Knobbly Knees

What do two Scottish descendants and their lad and lasses do on a sunny Saturday afternoon?
Sarah and I took Lillian and the twins to Celtic Fest at Usher's Ferry in CR! We saw our cousin Pete in a kilt (yikes!) and learned a lot about our Scottish heritage and traditions.

One tradition that I had no clue about was the Knobbly Knees Contest.
Somehow I was picked out of the crowd to be a judge - maybe it's the reddish hair?? Now, having never seen a "Knobbly Knees" contest, much less even heard of one, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

It's a contest where men or boys (kilts required) come up on stage, and a judge or two feels their knees to see how "knobbly" they are. Yes, I was a judge, and I felt lots of knees, including some very rough knees, and some very ticklish knees, and some very knobbly knees! Bribes were abundant - a dollar for each judge tucked in the top of each stocking, a bit o' whiskey offered from a flask pulled out of a sporran. There were lots of taunts and barbs between the contestants too, such as, "A real Scotsman would never give away TWO dollars."

The man that won the contest had very knobbly knees, it felt like 3 knobs on each knee! His prize was a bottle of Scotch or whiskey and the title of reigning champion for the year. All I got was a dollar!

Pics are posted here.