Be careful who you hand your hat to

[Cascadian]

My Akubra is still only a couple of months old, so it hasn't (yet) suffered the sorts of indignities you all have been describing. Thank you for the warning. I'll continue to keep it on a short leash.

As I've been reading this thread, I couldn't help but hum Lyle Lovett...

Man you better let go.
You can't hold on to
What belongs to me
And don't belong to you.

I caught you looking
With your roving eye,
So mister you don't have to act
So surprised.

If it's her you want,
I don't care about that.
You can have my girl
But don't touch my hat.

(etc...)

 

[Woodfluter]

Worst of all is when they try it on and it never comes back...

Years ago I was flying somewhere for work, and I was wearing a quite good brown fedora. So we had a very brief layover..."if you want to get off for five minutes, do so but come back quickly because we'll be taking off very soon". I left the hat and my jacket sitting on the adjacent seat and and exited the plane with only 3 or 4 passengers left behind me. Seemed safe enough. Came back after I hit the head and no hat. No, the flight attendants hadn't seen anyone walk off with a hat. Nobody had come in and left. Had to be one of those few.

So, how on earth could someone think it was OK to just grab your hat off the seat and leave with it? And why didn't they take my jacket and briefcase too? It still bothers me, but I never let stuff like that out of my sight anymore.

-Bill

 

[johnnyphi]

Never touch a man's hat!

For what it's worth, I learned this lesson at age 14 or 15 in rural Texas.

My family moved to a small town, and I made friends with a great kid who was a REAL cowboy... As a city kid, I was curious about my new friend's cowboy hat, so I snatched it off of his head and put it on mine.

That's when my new friend taught me an old saying...

"Never touch a man's hat."

I promptly returned his hat. Lesson learned.