The Scottish Sparrow: A Tartan, A Plaid, A Kilt

I am by no means an expert about tartans, I'm actually really ignorant. However, I still want to cover this subject as best I can because it is HUGE when talking about Scottish culture. So, I'll start. A tartan is a pattern of criss crossed bands in multiple colors that are on kilts. Tartans were associated with districts of Scotland becasue the weavers would make a design in the local taste and with local dyes. Tartans weren't associated with certain clans until mid-ninteeth century, which I found surprising.

Where I am from, tartan patterns are everywhere, especially on winter scarves. Tartans are on boxes of shortbread cookies, in ribons during christmas, on short summer dresses, on headbands, the insides of purses, on sweatshirts, shoes, button-up shirts, you name it. The tartan designs I see all over america are simple designs that aren't associated with Scotland and remind me of preppy people. I'm a very plain dresser alot of the time, but I most certainly am not preppy in any way, shape, or form, so I have never really worn tartan designs. The real tartan designs, the ones that are unmistakably on a kilt somewhere in the highlands, those ones are beautiful, but the simple ones on a whole mess of different objects are just annoying.

There are alot of cool tartans out there which are neutral. This means that anyone can wear them, not only people that are in a certain clan. I am certain that clans have alot of rules on who can wear them, they don't want just anyone to wear their tartan, so thats why neutral ones are really refreshing. I know that some believe that the tartan is passed down by the surname, so that the father's tartan is the childs. What is hilarious about that though, is that while both my parents are scottish my father is also Cherokee, and the cherokee believe that a child's history/family relations come from their mother. I lived with the name Gordon on my mailbox long enough, that I can only say I'm on my mother's side. Of course, now that I think of it, my granny was Doris Duncan, and I lived with her for just as long too. Well, I guess I'm at an impasse, this is probably why that rule is there.

Some neutral tartans are these (these ones are older, I'll put more modern neutral tartans down lower so that I can space them out):

Hunting Stewart:

Black Watch:

Caledonian:

Jacobite:

They are so pretty I don't want to stop looking at them!
Even with clans though, there are different tartans in their names. For instance, there is the modern tartan versus the ancient tartan. The ancient tartans tend to be softer and lighter in color than modern ones. When I look at different Gordon tartans, I find that they are also split by region, and there is the Gordon red tartan, and the Gordon dress tartan.

I have always loved the complex tartan patterns. The christmas dresses I see sometimes always make me think of my grandpa Gordon, who I lived with for years after my parents got divorced. My grandpa was clearly scottish, I mean, his name was Charles Bruce Gordon, a name which was passed down in hsi family until my uncle chuck who became a preist. My grandpa also had a Gordon crest magnet on his fridge, and a white westy named Duncan Gordon, who I have mentioned a few times. Along with that, my granpa used to make his kids wear kilts or tartan designed dresses every now and then. My mom complained about it to me, she hated to wear them, but grandpa Gordon thought they were cute.

My granpa has a scottish spirit, at least I think so. He wasn't like my strict grandma. Hes cheerful, big-hearted, loyal, and every other thing that you could ever hope for in a family member. He came from chicago, and he used to hang out with the scottish and irish people in the city. I think that is why he has always listened to irish christmas songs like "christmas in killarney." When I asked, he told me I was also irish, something I am not sure if I should believe. My granpa is a funny guy, a trickster who likes to tell kids farfetched tales in order to impress them. He once told me that he did jujitsu as a kid and took down a twenty-eight year old wrestler. He also told me the story of tom sawyer, only in his version he was tom sawyer, I didnt realize it for a couple of years. My granpa is also good at rhymths. He had eight children, and he used to tell each child to make a certain sound or hum a certain melody, and together all of it would sound really cool.

He only has seven fingers because when he was younger he was in some sort of incident. He can shake his hand so fast it is amazing, his hand almost looks blurry, no matter how much I tried I could never copy him. With that hand I also got slapped in the butt a few times when I was little and passed him in the kitchen. My grandpa is old now, close to the end. He doesn't wear his suspenders, his cool hat, clean-cut pants, or say much now, but he still watches things like "mary queen of scots" and other scottish television shows with bagpipes blaring all the way to the living room. Not too long ago he got me and my sister pajama shorts with the Gordon tartan on it, ones that I still love to this day. Until the end he will always be scottish, and I will always think of him when I see a genuine scottish tartan.

Here are some more neutral tartans (these are newer):

Scottish National: