Hats

Sometime after World War II men (at least West of the Mississippi River, which is the only part of the nation along with the deep South, that is close to being America) decided to stop wearing hats in daily life. I don't know why. I can only guess that once the veterans of World War II got back from the Pacific and Europe they were pretty tired of wearing steel helmets, garrison caps and overseas caps that they didn't like, and so decided to ditch the whole hat concept in toto.

Before the Big War it was the usual thing for a man to wear a hat. It was such a part of a man's being that a man would wear a worn out hat or cap instead of going hatless. My grandfather, Sir Bill of Talequa, at one time asked my grandmother, Lady Vera, to make him a cap because his had worn out. She was a mean woman with a needle and managed to deconstruct a flat cap (now known as an eight panel newsboy's cap) and make a new cap for Sir Bill using a piece of screen door screen as the stiffener for the bill. That's how important it was in the thirties for a guy to cover his noggin.

Now we seem to have descended to the baseball type cap on the coast and, for those lucky enough to live inland, the cowboy hat. The fedora, homberg. porkpie, panama and beret have become historical curiosities.

When I was a laddie there was a book in the local library entitled Call Me Mister. The book was intended for the young man coming into adulthood. The whole idea of the book was to instruct a young man about what was expected from a young man in the matter of manner, dress and behaviour once the young man entered adulthood. It was, in effect, a guide for going from Keds to wingtips or steel toed boots. I've looked for copies of the book since then, but I have been unable to find any. In the book the matter of hats was addressed. It was assumed at the time that the book was published, that a man would wear a hat. I don't know when the book was published. I can only assume that it was released in the late forties or very early fifties. The advice that the book gave regarding the wearing of hats for men was, by today's standards, classist. Those aspiring to professional status were advised to wear hombergs, fedoras, snap brim, or alpine hats. Craftsmen were advised to wear snap brim hats or flat caps. Laborers were expected to wear flat caps or baseball type caps. Men in the service industry were advised to wear baseball type caps or variations of the overseas cap. The artistic type was directed toward the beret or felt sombrero ala Oscar Wilde. Summer wear was a little more open. Panama hats, skimmers or boaters, and snap brim straws were considered open territory for any guy. Formal wear was considered the silk hat or the fedora. Cowboy hats were for cowboys or farmers.

My dear father, Earl Bud of Carthage, has rarely worn a hat during my lifetime except for the occasional 'Gimme" cap while performing some outside task about the Bloody Nib estate. I think that after several years in the Marine Corps during World War II he'd pretty much had it with hats; tin or other. That is the only, the one and only thing, in which he has let me down. I think that hats are important for men for the following reasons:

1.) Protection from the sun. One the West Coast the sun is more an enemy than a friend. As I learned in the Navy it's not much fun to have the tops of one's ears sunburnt to the point of peeling.

2.) Identity. During the great days of machinists and craftsmen the members of that fraternity wore either fedoras or flat caps and their head wear identified them as being men who were honest workmen despite the oil and grease on their overalls.

3.) Style. Hats and caps identified a certain style. Ball caps indicated a casual style. Fedoras were a little more formal,and hombergs showed a style that most of us would not approach because the homberg wearers were so formal, or to use the vernacular, tight assed.

4.) A reflection of personality. Homberg: uptight. Fedora, snapbrim or flat cap: a regular guy. Baseball type cap: a goofball or baseball fan. Beret: a guy who's an artist or pretends he is. Cowboy hat: howdy Tex.

Some men these days complain that hats give them "hat head." "Hat head" is the fault of the barber, not the hat. George Washington, U.S. Grant and John Bunyun didn't complain about "hat head." But in those days men were men and not aspiring models for GQ.