Kilted (and insulted) at the opera

[Streetcar]

With strangers, I've found that it is often not worth the while to give an unexpected, albeit truthful, answer.
I recently came back from a whisky tasting (or nosing as some have corrected me). I stopped to fill up at a gas station on the way home. The attendant looked at my kilt and said, "You must be visiting from Scotland!" Rather than launch into a story about my ancestry, the fact that I only lived a couple miles away, and why I happened to be kilted, it was just so much easier to say, "Aye," and pay for my gas.

If they really want to know, they'll ask further. Otherwise, they're only asking to impress their friends, and who cares what a random stranger thinks?

Still I think you handled it well. Remember that the uneducated speak without thinking. It enables the rest of us to quickly recognize them as idiots.

[Rex_Tremende]

Remember that the uneducated speak without thinking. It enables the rest of us to quickly recognize them as idiots.

My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Milton, put it this way (about a certain dolt in the classroom who had no verbal restraint): "Empty wagons make more noise."

Regards,
Rex.

[DireStraitsFan]

My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Milton, put it this way (about a certain dolt in the classroom who had no verbal restraint): "Empty wagons make more noise."

Regards,
Rex.

Brilliant!

[Archangel]

to paraphrase Billy: never take an eedjit with you, you can always find one when you get there.

[cessna152towser]

There are still a few people out there with the old fashioned view that a man in a kilt must be Scottish. I have even met this attitude in England while wearing a denim kilt, but they were friendly once they heard my Scots accent.

[Arizona Scot]

I'm glad to hear that you didn't let her ingnorance end up and ruin your evening.

[Abax]

The decision to allow someone else to evoke unpleasant emotions within you is yours. As a gentleman, you deftly sidestep her foolish attempts.
Abax

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . I still prefer the common two word response to an insult . . .

Sorry, Ron, but this time I can't agree with you. Playing "tit for tat" reduces the offended to the moral level of the offender. Much better to bear in mind that snobs take themselves so very seriously that they can't tolerate any hint of ridicule. Outright laughter should be your last resort. A smile that clearly said, "I can't take you seriously," would have devastated that woman, or humiliated her, or infuriated her, and in any case left RB in indisputable possession of the high ground.

.

[Daaaaang]

When people ask me if I'm Scottish, I usually say "Yes I'm Scottish, but anybody can wear a kilt. You don't have to be a cowboy to wear jeans"

Nobody questions my kilt-wearing when they know I'm Scottish, so I add that to help out all the non-Scottish kilt wearers. It's weird how being Scottish puts me in a position of authority on the subject, when I know much less about the kilt than many non-scots on this forum.

It just goes to show what people who don't think value.

You were a perfect gentleman Rollerboy, and for that I salute you.

[GG]

The first and second acts were very emotional for me because La Boheme was my late wife's favorite opera, so I watched with a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes for much of it.RB

La Boheme, o yes. It was the very first opera I ever attended. It was back in the sixties, nearly 46 years ago by now, and when in high school.
I came with little or no expectations at all, but from the moment Rodolfo about 20 minutes after the beginning delivered his aria “Che gelida manina” followed by Mimi “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” and then at the end of act I, “O soave fanciulla” I got for life addicted to opera.
A tall, slim, fair haired teen age girl going on 17 was there too. We were not sitting together, we were not together in anyway, we were just class mates and it was a class event.
To her it was a fantastic experience, too. Two years after that performance we were engaged to each other and in 2008 we shall have been married for 42 years. In the meantime we have got wonderful children and children-in-law and lovely grand children.
During our marriage we have also attended many opera performances but La Boheme has remained our favourite opera.
My wife is still very, very beautiful; and she is and has always been my one and only. Reading your message I got a feeling that with your late wife you have had it the same way and I can easily understand your moods attending this opera, especially during act III - the ending scene, probably, with Addio, addio, senza rancor - and Mimi’s farewell in the last act.
So far this has had nothing to do with kilts, but now it comes. About eight years ago my wife should attend a business conference in Germany and I used the opportunity to accompany her. I knew that on one evening she had to go to a party and for that evening I got a seat for La Boheme at the Opera House in Cologne.
Early in the afternoon I left our hotel room in Düsseldorf dressed in my Ramsay woolen kilt, off white kilt hose with blue flashes, a semi dress sporran, kilt belt, a light blue shirt with a blue tie and a black jacket, altered by a seamstress to resemble an Argyll.
Having parked close to the Cathedral in Cologne I set off to fetch my ticket. I was not that much accustomed to kilt wearing, but after having spent some hours walking around the streets of Cologne I felt pretty secure.
The performance was not very good. Rodolfo had some voice problems, Mimi was rather ugly and the plot had been removed from 1830 to about 1930. It has, unfortunately, become trendy to make these changes where you bring the story closer to our time.
Still it was a memorable performance. My seat was in the first row, directly in front of - or behind, should you prefer that - the conductor, in the center of attention, so to say.
When he entered and turned towards the audience I recognized that he was aware of my kilt and I got a double take for a split second. That was all.
No whispering behind my back during the breaks, no negative reactions at all. After the performance I had dinner at a restaurant and then drove back to the hotel in Düsseldorf, arriving almost at the same time as my dear wife returned from the party.

Greg