Postmen Wearing Kilts?
The kilt is something which I — like many other Scots — and people of Scottish decent have strong feelings.
To us the kilt is not just a fashion symbol although several Hollywood celebrities seem to think so! The tartan kilt is an important part of our Scottish heritage and culture. When questioned about the one Scottish symbol they comes to mind almost everyone will respond either Tartan or the kilt.
Although most Scotsmen — even in Scotland — do not wear the full Scottish kilt as part of their day to day clothing it is almost compulsory to wear them on special occasions such as weddings and other formal occasions. Almost every town has at least one kilt hire shop on the high street. Here in Aberdeen North East Scotland where I live I can name at least six such Scottish hire shops.
Hundreds of students have recently been graduating from the two local Aberdeen universities and my recent discussions with one of the official photographers showed about 80% of the male graduate chose to wear a tartan kilt for the graduating official photos. Some of them may have not have been Scots by birth or have any Scots descent and their only real connection with Scotland has been through attending university in Aberdeen Scotland but they still wore the kilt to show their attachment to the country which has been their main home for the last four years whilst studying.
The USA and Canada were the first two countries to create a special tartan day to commemorate how important Scots have been in developing their country. Despite the strong lead of other countries the Scottish Parliament have yet to officially declare any special tartan day although they have debated it amongst themselves for a the last few years. However this may change shortly following the election of a new government by the Scottish Nationalist Party which is seen by many to be more focused on preserving the Scottish Culture than our English based political parties.
Despite having no formal national Tartan Day many of our towns and cities have declared a special day when the the town would celebrate Tartan Day. These towns hold a parades with bagpipers marching down the main streets followed by floats and processions of kilted men and women. Although many do not agree with the sound of the bagpipes the sight of them marching proudly along the street gives most Scots a warm inner feeling of pride.
Anyway back to the title about Postmen wearing kilts.
I have just heard today about a postman ( Mail Carrier Delivery Person?) who has launched a national campaign to be allowed to wear a kilt when delivering mail as part of his official uniform. No the postal service worker is not in Scotland but based in Lacey, Washington. Dean Peterson, a 48-year-old postman has been wearing the kilt at work for the last few months, has sent around 1,000 letters to Postal Service union branches in every US State with photos of himself wearing a prototype official uniform kilt.
He himself says, and many Scots would agree, the kilt is more comfortable and suitable to the male anatomy than shorts or trousers. Apparently he has been wearing the kilt for about three years after his wife brought one home for him after her holiday in Scotland.
Kilts have already become part of the official uniform for postmen in Washington and Oregon and now a campaign is under way to introduce it in every other state. Their union debated the call for kilted uniform option in July but did not get enough support to formally support it nationally but branches in other states are going ahead on a state by state basis.
I have not seen the photos myself but it seems to me to be a good opportunity for Scots across the USA to make a stand and support Dean in his campaign. Lets face it if Scots made the USA so special that President Woodrow Wilson stated
“Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood”.
who should try to stop proud Scotsmen from wearing the kilt as their special national costume at work.
Write to your local postal service managers and the union branches and tell them you would be proud to see people of Scots descent able to wear the kilt. After you have written to the state unionmake a comment to let us know what you have done. Alternatively update us on your feeling in the comments box below
Lets get the Scottish tartan kilt being worn by Scots everywhere.
