My Hats Off to You!

Folks who know me are already aware that I know and keep certain special days when they show up on the calendar. June 14 is National Bourbon Day and part of my annual birthday celebration. September 12 is National Biscuits and Gravy Day which I have kept for several years now. December 30 is National Bacon Day which leads to the question of why isn’t everyday Bacon Day? At least for me a bunch of other bacon fans. So you’re liable to see me putting up some pieces that call attention to these special days. Wait! I almost forgot to mention that September 29 is National Coffee Day! That thing I said about bacon applies to coffee as well! Maybe more so! 

So here I go again. Another day that has probably not caught your attention or much mention: January 15 is National Hat Day. A great day to celebrate the chapeau! Or to feast with a festive fedora! Or party in a pith helmet! So to celebrate this year I wanted to muse on some of my head coverings. Please bear with me. 

I have loved hats since I was a boy. I’ll be showing my age, but yes, I can remember starting with a coon-skin cap back in the heyday of Fess Parker playing the roles of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. It was not hard to find a coon-skin cap in Gatlinburg. We were, after all, the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. We were a tourist town right there in the hills of Tennessee. The thing was hot as all get-out, but I still wore it as I pioneered paths through the woods at least in my imagination. As a side note I kept the tail off that hat for years. 

For a summer the bluegrass band I played with was doing daily shows at Goldrush Junction, the forerunner of DollyWood. I had a selection of cowboy hats for playing gigs and especially for the show on the train when we either robbed it or protected it depending on coin tosses that happened backstage. There was a time when I wore a variety of Stetsons or Baileys or Resistols both in straw and felt. I was familiar with the various creases that one could put on a hat. My favorite for a time was the LSD or Lone Star Dude crease that was smaller at the front of the crown, broadened towards the back which was also taller; the whole thing sort of looked like a pop-top off a beer can. I kind of got out of cowboy hats when the movie Urban Cowboy came along. 

Having worked on the train at Goldrush Junction, I had a railroad engineers hat. Perhaps you’ve seen them—blue and white striped cloth with a bill on front. The top had a particular pattern of folds that yielded a sort of octagonal shape. If you’ve ever seen a picture of the old-time singer Jimmy Rogers, he was most likely wearing one. I wore them while working in woodshops. Soft and comfortable—easy to slip a pencil behind your ear and the bill kept at least some of the sawdust out of my eyes. 

Even now I’ve got quite a collection of baseball hats, or trucker’s hats, as some call them. Yes, some are from actual baseball teams. Growing up in the south most everyone I knew were Atlanta Braves fans—only baseball we could get near. I have a Tennessee Smokies hat from our local Cubs AA affiliate team (I really enjoy minor league baseball, but that’s for another day.). I’ve got a Boston Red Sox hat as well. One of my most recent additions in this line is a BaseVols Hat from the University of Tennessee’s College World Series Championship this past summer. That one was a while in coming. 

Hiking as much as I do means that I’ve got several hats for that. I’ve got a couple what we call ‘boonie hats,’ like those worn in the Army during Vietnam. I’ve got one that came cheap one day when I was heading out and stopped at one of those big stores—you know. I’ve got a couple that are designed to be wet down and wrung out before using them; the theory is that the water evaporates and offers some cooling effect. It seems to work. I can remember my grandfather telling me about doing something similar back in his day. I’ve got two of them that are different patterns of camoflauge. 

Yes, I do have a pith helmet! It was given to me by someone who saw it and said she only knew one person who could get away with wearing it—that was me, of course. It keeps my head shaded and allows the breeze to blow through keeping me cooler in the hotter months. It seems that almost everytime I wear it I get people stopping me to ask questions as if I’m a park ranger. Not a problem really. It’s a good functional hat, and I certainly don’t mind helping folks walking in the forest.

I’ve got a nice Stetson straw fedora that I got for playing C.S. Lewis in a production of the play “Shadowlands.” It is sort of my warm weather “Sunday go to meeting” hat. I choose it because I was always a fan of Father Mulcahy on MASH—a gentle soul whose hat was just the right amount of formality with also being a bit floppy. Lots of folks have commented that they enjoy the fact that I wear a hat, especially those. 

I’ve got some flat caps. One was a gift from our daughter who had gotten in for “Newsies” event once. New Holland Brewing and a dragon highlight the gray. Another one was a gift from God. Scott and I were wrapping up a trip out west where we had camped all over the place for a couple of weeks. I often get a hat as s souvenir, but I just hadn’t seen anything that caught my eye. We were at the City Museum of St. Louis on the last day. On the second floor there was a big box filled with hats and a sign that said, “Free. But if you put it on, it’s yours.” Here was an oddity. Must have been some kind of health regulation or something. I looked carefully and found a nice wood tweed flat cap. I tried it on and it fit perfectly! 

I had thought I would count up all the hats I’ve got, but that is more of a task than I’m up to today. I didn’t mention my Amish hat, my Panama Jack hat, my bike helmet, my wool and alpaca knit caps that Laura has made for me, or my black tam that is part of my academic regalia. Since we’re going to be moving soon, maybe I’ll take the time to do an inventory. 

In the meantime, I hope you’ve had a good National Hat Day. If you see me out and about there’s an excellent chance you’ll see one of mine. Keep watching. The headgear will change from day to day and season to season. But my love for hats will not!