General Questions I Should Have Asked.

[Hemingway Jones]

I was speaking with Daisy yesterday of how I wished my grandfather were still alive, so I could ask him some general questions of hat wearing in the Golden Era.

I am sure there are answers and various opinions on these, so what do you think of the following? These are the questions I wish I could ask him.

"Gramps, how did you guys buy your hats? Did you go into a hat shop or a department store? Were some stores considered better than others?"

"How did you style your hats? Did you pick a style and ask the hatter to do it, or did you do it yourself?"

"Did you and all of your friends like the same styles or did you compete about it; were some styles: center pinch, side dents, unstyled, better than others?"

"Did you repair your hats or go and buy new ones?"

"What would prompt a new hat purchase?"

"Did your friends comment on new hats? Did they go with you when you bought a new hat?"

"Did you ever buy a hat because it looked like something you saw in a film?"

"Did you do anything to break in a hat? I remember when I was a kid and you wrapped the brims of Phillies caps with rubber bands to make it arched; did you do anything like that with your fedoras?"

You left me too soon, Old Boy. I'd really like to ask you these things.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Yeah, I hear you. Right before my Mom passed away I was thinking of getting a camcorder and having her tell her stories. Didn't get it done in time.

 

[Barry]

My grandmother (now 88) and grandfather owned a clothing store in southern Virginia that catered to mostly African-American customers. The store was open from the early to mid 1940's till long after my grandfather's death. I think my grandmother closed shop in the mid-1980's. Her customers were "working-men" who bought their clothes on credit. They put down money and paid off the rest in monthly installments. Very few of them, if any, had extra money to spend.

I wore a fedora one day when I went to visit her and she seemed to be interested in the fact that I was wearing hats. She told me the fedora that I had selected that day didn't suit me and that I should have worn one of my caps instead. She kind of tells it like it is...nonetheless she said that the hat I had was much better quality than what she sold years ago.

My grandparents bought hats either in 6's, 8's or dozens. I cannot remember which. I'll have to ask her again. Lets put it this way though, they were very inexpensive hats.

I'll try and get some more details soon...

Barry

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Barry, you should ask her. That is something interesting information and quite a bit of knowledge that concerns us here is passing away. Think of the controversies over whether or not people intentionally turned their fedoras. We have never come to a definite answer there.

 

[zeus36]

I'm thinking that hats were so common place, they were just like any sized article of clothing. Nobody really gave it much thought ( I'm referring to the consumer). Maybe it was like getting and breaking in shoes. You just did it. This would be different for the wealthy who were concerned with a precise look, such as custom tailored suits.

Just my guess.

 

[scotrace]

Hat Life Again

If Hat Life is to be believed, women bought new hats for their men often enough that retailers were encouraged to take advantage of this fact with smarter marketing and top treatment for female customers.

The industry paid such close attention to styling, details, etc., that it seems likely that men and women were fussy over their hats. Maybe not the average Steel Mill Stan (who may well have bought one or two hats in 20 years), but the white collar fellow who bought maybe one or two a year probably paid close attention to the business of selecting a new hat so as to stay current as well as getting a suitable style that complimented his face.

My maternal Grandfather was born in 1898. Paternal was married in 1902. (My family tends to have very long generations and plenty of menopause babies). I never met the latter. But my grandfather Clarence was the finest gentleman I ever knew. I am trying to get some pictures together to share. He was always fussy about his clothes and a snappy dresser, even though he was the above-mentioned steel mill man, for 49 years.
Spendning a lot of time with Grandpa when I was young, I asked him a LOT of questions. I'm glad I did but wish I had asked more.
Great topic, HJ.

 

[jake_fink]

My mother's uncle is 95 and still wears a hat (with great aplomb to boot). I could ask him these questions when I see him next - a week or two I'd expect.

 

[perterra]

I bet zeus36 nailed it for most Americans. If you grew up in rural America there were no department stores within reach so you would be left with mail order or what was local (which could be small regional dry goods stores). I suspect as many were bought because of sears & roebuck catalogs as were bought because of movies.

As to whether they would be repaired, probably depends on the person wearing them. I know my old man wouldnt wear a hat with a hole in it anymore than he would wear a shirt with a hole in it.

 

[ortega76]

I talked this over with my grandfather in the past. He was a blue collar guy, working for the railroad. As such, he generally wore a driver's cap and had a "nice" hat or two (he means a fedora) for church. Pictures of him as a young man show him dressed up in a suit with a fedora but more pictures show him with a driver's cap, newsboy or the like. Even today, he wears a Kangol when out side the house. Where did he buy that fedora? The last hat he bought had to have been in the 60's, bought by my grandmother at a Goldblatt's (on Commercial Avenue, I think). I say that because he sort of stopped wearing a fedora in favor of a driver's cap around age 30.

My grandmother likes that I have started wearing my hats around the family more (I used to wear my fedoras/hats to work and on nights out but kept the driver's cap for home/family) and my grandfather thinks they look sharp. He's even commented on how much nicer the ones I have are than the ones he bought which leads me to believe he used to buy wool hats.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Those are all very good replies.

To those of you who have aged relatives, ask them. Some of the simplest details of hat wearing are being lost. If we can gather them up and preserve them here, that would be very good, indeed. It was also satisfy a festering curiosity.

 

[johnnycanuck]

Had a conversation with my wife's Grandfather this last weekend when we were out fishing. He is an old Polish Immigrant. Came over in 1938. He said if you went out, even just to run into town (farmer) you got dressed up in a suit tie and fedora. Fedoras were available in any store that carried clothing. They were like shoes, different styles, colours, sizes. Some were better quality then others, some were more expensive then others. But they were treated like shoes. Some people didn't care and they got beaten up and wore out quick and some treated them well and they looked better and lasted longer. Thought you guys might want to know that.
Johnny

 

[Lincsong]

It's always nice to have a source to the past.

Dad is 80 and the Panama he recently bought from Art is probably the first quaility hat he bought since then end of World War II. Mostly he has cheap beaters to wear in the yard, go fishing or camping etc. He said he never really wore hats a lot in the 50's. But, he wears that Panama from Art like pro.

Now my Mom's Dad was a totally different story. He always wore hats right up until he died in 1980. (age 78) My mom doesn't have too many pictures of him wearing a hat, although he never left the house without one on his head. When he died, my grandmother gave all his clothes away. Now my brothers, cousins and I talk about all the hats grandpa had and how we wish that there were a couple left for us to have as mementos.