Just plain kilts

[jthk]

A good reminder that the United States is a very large country with many different sub-cultures. One could fit two Europes in one US ... with that much landmass and 350-ish million people, a person's experience of the "USA" could be valid but very different than someone else's equally valid experience.

This is very interesting, and goes to show how different parts of the USA have different social attitudes.

Here on the Left Coast it's so multicultural. Before the present stay-at-home edict I could go out and do errands for hours, go to the Post Office and the market and different shops and eat at a restaurant, and not see another white person.

There are Indian people in traditional Indian clothes, and Mexican guys in cowboy attire, and who knows what all. I stand out already, might as well have on a kilt. It doesn't get a second glance here, not with the Hipsters and Goths and Hippies and every sort of Fashion Culture there is.

Besides that, I'm a cosplayer. Kilts are mainstream compared to that.

What a contrast to my native West Virginia! Ironically there, where nearly everybody has Scottish ancestry to some degree or other, I'm guessing that I would get more reaction to kiltwearing. (The only place I've ever worn a kilt there was at the local Highland Games.)

[OC Richard]

A good reminder that the United States is a very large country with many different sub-cultures...a person's experience of the "USA" could be valid but very different than someone else's equally valid experience.

For sure and it's something that both we here in the USA and people outwith the USA might be mindful of.

I'm a microcosm of that myself, having lived in Deepest Darkest Appalachia (Central West Virginia) and Southern California. The two cultures have striking differences. I'm sure other equally-dichotomous culture-pairs could easily be put forward, both here and probably in every country.

[Jock Scot]

For sure and it's something that both we here in the USA and people outwith the USA might be mindful of.

I'm a microcosm of that myself, having lived in Deepest Darkest Appalachia (Central West Virginia) and Southern California. The two cultures have striking differences. I'm sure other equally-dichotomous culture-pairs could easily be put forward, both here and probably in every country.

Exactly so! The differences between the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland for example which would be an apt example and worth noting on this website.

[OC Richard]

Exactly so! The differences between the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland for example which would be an apt example and worth noting on this website.

As I've mentioned before I was surrounded by Scots (being with them on average four or five days a week) and I had long heard the contrast between the speech of the Glaswegians and melodious speech of the people I knew from the Islands, you can hear a few of them here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-CEaLi1Q98

and Glaswegian here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibpmErbPhw&t=16s

[Jock Scot]

As I've mentioned before I was surrounded by Scots (being with them on average four or five days a week) and I had long heard the contrast between the speech of the Glaswegians and melodious speech of the people I knew from the Islands, you can hear a few of them here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-CEaLi1Q98

and Glaswegian here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibpmErbPhw&t=16s

I am sure that you know the differences of accents are the most obvious aspect and they also can differ quite markedly from one small part of a particular area to another. For those that don't know, the differences go much, much deeper than just accents. Even to this day.

[RichardtheLarge]

I am sure that you know the differences of accents are the most obvious aspect and they also can differ quite markedly from one small part of a particular area to another. For those that don't know, the differences go much, much deeper than just accents. Even to this day.

Would you be willing to discuss this in more detail, Jock? I haven’t spent enough time nor travelled extensively enough in Scotland to appreciate these regional differences.

[Jock Scot]

Would you be willing to discuss this in more detail, Jock? I haven’t spent enough time nor travelled extensively enough in Scotland to appreciate these regional differences.

I will have to think about how I might go about that. I am not at all sure that my written word skills are up to describing the subtleties of those from different areas that I live with and take for granted, without starting World War 3! If I may, I will give the project some thought.

[Dr Bee]

I will have to think about how I might go about that. I am not at all sure that my written word skills are up to describing the subtleties of those from different areas that I live with and take for granted, without starting World War 3! If I may, I will give the project some thought.

"D'ye ken whir ye're gan t'be gan the morn's morn?" - these words (spoken fast in a Dumfries accent - and almost pure Anglo-Saxon as I much later learned) were actually spoken to me in the playground of a Dumfries school when at the age of 11 my family had just moved to the town from the Glasgow suburb where I was born. In a split second my thoughts moved through incomprehension, outrage, then a growing realization that in fact 'I did' and therefore the answer was 'yes' or perhaps 'aye.' It's possible the question was asked simply to tease me, but the incident has stayed with me for 50 years because I still find it amusing and it served to illustrate the new culture into which I had arrived. After all, no one spoke like that in the Glasgow I'd left behind - Glaswegians by and large spoke modern English in a variety of accents ranging from the the comically guttural to the comically polished - and their use of Anglo-Saxonisms rarely intruded into polite conversation. However, the cultural differences between Scotland's central belt and the Borders and Galloway are far deeper than simply accent and dialect. Things may have changed a little but I would suggest there is not and probably never has been a single 'Lowland' culture in Southern Scotland - it has long been a land of many cultures, a complex mix produced by a long and complex history and, therefore, to try to portray Scotland in terms of a divide between Highland and Lowland is likely to produce something of an anachronistic result - a parody or a caricature which will do justice to no one. Hopefully Word War 3 will not result, but it's easy to envisage more than one very large can of worms.

I do not doubt for a moment that Jock does indeed have the skills necessary to accomplish his task but I'd have to say it will be a gargantuan task as there is unlikely to be a single, homogenous Highland culture any more than there is a Lowland one. My own travels in the Highlands have over many years introduced me to different communities with their own areas of commerce, their own linguistic heritage, their own opinions of other Scots, other Britons and, of course, other Highlanders. In short, I'd venture to say the mix is as complex as the Lowland mix - a different mix but not a homogenous Highland culture.

These observations and comments apply of course to the late 20th century and to the 21st century and it would be foolish to deny the historical shaping of Scotland in which perhaps two, three or four hundred years ago there were large areas of starkly divergent homogenous culture on either side of the Highland line. I wish Jock well if he undertakes the task he described and I shall read with interest whatever he posts.

[Jock Scot]

Would you be willing to discuss this in more detail, Jock? I haven’t spent enough time nor travelled extensively enough in Scotland to appreciate these regional differences.

I actually posted what I thought was quite a good reply, but its seems its lost in the ether somewhere! So at the moment I don't think that I have the humour or, inclination to write another one!

[Crazy Dave]

Do you know where you will be going tomorrow morning? Is that what he said?

Dave