Scottish outlook on kilted Americans?

[ThistleDown]

Ern, the first shout is mine. Can meet at The Clachnaharry?.

[Mael Coluim]

Count me in on that pint Ern I would be proud to join you.

Forget the trousers, they are just excess baggage and I think Liverpool is pretty multicultural these days. I regularly wear my kilt casually out and about in the Midlands and have only experienced positive comments from adults, at least to my face or hearing. I'll be happy to join in on that pint if the chosen venue serves real ale.

Indeed gents! It will be a pleasure. Tpa, we’ll ask you to select the pub to ensure real ale is served!

[Mael Coluim]

Ern, the first shout is mine. Can meet at The Clachnaharry?.

Your post beat mine by a millisecond, Rex! I defer your question to tpa!

[Dale Seago]

rondo,

I hope you did not mistake my post. The Scots do indeed want you to visit. They welcome visitors with cordial grace.

The thing we from over here seem to not be able to get past is the myth of Scotland. It is if we expect those in Scotland to live up to our own expectations and pre-concieved notions.

The Scots are a modern peoples. They live in a modern and prosperous country that is also breathtakingly beautiful.

It is common to impose our visions from movies, TV, books and the web on those places we wish to visit.

For example; Have you ever seen La Gioconda in person? No, the French do not call it The Mona Lisa. And it is funny to stand in the crowds that throng that one room of that vast museum and listen to the comments of the visitors. "It's so small." "I don't get it. It doesn't look like the pictures at all." "I could have stayed at home and seen it better than crowded in with all these people."

Have you ever visited the Pyramids? The lines of tents selling tourist junk go on for ever and you usually can't see a thing from the ground. It is not like the pretty pictures taken from a plane by a professional photographer at all.

There are no Hobbits in New Zealand.

We all wish to see what we are used to seeing in the books and post cards. The reality is usually something different.

If you wish to see the 'true' Scotland be prepared to see gas stations and cell phone shops along with the castles and the stone circles.

And be prepared to hear the usual comments about "silly tourists". You would make the same comments if you lived in a place visited by 20 times as many people each year as your entire national population.

Here in Victoria we actually sell t-shirts that say "If they call it Tourist Season, does that mean we get to shoot them?" Does that mean I don't want you to visit my adopted city? No, come on. The tea is in the kettle and the biscuits in the tin. Pull up a chair and join in the conversation.

Yes, we have the Queen on our money up here but please, don't expect her to greet you when you step off the ferry. (Well, actually she will greet you, but her real name is Catherine and she lives in Fairfield with her husband Roger. She likes to dress up and makes a pretty good living, with the cardboard cut-outs of the dogs, posing for photos .)

A big-**** *** for the most part, but. . .

No hobbits in New Zealand?!? Really?

Okay, I'm reluctantly scratching NZ off the "Tourist Destinations" subset of my Bucket List. . .

[rondo]

I had a nicely typed response that just disappeared into the ether...oh well. Guys, as I said, I have been to Scotland [80's] and enjoyed it...but judging from the tone of what is being said it isn't the place it was or that I remember. Perhaps, in reading the posts I'm perceiving something that others aren't...okay. But Collin asked some questions, carefully worded, as any academic might and was handed his testicles. I stopped going to the THCD forum even though what I wear, for the most part, is traditional, casual day wear because the tone there is similar. There is something there, just under the surface, that is discordant for me. I am not thin skinned...30 years as a biker, sailor, and trucker has a tendency to thicken that.

@Thistledown...you said you must have missed something. I am sure you have and I am not certain I can point it out to you if you can not see it on your own other than to say that the 17 pages in this post essentially boiled down, for me and my understanding, as I paraphrased it. Let me say though, sometimes how something is said [or not said] conveys much more than the words themselves. I stand by my earlier post "So, 17 pages and...what I seem to be reading is [to paraphrase] "we kicked you out!" [Diaspora], "we meant it!" [stay out] and "oh yeah, the kilt is ours so leave to us Scots!"
Good day gentlemen,

Rondo

[Jock Scot]

Alright then after some 18 pages of yet another thread on the subject what have we achieved? Some would say absolutely damn all, some will be disappointed, some may be a tad angry, some will say so what, actually though whilst we have all been treading on thin ice I think much has been achieved.

So OK if we don't like the answers then perhaps the question should not have been asked, but asked it was and in good faith. The answers may not have been to every-one's liking and unsurprisingly there are almost as many different answers as there are people. Nothing new there then!

On the positive side though, at least Americans in particular(see first post) and others from outwith Scotland are aware that broadly speaking there is a common theme running through the Scots answers. So, many(we know for sure some do) Scots do have very different ideas and with admittedly varying degrees of opinion on the matter than from other parts of the world-------I cannot really see why people are so surprised at that, but there we go------ and should they(non Scots) venture to Scotland and I hope they do, then should they encounter opinions that run counter to their expectations at least they are prepared. Surely we can all agree on this?

[English Bloke]

... I am looking forward to be kilted when the English Bloke and I share a pint somewhere south of the Scottish border...

Always up for a pint Ern... Kilted or otherwise.

And since following your 2009 epic travelogue thread (an inspiration for some of my own subsequent out and about musings), I've always fancied what a mutually good pint that would turn out to be! int:

I'll do my very best to make myself available. Let me know when you have dates and I'll try not to be working away.

[Mael Coluim]

Excellent, John! We have a meet up of Kilted English brethren place and date to be determined in July, 2014!

[Cranky]

As a newbie, I don't really belong in the conversation, but my initial reaction to the question is that as an Alabamian I am not concerned with what anyone in Scotland thinks of my wearing a kilt. The kilt is no more his intellectual property than it is mine.

[Derek]

Elaine and myself would love to meet up too with you all if we can ... sounds like fun and another adventure..
Iechyd Da
Derek