with a brown sporran, belt and brogue shoes. We took to the stage in our new apparel. Now as all kilt-wearers know, there are no formal etiquette classes in how to sit, stand, move around etc in your kilt. So there we were, sitting at one side of the small hall, near the stage in our new Highland dress, white shirts now fully on show, with new clan-crest ties, waiting our turn to perform. On the opposite side of the hall were a few audience members. Opposite me was a girl about my own age, with long, auburn-red hair. I was looking at her and just thinking that I really fancied her and she was looking back at me, when I saw her face suddenly start to go bright red. Yet she still kept looking, before she averted her eyes. I wondered what had happened. Was it my face, my expression ? Had I smiled too much and put her off ? Then I realized the awful truth ! I was sitting with my legs wide open, kilt aprons stretched across and she could see right up my Highland glen and view my wee bearded crofter sitting on his wool-sack (except he wasn’t sitting anymore) ! I quickly punched down the apron (and what was behind it too) to dip it between my legs and also started to go red in the face. I did want to speak to her later but now felt too shy – I mean, what do you say ? “I really like you” and she replies “Yes, I know !”. Mind you, she would have seen I wasn’t lying ! Ahhhh – my first love !