Food For Thought Two(F4T2)

[Micric]

Woodshiel,

You say; "Kilts, like blue-jeans are global, and Native born Scots should accept the fact"

Unfortunatley, you are not in a position to tell Scots, or anyone else, what they "should" do........:-)

Best wishes,

Richard.

[Standard]

Jock,
Thanks for taking the time to gather the informatin for this latest poll of the younger set. It is definately full of interesting answers, some of which we here at XMarksTheScot could guess beforehand given your guidance in the past on these topics.

One point that struck me what the number of times per year on average that the group in question wore their kilt. From comments here on XMarks I was surprised to see that most of the 110 polled wore the kilt on average once a week, or more.

As for not knowing the terms pleated to the sett, stripe, district tartan, and civilian box pleat, I wonder how many of us would have known the terms were it not for the discussions here.

[Jock Scot]

Jock,
Thanks for taking the time to gather the informatin for this latest poll of the younger set. It is definately full of interesting answers, some of which we here at XMarksTheScot could guess beforehand given your guidance in the past on these topics.

One point that struck me what the number of times per year on average that the group in question wore their kilt. From comments here on XMarks I was surprised to see that most of the 110 polled wore the kilt on average once a week, or more.

As for not knowing the terms pleated to the sett, stripe, district tartan, and civilian box pleat, I wonder how many of us would have known the terms were it not for the discussions here.

I don't think wearing the kilt, on average, once a week all that surprising. As the "average" age of those answering the questions would be, say, mid thirties, at that age I was surrounded by friends getting married, attending weekend house parties, dances, drinks functions, wandering about the place, to the pub, taking the girlfriend hither and thither, rugby matches, etc.. so it is not at all difficult to wear the kilt once a week.

Thinking about it now , did I really do all that too?

[Jock Scot]

I think that to put you all in the picture that I need to expand a tad, yes indeed 110 kilted gentlemen answered the questions, 10 of which were non-Scots(I needed user friendly questions so I did not delve too deeply into exactly which country they were from). I am reliably informed (I was only very briefly there, but I had my spies)that nearly all of those kilted that night answered the questions. BUT those kilted,still made up less than half of the males attending the event. The others, clad in dinner jackets(tux) were mainly, not all, Scots. There were also a few wearing tartan trews apparently.

The professions of those attending were many and various, but certainly I saw arriving, the military, doctors, accountants, farmers, the legal world, nurses, bankers, gamekeepers, teachers, pilot, so broadly speaking drawn from the "professional" set.

The ladies here might be interested in this, apparently most of the girls wore long dresses(to keep warm?) with a few micro mini's lurking and a couple of girls were wearing velvet trousers of some sort and er, something on top of course. Interestingly the phenomenon that I have noticed in the last few years seemingly prevailed, the ladies shunned tartan for any of their outfits.

A final thought. I have known many of the guests since they were born and like all youngsters they have done their share of rebelling, as they do, and rather like reformed smokers who are the most ardent anti-tobacco people I know, now that these youngsters are reaching a rather more sensible age I notice that their kilt wearing styles are far more conservative than they were. Perhaps this new found conservatism also encloses their views on where and by whom the kilt is to be worn? I don't know, but perhaps it is another(new?) aspect of the growing up process that I have noticed over the years.

[Sir William]

...110 kilted gentlemen answered the questions, 10 of which were non-Scots(I needed user friendly questions so I did not delve too deeply into exactly which country they were from). I am reliably informed (I was only very briefly there, but I had my spies)that nearly all of those kilted that night answered the questions. BUT those kilted,still made up less than half of the males attending the event. The others, clad in dinner jackets(tux) were mainly, not all, Scots. There were also a few wearing tartan trews apparently.

Jock,

If ever you feel so inclined to do F4T3 in the future, you might consider having all the gentlemen present answer the survey (perhaps with a space at the beginning asking if they are kilted that day so you can keep track of each group). It might be surprising to find how many of these gentlemen own a kilt or perhaps are considering acquiring one though they are not wearing it at the moment.

[Jock Scot]

Jock,

If ever you feel so inclined to do F4T3 in the future, you might consider having all the gentlemen present answer the survey (perhaps with a space at the beginning asking if they are kilted that day so you can keep track of each group). It might be surprising to find how many of these gentlemen own a kilt or perhaps are considering acquiring one though they are not wearing it at the moment.

Well someone said "never say never" and perhaps they were right, so shall I just say that the likely-hood of me doing F4T3 in the future is on the slim side of slim.

It would be difficult to make an accurate comment about those not wearing the kilt the other evening. There were a few there that I know have worn the kilt in the past and did not. There were others that I knew, that to the best of my knowledge, have never worn the kilt. Also present were English, German, French, Polish, Australian and perhaps others and most of them would fairly naturally, I think, would not have worn the kilt. It was no big deal one way or the other.

[Peter Crowe]

Well someone said "never say never" and perhaps they were right, so shall I just say that the likely-hood of me doing F4T3 in the future is on the slim side of slim.

It would be difficult to make an accurate comment about those not wearing the kilt the other evening. There were a few there that I know have worn the kilt in the past and did not. There were others that I knew, that to the best of my knowledge, have never worn the kilt. Also present were English, German, French, Polish, Australian and perhaps others and most of them would fairly naturally, I think, would not have worn the kilt. It is/was no big deal one way or the other.

Jock Thank You!

It would seem that your kindness and thoughtfulness to XMTS community has landed you with a monster you never intended to create.

[Sir William]

Well someone said "never say never" and perhaps they were right, so shall I just say that the likely-hood of me doing F4T3 in the future is on the slim side of slim.

I've made similar promises to myself as well - and sometimes even kept them!

As I said, if you should ever become so inclined again to make another survey.

It would be difficult to make an accurate comment about those not wearing the kilt the other evening. There were a few there that I know have worn the kilt in the past and did not. There were others that I knew, that to the best of my knowledge, have never worn the kilt. Also present were English, German, French, Polish, Australian and perhaps others and most of them would fairly naturally, I think, would not have worn the kilt. It is/was no big deal one way or the other.

I had the impression from your previous post that the majority of attendees were Scots in dinner jackets instead of kilts. Then again, it might be interesting to see if these non-Scots were kilt-wearers or aspiring kilt wearers such as found here on XMTS. I'm reminded of a Canadian friend of Polish extraction (no Scots at all) who served in the Canadian Black Watch so he could wear a kilt.

[Jock Scot]

I had the impression from your previous post that the majority of attendees were Scots in dinner jackets instead of kilts. Then again, it might be interesting to see if these non-Scots were kilt-wearers or aspiring kilt wearers such as found here on XMTS. I'm reminded of a Canadian friend of Polish extraction (no Scots at all) who served in the Canadian Black Watch so he could wear a kilt.

.


You impression is correct most of those wearing a dinner jacket were Scots with the rest being made up of foreigners.

I did have a long conversation with a German guest who really wanted to wear the kilt to the evening do. His wife was also very keen on the idea, so our family put their collective best feet forward, baring in mind Highland hospitality traditions, and rustled up a complete evening kilt outfit for him to wear and even fitted him pretty well. By all accounts they had a great time and looked good.

Interestingly, when he called in to return some of my kit that he had borrowed after the event, he made the comment that whilst they had a great time(and I believe him) he would not wear the kilt again as he did not think it was right. I did not know the results of the survey then, so nor could he and I don't know if he picked up "the vibes" during the survey time---I hope not!-----but that is what he thought.

[Jock Scot]

It would seem that your kindness and thoughtfulness to XMTS community has landed you with a monster you never intended to create.

I think I can honestly and fairly say: "It was not me gov, honest! It was the wife's idea!"