Hat etiquette for *today*

[Wolfen]

However, I do remove my hat for: The Flag, The National Anthem and when entering church or chapel.

If you go to a sporting event it is absolutely amazing the number of "men" (ok lets call them boys since men have the Peter Pan syndrome in the US) that are clueless about removing their backwards baseball cap for the National Anthem and that is a national shame. <Why should I be inconvienienced? Honor what?>

I have a question in regards to the flag and the national anthem. Should foreigners remove their hats for another country's anthem and flag? Eg non-Americans remove theirs for the American flag/anthem and vice-versa.

 

[Dr Doran]

I have a question in regards to the flag and the national anthem. Should foreigners remove their hats for another country's anthem and flag?

I always do.

 

[gtdean48]

Only time I've had the chance to honor another country's flag & national anthem was at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 & at a couple of hockey games when teams from Canada played. I took my hat off but only hold it over my heart with my right hand for my national anthem.

 

[Big_e]

Speaking of the national anthem and flag courtesy, the Fort Worth Stock show is one at this time. It's sad to see how many of the men in the audience don't remove their hats as the color guard rides by.
Ernest

PS: As far as hat courtesy is concerned, I'm a pretty crude person. Lessons on manners was not a high point in my upbringing I'm afraid. I'll remove my hat when entering a friends house, courtroom or church. I'll only remove my hat in a restaurant if there is a place for me to safely keep my hat or the establishment can safely check my hat for me. Otherwise it stays on my head.

 

[kkesler]

The silliest thing I saw was a few days ago at the pool. A guy came in for his swim in his t-shirt, jeans and ball cap. I later saw him swimming in the pool later wearing his cap (backwards.) If ever there was a time to remove your hat.

I have very short hair and will often swim with a ball cap on, otherwise I get a sunburned scalp.

 

[Mickey D]

Right, guys

For the flag, for the anthem, for the Lord and for in-offense.

We should ALWAYS doff the lid at times laid out in this discussion, including when the flag is presented, when the National Anthem is played and when there are prayers ... no matter the setting.

And we should remove it when someone is offended that we don't ... in a person's home or office.

As far as hat hair ... Some time ago, I had a frank discussion with my barber of 30 years. I'm thrilled that I have reached my age and still have hair, so I discussed my options.

I could stop wearing hats — ain't happenin'!

I could start using greasy kid stuff — I hate it!

I could keep my hair trimmed REAL short.

Works like a charm.

My kids and wife and friends have gotten used to it and I can plop on the lid without worrying what I'll look like when I get to the office.

I go in for a trim every time the "full-hawk" look starts in and get another six weeks or so of worry-free hair.

Works for me[huh]

Exactly! :eusa_clap Short cut every two weeks.

 

[Rustin]

My take on hat etiquette is: I remove my hat when talking to a lady, I tip or lift the brim to acknowledge a lady, and I do not remove it indoors a) unless I am in someone's private space (their home, their personal office) or b) if I choose to do so. I will remove my hat in a nice restaurant if there is a safe place to put it - otherwise, it stays on. And of course, I remove my hat when entering church. I will also put it on again when I am leaving, and I don't wait to get out the door before doing so.

Taking your hat off just because you've gone indoors is dumb. A hat is a functional piece of attire but it's also an item of style. It ain't galoshes. In someone's private place, yes, a hat should be removed, but most of the time it's just silly to take off one's hat for no good reason other than because Beaver Cleaver had to.

 

[DapperDuck]

Oh my, that was 1995 and it was a completely different time back then

Christo fan here. I wish I could have seen the Reichstag in person when it was wrapped.

I have very short hair and will often swim with a ball cap on, otherwise I get a sunburned scalp.

This was an heated indoor pool. Only Polar Bears enjoy swimming outdoors in below freezing temperatures. Not only that, the level of chlorine in the pool is high enough to bleach fabrics. I am sure his Baltimore Ravens cap is now a mottled powder blue.

Taking your hat off just because you've gone indoors is dumb. A hat is a functional piece of attire but it's also an item of style. It ain't galoshes. In someone's private place, yes, a hat should be removed, but most of the time it's just silly to take off one's hat for no good reason other than because Beaver Cleaver had to.

It is not "dumb" or stupid to take your hat off indoors. It is old hat, and there isn't anything wrong with that.

 

[John in Covina]

Not only that, the level of chlorine in the pool is high enough to bleach fabrics.

fftopic:

As a teen I worked for the Town of Babylon at one of the Town Pools in North Amityville. The Park Manager had a bunch of us scrubbing off the waterline ring that formed after a busy weekend. It was easiest to do that in the pool. The pool guy who came by daily was there trying to adjust the chemicals and made a boo-boo in the chlorine and realized it as he re-checked the levels. With a terse: "Get out NOW! and go straight into the showers and shower off!"

We wore medium blue Town of Babylon T-shirts that were bleached a light blue in just minutes in that pool!

 

[Richard Warren]

It seems likely to me that there was a lot more indoors hat wearing in the past than you may suspect. As you see in discussions of formal dress and other areas, it is tempting to see the past in an idealized yet rigid way that retroactively imposes codes and rules that never existed, except in some mythical golden age. To attempt to live by those codes and rules in a contemporary context turns life into a simulation.

Its sort of like buying a yacht: if you have to ask the rules for wearing a hat, maybe you shouldn't wear a hat.

 

[Mario]

It seems likely to me that there was a lot more indoors hat wearing in the past than you may suspect. As you see in discussions of formal dress and other areas, it is tempting to see the past in an idealized yet rigid way that retroactively imposes codes and rules that never existed, except in some mythical golden age. To attempt to live by those codes and rules in a contemporary context turns life into a simulation.

Its sort of like buying a yacht: if you have to ask the rules for wearing a hat, maybe you shouldn't wear a hat.

:arated: Amen!

 

[Sam Craig]

making a statement

I was watching The Day The Earth Stood Still the other day and there was Walter Winchell, announcing the news over the radio, wearing a great looking grey fedora with a wide black ribbon.

I'd forgotten, that was his trademark, to leave his hat on behind the microphone. He was making a statement, apparently about the immediacy of his news.

I was also watching an old Mike Shayne detective movie, I believe it was The Man Who Wouldn't Die, and there was a small town cop who kept showing up in these people's home with his hat on and it was a running gag that Mike Shayne would grab his hat and hand it to him and the cop would apologize.

Then, of course, there's Jimmy Stewart who wears his fedora with clown make up throughout The Greatest Show on Earth, but then he's on the run for murder ... Each man kills the thing he loves ...

My rather long-winded point, is, you used to see hat-equette shown to you in popular culture, but in a world where people no longer complain when some joker walks across the room with pants that are bagging down to his knees in the back, who's gonna mind a nice looking dress hat?

 

[kkesler]

This was an heated indoor pool. Only Polar Bears enjoy swimming outdoors in below freezing temperatures.

I do so apologize for not noting your location, and failing to realize that it was an indoor pool about which you were speaking.

 

[JimWagner]

It seems likely to me that there was a lot more indoors hat wearing in the past than you may suspect. As you see in discussions of formal dress and other areas, it is tempting to see the past in an idealized yet rigid way that retroactively imposes codes and rules that never existed, except in some mythical golden age. To attempt to live by those codes and rules in a contemporary context turns life into a simulation.

And I'll add, seeing something in a movie doesn't make it reality either. Movies from the "Golden Age" no more reflect the real world then than movies today reflect today's world. They are there to entertain and take your mind off the real world.

 

[Brian R.]

Of course i take my hat off for the national anthem, but as far as the indoor rule, I think time has allowed for men to wear hats indoors in some cases, such as malls, stores, ect. If I go into a restraunt the hat will definately come off when we sit down at the table. Nowadays, there is just not any accomodations for a place to store your lid. I will add that in an elevator in the presense of a lady, I take my hat off, and you will never see me in church with a hat. I will wear my hat into my school building but when I get to my classroom the hat comes off until the final bell rings and it goes on again when I hit the doors heading out.

 

[John in Covina]

It comes down to a balance what we do for ourselves that we may feel good and what we do for others that they may feel good.

I'd say that you're much more likely to have a problem with the "ME ONLY" person over the "I do for others" person on somethng like this.[huh]

 

[jeffconnors]

I wear a hat 24/7 .... Yes even when sleeping. I like the top of my head covered at all times and feel quite embarssed when I'm caught bare headed ... Especailly in front of the ladies

 

[John in Covina]

I wear a hat 24/7 .... Yes even when sleeping. I like the top of my head covered at all times and feel quite embarssed when I'm caught bare headed ... Especailly in front of the ladies

I guess we can give you a pass and consider it covered by the phrase: "Pre-existing Condition!"

 

[elvisroe]

I was watching The Day The Earth Stood Still the other day and there was Walter Winchell, announcing the news over the radio, wearing a great looking grey fedora with a wide black ribbon.

I'd forgotten, that was his trademark, to leave his hat on behind the microphone. He was making a statement, apparently about the immediacy of his news.

I love it, a radio announcer making a visual statement!lol lol
Obviously pre-headphone days 'coz you'g need a pretty stingy lid to fit a pair of cans on your ears!

 

[cptjeff]

I have a question in regards to the flag and the national anthem. Should foreigners remove their hats for another country's anthem and flag? Eg non-Americans remove theirs for the American flag/anthem and vice-versa.

As I understand it, the official etiquette is to take off your hat and stand at attention, and only put the hand (or hat) over your heart when your nation's anthem is played.

As for the hats off indoors thing, I largely ignore it. I believe it's time has past, it never made much sense to me.

Traditional manners are just societal constructions. As hats are just now coming back into fashion, there is a lack of collective memory in the populace. That leaves those of us who are wearing them now an opportunity to define a new set of standards and manners.