Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Mystery of the Scottish Invasion

I took a drive into town yesterday afternoon to see if I could find out what was going on with the odd storefront with the two Scottish flags proudly displayed in the windows. I had been doing housework all day and as I looked around at all the things I needed to do, yet couldn't accomplish, I felt overwhelmed. I needed to walk away from it all for an hour or so.



The Amazon had insisted that the second flag was also from Scotland, so I Googled it and found that she was correct. I don't know the significance of the yellow flag or how it differs in meaning from the blue one. If any of you have that information, let me know and I'll post it here.

After snapping the first shot, I looked around to make sure no one was watching. I was standing slap dab in the center of town and I didn't want to get the gossip mill churning with the news that the weird woman in the trailer at the end of the road was seen with her nose pressed against the window of that new place downtown. I'm pretty sure the townsfolk are already whispering that it's some strange cult with weird symbols hanging by the door.



It's not the clearest shot, but you can see inside. When I'd mentioned the Scottish flags to Lulu on Friday she recalled seeing an ad in the Hee-Haw county weekly that someone here in the holler was offering Scottish Folk Dance lessons and speculated that they'd opened a studio. We laughed it off, but I think Lulu was right.


I suppose it makes sense that something of that nature would do well here. This area was originally settled by Scottish immigrants (after they ran the natives off) and there are many common names here that can be traced back to Scottish roots.

So there you have it, mystery solved. I won't be signing up for classes, I can barely walk down the sidewalk without tripping up on a pebble or twig. Gracefulness is not one of my strong points.

5 comments:

gemmak said...

How strange...and though I lived in Scotland for 5 years I am no help at all on the difference in those flags, I only know that they are indeed both Scottish.

Happy New year to you :o)

Travel said...

You should try lessons, how fun!

DG

Anonymous said...

Just judging by the pictures, I think Lulu might be on to something, too. What fun!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I was curious about the flags since I used to live with a Scot-o-file who always had the lion flag up but not the blue cross flag. Turns out the blue with white is the national flag and the lion is the coat of arms of the king of Scotland. Got my info from wikipedia if you want to check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scotland

Anonymous said...

You might want to reconsider the folk dancing lessons - it's bound to draw loads of people with Scottish roots and you might just meet a handsome Scottish man to your liking! I'm just sayin'... :)