Kilt Guy

I saw something odd the other morning. I was on my way to work and stopped at the grocery store that is on the first floor of the building where I work. There at the ATM machine near the front door was a guy wearing a kilt. It was predominately blue with a yellow and red pseudo-tartan pattern, matching blue t-shirt and some sort of Celtic-y looking medallion hanging around his neck. He also had a long, dirty blonde pony-tail in the back. The only thing that spoiled the picture was that he didn’t have the large, fuzzy and metallic belt-buckle that seems to be part of the uniform.

I really wanted to talk to him and see what his story was, but he got away before I had a chance. I am pretty sure he wasn’t Scottish as the look wasn’t quite right and I am fairly sure Scottish people wear jeans and such when they travel abroad. It is my understanding that such things are mostly for special occasions these days. I think he was probably Russian and just wanted to wear it for the stares and shock effect. Much like my sister when she used to get tattoos and burn herself to shock the rubes’ back in Georgia. Attention for its own sake, and trying to be weird and unique for the same reason. Most genuine weirdo’s and eccentrics are that way without having a clue that they are and don’t really care if anyone thinks of them that way.

Still I admire his bravery. In a country where skin-heads routinely kick to death anyone they feel doesn’t belong in Russia a guy wearing a skirt is a bold statement. Skin-heads are an anomaly in their own right. Wearing the symbols and mouthing the slogans of Hitler and the Nazis they forget that Hitler and the rest thought of Russians and all Slavic people as sub-human. Germans used to separate the Russian in the POW camps from the Americans and Brits so that they didn’t have to feed the Russians that they didn’t import back to Germany to use as slave labor.

He got away before I could talk to him, but I did get a photo of his retreating back. Hope he had a safe ride on the metro and maybe I’ll see him again one day.