Hat Brotherhood: PT 1: Oh Brotherhood.

[jake_fink]

With the fall weather I'm walking to work less often, and being on crowded sweaty subways I find I take my hat off often enough to let the steam out that sometimes I don't even wear a hat in the first place. Last week a kindly old feller who takes the same bus I do some mornings approached me on the street and asked me where my hat was.

I told him I didn't wear it today, which was probably already obvious enough and he said, "Yeah, well, I just got a hat and I'm going to wear it tomorrow, so I want you to wear your hat."

I'm not much of a team dresser. I don't like uniforms and I don't like anyone telling me what to wear, especially if it's because they want me to match. So I said, yeah, okay, and then the next day I skipped work for altogether different reasons.

I did get to see his hat though. I saw it this morning. He came trucking up to the bus stop just as proud as you may please in his khakis and sensible shoes and his light blue windbraker and his brand new Tilley Hat. Yes, it was a Tilley, a sloppy, flapping, canvas Tilley, and he tipped it at everyone at the stop and gave me an extra special tipping that was part doff and part flap.

I think Tilley hats are ugly. I think they're uglier than baseball caps. I think they look like the canvas buckets we used to pull smelly water out of wells when I was in Africa. But he's quite pleased with it, so what can I do.

I saw him again and he followed me home talking all the way. I stopped at the gorcery store just make sure he didn't actually follow me to my house, because I was afraid I'd come out my door tomorrow morning and see him there in his little tiny walking shoes, dofflapping his Tilley at me.

(I hope he isn't reading this. I'd feel like a real heel.)

 

[Feraud]

It seems like you have a new "hat friend".

 

[SinatraStyle]

Invite him to the Lounge so that he can learn more. (But I recommend deleting this thread first .)We all started somewhere...he happened to start with a canvas Tilley.

It's great that you had such a positive impression on him. He is obviously very proud to be wearing his new hat. I commend you for being so gratious, even if he may have seemed a bit annoying. Who knows how many other people you may have affected in your daily trips to and from work. Maybe they just don't have the guts to take the leap yet.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Agreed

Invite him to the Lounge so that he can learn more. (But I recommend deleting this thread first .)We all started somewhere...he happened to start with a canvas Tilley.

It's great that you had such a positive impression on him. He is obviously very proud to be wearing his new hat. I commend you for being so gratious, even if he may have seemed a bit annoying. Who knows how many other people you may have affected in your daily trips to and from work. Maybe they just don't have the guts to take the leap yet.

steer this fella towards fur felts, he has obviously already caught the bug, eh?

 

[feltfan]

It's possible this older fellow used to wear good felt hats
and is now wearing a hat that is, to him, appropriate to
today's styles. He may know a lot about hats. My father
had a nice Lock trilby which looked great on him.
But he loved his Tilley. He loved it so much he offered
to get me one, but I declined.

 

[Dinerman]

yeah- invite the guy onto the board.
fftopic: wouldn't it be nice to have some really old guy on here who was around back in the day to consult with? can anybody dig one up?

 

[Fatdutchman]

Dig one up!?!?!?!

 

[Dinerman]

maybe that was a bad choice of wording.

what I meant was- can anybody one? know someone who fits that description?

 

[jake_fink]

It's possible this older fellow used to wear good felt hats
and is now wearing a hat that is, to him, appropriate to
today's styles. He may know a lot about hats. My father
had a nice Lock trilby which looked great on him.
But he loved his Tilley. He loved it so much he offered
to get me one, but I declined.

That was nice of your pop.

My new pal's not that old. When I say old, I mean, like my age old. Okay, older than that. Probably mid fifties to mid sixties.

Now my great uncle, who is 96, he knows a thing or two about hats and fine clothing. He was a fop in his day, looked a bit like Hercule Poirot, but with a smaller pointed moustache. He had a tailor until the sixties when his tailor etired, and then he had to buy at stores because other tailors liked to charge him money for their work. Naughty tailors. Sadly, my uncle has not been well for a while.

 

[shoeshineboy]

On Tuesday morning when i went to the polls, I took one step into the Amory and removed my hat and shook hands and said good morning to Ernie the greeter(about 75 years old)...i started down the hallway and he hollered at me and said HEY...you know you are the only man that removed his hat...

I said, Ernie, you know my momma taught me manners....He grinned real big and we chatted some more whene I exited the polls....

just wanted to share....

mark the shoeshine boy

 

[Blackhorse]

To the origianal poster:

The "friend" in the new TilleyBucket:

1) Has the right to like and be proud of whatever he fancies,

2) Obviously is lonely,

3) Is lucky he met someone of obvious kindness and character.

"Character" = what you do when your friends aren't looking. Good for you! :eusa_clap

 

[Sefton]

Christmas is coming up and you never know...your friend might just surprise you with a Tilley of your very own!

 

[CasaBlancaChuck]

I normally wear a fedora or a newsboy...Last month I took a trip to Central and South America...mostly outdoor adventures...Hot and humid...I really, really wanted to take my Adventurebilt Fedora but, after much debate with myself, I ended up taking my Tilley, which served me very well as it has before...I was happy I didn't take my beloved Adventurebilt as it would have been sweated on, crushed, and cooked my head. (I agree, Adventurebilts are built tough and can take abuse)...It would have looked cool, but the Tilley served me better in that clime and I have no apologies for that. I probably wouldn't wear it on a subway, however.

 

[RedPop4]

Why the negative reaction, Jake? You've made an impression, and a positive one, on another human being. A man who. obviously respects you. As has been said, maybe he's liked hats for years, but didn't have the courage to wear one until he say you wearing a hat on a regular basis.

Tilleys and buckets? This was the first deviation from ball caps that MrsRedPop4 didn't complain about. Well she did, until she realized I wasn't going to stop wearing them. Now it's fedoras, too. She don't like them, and on occasion will ask me not to wear one, but on the whole is resigned to it.

Take this as a badge of honor, not something to be ashamed of.

 

[Mr. Sable]

You could get him a better hat.

Ever see "Melvin & Howard", by the way?

 

[jake_fink]

Why the negative reaction, Jake? You've made an impression, and a positive one, on another human being. A man who. obviously respects you. As has been said, maybe he's liked hats for years, but didn't have the courage to wear one until he say you wearing a hat on a regular basis.

Tilleys and buckets? This was the first deviation from ball caps that MrsRedPop4 didn't complain about. Well she did, until she realized I wasn't going to stop wearing them. Now it's fedoras, too. She don't like them, and on occasion will ask me not to wear one, but on the whole is resigned to it.

Take this as a badge of honor, not something to be ashamed of.

I don't mean it to sound negative, though I guess it does because I don't like Tilley hats. He's a nice enough guy, though a bit of a bore. We're not going to become best friends because he bought a hat, but I'm certainly not rude to him. I just thought it was an amusing littel story of life in the big smoke.

And, Mr. Sable, yes, I did see Melvin and Howard. You reckon?!?

 

[Mr. Sable]

And, Mr. Sable, yes, I did see Melvin and Howard. You reckon?!?

Well, you just never know. Did he have a pocket protector and make a lot of derisive remarks about Apple computers?

 

[John in Covina]

Everyone has to start someplace. Tilley hats have there place and what they were meant to be doing, although I seem to think they are an outdoors man's hat. Sweltering desert heat, monsoon rains and all that. Not dressy but well made for their vocation.

Maybe you can introduce the guy to true dress hats.

Every body needs a little something they can call their own, do we really need to begrudge them that?

 

[J.B.]

I'm your huckleberry!

...wouldn't it be nice to have some really old guy on here who was around back in the day to consult with? can anybody dig one up?

Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! I can be your very own old person!

...So, I understand that the unfilled cabinet positions (due to recent ...um, term expirations ...) for the FL Chapter of the Sun City Fedora and Shuffleboard Brotherhood include:

• The Stodgy of Stetson
• The Doddering Dobbster
• The Monarch of Metamucil
• The Fedora Fossil
• The Portis Pensioner
• The Cavanagh Codger

Please have my nurse awaken me if I need to make an acceptance speech. Hopefully, she'll wipe the drool off of my cardigan and fluff up my pillows just before the media arrives?!

Jesus! Just shoot me before my arteries harden!! Hmmm?

 

[JohnnyL]

The Tilley wearers only fault was in not matching hat style to circumstance. One of the elements to having "style" is matching the proper clothes to the activity. A Tilley is a superb outdoor hat. While a fur felt can be used the same way, a Tilley can be the best choice some times. I just purchased a T6 this past February for a trip to the Caribbean. I started out looking for a nice panama but then realized that I wanted a hat with a little more versatility. The Tilley has served me well since February in a variety of activities, from that trip to hiking in downpours (the brim doesn't collapse and it dries fast) to rafting (it floats). I don't have to worry about what happens to it as its relative easy to return to a new condition. Plus a get a lot of compliments from the baseball cap wearers.