June 29th, 2017

For the most part, I  like hats.  Obviously, I have a few.   The above evidence lives on our bureau in the bedroom behind the TV.  They do not look especially good there, but as yet, I have found no other place for them to be that is handy.  At some point, I'm sure this will change. But for now, it'll do.  There is just something about a fetching chapeau that compels me to at least try it on.  It's not as if every hat looks good on me, but when it does, it's hard to walk on by.

 Here and there you may have seen photos of me in hats.  They serve multiple purposes, especially here.  They shade my eyes so that I don't have to do that "Land Ho!" pose to look at things.  They protect my face from the sun so that I don't have to walk around under a parasol during the summer months. Not that I would mind walking around with a parasol, mind you, there is far too little parasol walking these days to my mind, but I do not own a parasol.  Hats also serve as a cover up for those seriously bad hair days. 

The top hat in the pile, which is in actuality not a "top hat" but rather a type of newsboy cap.  I don't wear it a lot but when it suits me, the purchase is vindicated.   I find that I'm wearing it more often lately. Usually on the way to Pilates Class.

 The second hat in the pile, the red one with the sparkly bits on it, that one I found years ago, when I was shopping with my friend April.  We bought three of them, one for her, one for me and one for our mutual friend Marsha.  I don't remember why we thought we needed matching hats.  The last time I wore this one was while taking a mid-day walk.   I think I was hoping that the sparkly fleur de lis distracts from how awful my hair looks.  It was hot and humid and I ended up just stuffing my hair up into the hat while walking and of course, it never stays put and tries to slither back out.  Tim snapped a quick picture when I got back from the walk. Yes people, I go out in public like this. Clearly I have no shame.  Thank goodness it's such a great hat!

Third hat is a favourite.  I bought it years and years ago just before we took a trip to Mexico which means we were still living in Connecticut.  It's a straw hat that is very soft completely contrary to the nature of most straw hats.  It's foldable  (?) so I can stuff it in my purse which is awesome.  It's larger than hats I generally wear and kind of gumby-like, in that I can fold it into whatever weird shape I like.  On a windy day, the wind folds it into whatever weird shape the wind prefers.   Because the brim is so large, it protects the back of my neck from the sun too.    I can dress it up with a scarf or a pin, so it can be worn for fancy schmany  hat wearing occasions if I like.  I probably wear this hat the most often.

The second to last is a snap brim.  I like that name. It is a snappy hat.  Dressier than the others, I have worn it to work or out to dinner or very casually.  It's the one that is most apt to fly off with the slightest bit of breeze, so it's only worn on very non-windy days or for inside events.  I like it a lot but I find that I don't actually wear it very often.  At one time I had two of them in  different colours, but a little girl that I knew needed one of them more than I did so now I only have the one.  I know that these come in and out of fashion, but since being in-style has never matter to me, it's a non-issue.

The last one is the classic, all-American ballcap.  The second most commonly worn by me.  I wear it hiking or working in the yard and generally, I look like absolute crap when I have it on.  It says, "Grand Canyon" on my ballcap but that's not where I bought it.  I'm pretty sure I picked it up on a trip to Las Vegas. It was part of a set, matching tee-shirt and ball cap.  The tee-shirt was enormous, even too big to be worn as a pajama shirt or nightgown. But the cap fits just fine and although fairly wornout (or is it worn in?) at this point, I cannot bear to part with it.  The biggest issue I have with wearing a ball cap is the resultant "hat-head".  It doesn't happen with every hat, but it happens for me with every ballcap.  Once I have opted to wear my ballcap, I am then committed to wearing it all day.

There was a more elegant time in our history.  A time when everyone wore hats.  Being a milliner was a job. I love watching old black and white movies, and one of things I most like about them is the way people dressed.  When I was a little girl, ladies still wore hats, gloves and high heels when they went out. I owned several pair of little white gloves myself and a straw hat with a ribbon 'round the brim and a bow on the side. 

Maybe that's where my love of hats began but that is certainly not where it ends. Who knows what my next hat will be?  Hopefully not a sombrero.  There is not enough room in the hat stack.