10. You have your very own monster.

9. You get to spend time in pubs drinking a LARGE variety of whiskies.

8. You can buy your child a Shetland pony or a Budweiser draft horse on the same island. The problem is getting them home.

7. You can eat scones with your tea.

6. You can top your teenager’s obnoxious rock music with a bagpipe tape.

5. The bagpipe is an ill wind no one blows good.

4. You get to talk in a garbled, strange tongue.

3. You can eat food with mysterious names:" bridies, tatties and neeps – and haggis.

2. In a gathering of Scots, it’s the men in trousers who look out of place.

1. Golf is your basic religion.

With apologies to David Letterman, the above is presented by the Scottish Cultural Society as the Top Ten List of reasons to claim Scottish ancestry.

Appearing in the Scottish Genealogy Group of the Illinois St. Andrew Society JUL-SEP Newsletter, vol. 7 no. 3., submitted by Ree Grisham, SGG, ISAS, Des Plaines, IL.

Last Update: April 2005