Hats – [NOT 26/7/24]

26/7/24 blue dogcollar 18
Hat etching
The Hat That Makes the Man / Currier & Ives / ca. 1880 / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695839/

How Many Hats?

It’s said that JFK turned America into a country without hats, but of course that’s not exactly right. We sure love our baseball caps, for example. Out West, cowboy hats are still around. What do you have?

Off the top of my head (hah!) I have at least five baseball caps, a couple of winter stocking caps, a straw beach hat, a hard hat for the occasional times I trim tree limbs, and a bike helmet.

devils pouring gold from a hat
Devils Pouring Gold Coins from Hat Into Woman’s Apron and Boy’s Hat / ca. 1870 / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002719197

I should wear a hat more often for sun protection, but I tend to forget. And despite the warnings about how much body heat is lost through your head in the winter, I tend to put on a cap in only the coldest weather.

Come to think of it, I also have a hat in the shape of squid (complete with dangling tentacles) I bought one time to wear at Halloween.

man in bowler hat
Man Wearing Tuxedo Holding Bowler Hat / ca. 1896 / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2014636873/

Hipsters affect fedoras and pork pies, it’s still common for church ladies to put on Easter bonnets, and women in the pricey seats at Churchill Downs wear fancy hats for the Kentucky Derby. But they’re so impractical, and hat check rooms are awfully rare these days.

Share with your fellow Deadsplinterhaberdasherers what head coverings you wear, how you choose, and any lingering nostalgia you may have about Edwardian times when women, men, and even street urchins selling newspapers for a penny might wear hats, whether they were boaters, cricket caps, deerstalkers or cloches.

And for that matter how aware are you of manners around hats, such as when to tip them and when to doff. I try to remember to take off my baseball cap when the national anthem is played, and not to wear one in church, but beyond that my memory is pretty fuzzy about when and where you wear them.

If it goes on your head, tell us about it.

avataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

18 Comments

  1. none.nada…..not one

    oh no wait actually…i has a red cap

    i hate wearing hats or caps or anything around my wrists or neck..

    but that one day….i realized it was the red cap or heat stroke

    sposed to have a fishing hat round here too….wich i bought for very much the same reasons in greece..but its gone missing

  2. I have about 30 baseball style hats (none for baseball teams though).  I also have 3 wide brim hats for working in the sun or the beach, lots of snow fleece caps, 3 types of sports helmets, and an amazing old school beer can hat my daughter knitted for me with all my favorite beer cans from a specific brewery.

  3. I have a couple of baseball style hats from the Missouri Botanical Garden as member gifts. They’re great.

    I have a few winter caps to keep me from being super cold.

    I should get one of those wide-brimmed hats for being out in the sun, but I haven’t yet.

  4. I just want it on record that ‘winter stocking hats’ or ‘snow hats,’ as they refer to them in New England, and—even worse—’beanies,’ as they refer to them on the West Coast, are properly referred to as ‘tuques,’ thank you very much.

     

    That said, believe it or not, I have a fedora collection and still wish men wore suits and ties amd hats every day so I could rock them.

    On the other hand,I don’t want to go back. I am going forward with Kamala!

  5. I usually wear a hat if outside. Sometimes a baseball cap of my hapless favorite baseball squadron.

    Mostly a boonie hat. I have ears that I don’t want sunburnt.

    In the fall/winter time it is mandatory. I don’t have a head of hair anymore. Canadian winters can still be vicious.

Leave a Reply