“And everyone, men and women, seemed inordinately fond of hats.”
Last night got cold. I had to close all the downstairs windows, and I’m glad I did because it’s been raining all morning, and the house has a sweatshirt worthy damp chill even with the windows closed. Henry is quick to go out and quicker to come back inside.
When I was a kid, a rainy Saturday ruined the whole week. It meant staying inside and trying to find ways to entertain myself. TV helped fill the time. I watched all the Saturday programs. Later, if I had a book, I’d hide in my bedroom away from the noise of kids stuck inside and read.
It’s a rainy day, and I have fallen into old habits. I’m watching TV to pass the time, and I’ve started a book by Harlan Coben, Don’t Let Go. I bought the hardcover at last week’s farmer’s market. It was a dollar. I’ve already gotten more than my money’s worth.
I have all sorts of collections. I have hats. They are on a hat tree, a real tree in the guest room, and on the bookcase here in the den. Some of the hats are old. One is a red Panama hat I bought in Ecuador in the 70’s. All the women there wear a similar hat. I have an old navy hat and an old army hat. I have my ancient brownie beret and a boy scout hat. I have a brown fedora which reminds me of my dad who wore one to work all the time I was growing up. One of the hats was worn for Easter by my sister when she was young. It is a pill box with flowers on the top and a ribbon and bow. The ribbon hangs down in the back. Three of my hats are from Ghana. A red fez reminds me of Doctor Who. The bowler is like the one John Steed used to wear on The Avengers. The band hat has a plume. A soft brown woman’s hat has feathers. It looks like the sort of hat worn to complement horse riding garb. The train ticket collector’s hat is blue. I have a wide brim pink hat. It is one of my favorites.
What is ironic here is I don’t wear hats. I just collect them.
I haven’t bought a hat for a while, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up hats. I am just getting choosier.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
June 23, 2018 at 12:17 pm
Christer v Birgit
The day has arrived, the moment will soon be upon us. Sides must be taken, the KTCC family is divided. It is football Saturday
June 23, 2018 at 1:10 pm
Less than one hour until kickoff… I may need another team to cheer for after the group stage but right now I know which side I’m on 🙂 Go German team and please play less boring this time!
Unfortunately I couldn’t get Swedish beer so strong beer from Denmark has to do. Close enough. Hi Scandinavia!
Good luck, Christer/Sweden, but not too much luck 😉
June 23, 2018 at 1:15 pm
Birgit,
You did well finding a complementary beer.
Go luck to Sweden!
Good luck to Germany!
June 23, 2018 at 4:01 pm
They did their best but I’m not surprised Germany won, after all they had the ball 90% of the time 🙂 🙂
Now we need to win over Mexico and You South Korea, I guess we won’t make it 🙂 🙂
June 23, 2018 at 4:11 pm
Go Sweden and good luck! As long as you don’t play against us 🙂
June 23, 2018 at 4:22 pm
Christer,
We didn’t even qualify for the World Cup!! I find that horrific. I don’t know why the women’s teams are so much more successful than the men’s.
June 23, 2018 at 1:14 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I have to be neutral. It is my burden.
June 23, 2018 at 2:24 pm
Kat, I am never neutral (well sometimes) but in this case will not express my preference
22 minutes gone and still 0-0 , drilling iced teas and potato chips
June 23, 2018 at 2:30 pm
I am watching it but only here and there. I don’t know why they didn’t put something under that guy’s nose as he walked to the sideline
June 23, 2018 at 2:36 pm
Team Christer has scored a cracker…..no pressure in Bochum
June 23, 2018 at 2:39 pm
Close one right there! Quite the save.
June 23, 2018 at 3:01 pm
Not boring but… Well, I like the beer 🙂
June 23, 2018 at 3:22 pm
Birgit,
I am not a soccer fan but I do like to watch snippets.
June 23, 2018 at 3:28 pm
20 minutes left and super tense with Teams Birgit and Christer tied
June 23, 2018 at 3:55 pm
Oh boy
June 23, 2018 at 4:01 pm
🙂
June 23, 2018 at 12:52 pm
George Carlin’s comedy routine, “A place for your stuff”, explains our human desire to collect stuff and then have to store it. I’m love collecting things I never use, but enjoy knowing that they are in my house. At one time I had a baseball hat collection on a closet shelf wrapped in a big plastic bag. It went in the trash during my last move. I have a nice collection of books that I will never read again which fills my living room bookcase. I have a vinyl record collection but no turntable. However, I have digital versions of most of the albums. I have a cabinet full of VHS tapes and DVDs but no VHS player. Hopefully, DVD players will be available for awhile. By comparison my hat collection took up a lot less space. 🙂
After I’m gone my kids will build a museum containing all my stuff at the local land fill. 🙂
Another clear very hot day with highs expected of 102 degrees it sounds less hot at 38 degrees Celsius. :-).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JLoge6QzcGY
June 23, 2018 at 1:04 pm
Bob,
I’d not throw out stuff until I checked to see if any of it has value. I have some old Steiff animals, a couple with tags, and they are worth something. I just hope that the family who gets my house checks all my stuff. The Simon Pearce glass is big bucks now.
I have records and a turntable. I also still have a video machine.
My African stuff will probably not get a new home. I doubt people want the stuff except maybe the baskets, the cloth and the napkins and tablecloths.
I do love George Carlin! Thanks!
It is 63˚ right now.
June 23, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Bob, funny that about the books, between games I decided to fill the wheelie up with goodness knows how many paperbacks that have been read and are now gathering dust. I am not sure why I thought I would get back to a 20 year old biography of Jimmy Greaves…guess now I won’t.
June 23, 2018 at 12:59 pm
Brit women still wear hats to weddings and such. You could tell the Americans at what’s her name’s wedding by the lack thereof. It would be cool if men still wore hats aside from ball caps. And I have a bunch of those.
June 23, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Spaceman,
Most of the American women wore fascinators. Only a few wore hats, big hats. I think more of them followed convention by wearing a hat than didn’t.
I agree about men’s hats.There are so many great hats for men, and I would love to see more men wearing hats
June 23, 2018 at 7:42 pm
Men commonly wore hats in the US through the 1940s. In the cities and towns, Bowlers, Fedora’s, Derbys. berets and others. Decline of hat use is generally attributed to the advent of more modern cars – 50ish- not much clearance to the car ceiling. So men took their hats off in cars and I guess got used to not wearing them. Maybe changing fashion as well. Wearing ball caps is fairly common still – not a problem in vehicles. Have a nice Resistol cowboy hat I bought ages ago in Grand Prairie,Tx. Infrequently catch a rodeo and will wear there. Local Sheriff’s associations put on 2 or 3 a year as fund raisers for their auxiliary programs. Fun to go as change of pace activity.
June 23, 2018 at 8:24 pm
Spaceman,
I’ve seen far fewer baseball caps on adult men. I’m glad as those hats drove me crazy. Men wore them in movie theaters and airplanes. I even saw a few at the Cape Playhouse.
I never knew about the car ceiling clearance.
June 24, 2018 at 9:25 am
Baseball hats common here. Digression is expected as to where they are worn (like any other hat.)
June 24, 2018 at 12:04 pm
Teens don’t seem to get hat etiquette. We always have to remind the graduates that during the ceremony the boys need their hats off during the anthem.
June 24, 2018 at 5:12 pm
Parents got on us for similar I’m sure. Nothing much changes under the sun
June 24, 2018 at 5:18 pm
No, nothing much changes.
June 23, 2018 at 3:08 pm
Men’s hats have lost their purpose which was to keep the sun and rain off of your face and head while you worked on the farm or ranch. Except for cowboy 10 gallon hats farmers wear ball caps and the rest of us work, ride and live inside air conditioned spaces. Good riddance to men’s hats.
Our cousins across the pond hold on to all kind of archaic things such as woman’s fascinators, men wearing ties, driving on the wrong side of the street and the royal family.
June 23, 2018 at 3:19 pm
Bob,
My fathers generation all wore hats and most of them were not farmers. I have the most wonderful memory image of my dad in his top coat and his fedora as he came in the front door.
I wouldn’t call driving on the left side archaic and men here still wear ties to work. The fascinators are quite stylish but are usually worn only at events like that wedding. I have one I wear every Easter.
June 23, 2018 at 3:54 pm
You must remember that your and my father were less than one generation off the farm. Before WWI most Americans worked in agriculture. That’s where the saying, “How do you keep them down on the farm, once they’re seen Paris”, originated. 🙂 In the early 1950s Sweeden switched from driving on the left. Only the British, their former colonies and Japan continue the practice. Keeping left has something to doe with riding horses and wearing swords.
June 23, 2018 at 4:18 pm
Bob,
My great-grandfathers, at least 3 of the 4, worked in the city. It was the same with my grandfathers. We would have to go back bit to find the farmers.
I don’t see it as the wrong side, just their side.
June 23, 2018 at 6:01 pm
My great grandparents were long gone by the time I came around. Neither of my grandfathers drove and they walked everywhere in the neighborhood or rode public transportation. They were both bald and needed a hat to protect their heads. My father’s father was a very Orthodox Jew and always covered his head. Indoors he wore a skullcap while awake or not bathing. My other grandfather was not observant but just bald. 🙂
June 23, 2018 at 7:59 pm
Bob,
I knew two of my great-grandfathers. One worked for the railroad as did my grandfather. He too never owned a car and lived in the city his whole life. He wore a fedora every day to work. My other grandfather had a car. He wore suits every day to work, had a top coat and a few hats of different colors.
June 23, 2018 at 4:07 pm
We’ve had a really nice day over here, cool but not cold, rather windy and sunshine all day. I thought I just would mow down the worst parts of the lawn today but ended up mowing the entire garden 🙂 🙂 I have some more to mow down tomorrow outside the dog yard so I’ll use the trimmer for that.
I have my cameras and that’s it but I do try and use them all at least once every year. Every time I buy another camera I say that it is the least one and I always find another one sooner or later 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 23, 2018 at 4:20 pm
Christer,
It never cleared today and was chilly all day. Tomorrow will be similar. I’ll not complaint as we can always use water.
Collecting is never ending despite good intentions!
Sorry about the game!
June 24, 2018 at 1:44 pm
Hi Kat,
I loved hats as a kid and teenager and I wore them, too. I even owned a wig hat back then. 🙂 It used to be a tradition of mine to make a “horse/dog show/lawn-mowing hat” every season. I’d find a plain, cheapo, wide-brimmed straw hat and bling it up with plastic flowers and other odd bits. There are probably a few of them still hanging about up in Scary Room One. Nowadays, I limit myself to knitted winter hats and the one sun hat made out of grass or some such thing.
It was cool here yesterday (Saturday) and it did try to rain now and then in a desultory way. I had to close the windows because it did get cold in the evening. An extra blanket was added as well.
Enjoy the day.
June 24, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Hi Caryn,
I don’t wear hats but oddly enough hats look good on me. My collection seldom gets worn. They are just on display.
I like that you blinged up your hats. That sounds like fun. I’m thinking it would be a great summer evening project. I’ll have to find an event like National Hat Day.
We got no rain today but it has been damp and chilly all day. I have only the back door open for Henry, but he didn’t care. He just peed in the hall. He is slow to realize he can go out by himself without my cheering him on.
Have a great evening!
June 24, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Caryn, go for it! They can’t put you in jail!