Morgan's Mild Obsession With All Things Scottish

Here's a fun fact about Morgan: She loves Scottish things. Well, not exactly Scottish "things", like kilts and bagpipes. It's really more about the accent.

About four years ago, when Morgan was 10, we went to Thanksgiving Point (SUCH a beautiful place, if you haven't been there before, you really need to go). The girls caught a grasshopper. We were in the Secret Garden when some other people there saw the girls with their new pet. They commented, with a Scottish brogue, "Look, it's a grasshopper. Aye, it's lucky you know." Morgan was intrigued. "It's lucky you know." (complete with Scottish accent) is now one of the favorite phrases in our house.

So, fast forward a couple of years to UEA weekend in Salt Lake. We had driven past the Scottish store, which was a block or two away from our hotel, and made plans to go there the next day. That night we headed for the pool. Since I can't swim, I spent most of my time lounging in the hot tub. I had Austin with me and a nice, older man in the hot tub made a comment about him. I noticed he had an accent but I really didn't think much about it. He was the only other person in the pool area besides our family.

Later, as we were leaving, I saw the same man at the drinking fountain. He had a towel wrapped around him, which I thought was kind of interesting, and we exchanged a couple more words. I realized then that it was a Scottish accent.

Well, later on, Hal and the girls commented on the guy in the hot tub. They were all grossed out because when he climbed out he had on a speedo. (That would probably explain why he was wearing the towel.) He was kind of a big guy too, so it was not a pretty sight.

I said to them, "Oh, you mean the Scottish guy?"

"Scottish guy?" they asked. "No, we were talking with the Scottish accents."

"What?" I replied, "No, I mean the guy in the hot tub. He was Scottish."

"No, we were the ones talking with the Scottish accents in the hot tub."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"What are YOU talking about?"

We finally got the story straight. They never talked to the guy, so they didn't know he was Scottish. While they were in the hot tub, they started talking in fake Scottish accents in anticipation of going to the Scottish store. I asked if they actually mentioned the fact that they were going to the Scottish store so the guy wouldn't think they were making fun of him. They didn't. How embarrassing. No wonder he left the hot tub. He was probably really offended. At least he didn't know I was with them so he was still nice to me at the drinking fountain.

The next day we finally made it to the Scottish store. We spent a long time searching for my Scottish family name from the Nystrom side, which is McClinchey, so I could buy something with the McClinchey tartan. Well, we couldn't find it. We even had the guy who worked there search for it in his two books that he could special order things out of. The name wasn't in either book. I'm starting to wonder if I'm legitimately partly Scottish or not.

I can't end this post without mentioning our (Morgan's and mine) favorite thing about Scottish accents. It's the men who sport them. Two of our personal favorites are Gerard Butler (think Dear Frankie, not necessarily P.S. I Love You) and Craig Ferguson. Craig Ferguson actually reminds me of a slightly demented version of my brother-in-law Thom. I think he's pretty funny when he keeps his humor clean and silly. When it's not, clean I don't really appreciate it. (That reminds me, I really, really like Chris Rock too, when he's clean. I like watching him on network t.v. because he has to keep things PG.)