How did you start wearing hats?

[bluesmandan]

When I was a kid, my dad and I trapped in south Georgia (fox, coon, beaver, coyote, wildcat...) At a GTA meeting (Georgia Trappers Association... sort of like a fair) my dad bought a Beaver Brand (I think) pure beaver hat... it was light brown/sage with dark brown streaks in it and a brown leather hatband. That was HIS trapping hat. When I was in college, I needed a hat for a summer stint as a camp counselor in Alabama, and I "borrowed" his hat. Been wearing hats ever since. I lost or someone stole that hat, though. One day I went looking for it and it was no longer in my possession. Don't know what happened to it. Might have burned up in a friend's housefire back in '03-04 when I was storing some stuff in his garage. I just don't know. Here's a couple pics of me at a very young looking 20 with the hat...

 

[Brother cavefish]

military

 

[Zombie_61]

Addiction? Oh, no, no! Not me, nuh-uh, Nope. No way. I just need to make sure I have a few - you know, for the right occasions. And if I see something really neat. Or a really good price. I'm not looking at fedoras on eBay daily now. I didn't try some vintage ones on last weekend at a second hand store. Nope. I haven't tried to find nice hat shops in the cities I mostly travel to on business (and I'm certainly not going to visit Peters Brothers when I got to Ft. Worth this month).

Nope.

Gee, that's too bad. You may not fit in well here.



ound:

 

[pgmart]

Walking Down Chicago's Michigan Avenue after Thanksgiving 2013, and a young girl on a corner gave me a 20% coupon for Orvis. Orvis was two blocks up so we sauntered in. There was a large display of hats so I tried on a gray crushable felt hat. My wife thought it looked sharp and I never looked back. There was an adjustment period, forgot it here and there, felt odd looking in the mirror but things settled down. Now I feel incomplete without one of my hats.

 

[Meterman]

I took a part time job working at a mortuary when I was in college. The owner required a hat and overcoat as as part of our attire and I never looked back on either of them, even after after leaving that profession. My first fedora was bought in 1984 and was a Royal Stetson center dent, in medium gray. Still wear it.

 

[Beardog]

I wore a Tilley for a while, along with a waxed cotton crushable outback style hat. Always loved fedoras, but just never really thought much about wearing them until recently.

 

[moontheloon]

Where did it all begin for you ?

I am curious about where your passion and love for hats came from..... all of you guys

share your story ... if there is one ... I am very interested

I am 40 and my love started in the summer of 1981 when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in the movie theatre.

I've since learned that many hats lovers passion started this way.

shortly after I begged my mom for a brown hat like Indys .... finally around 1982 she came home from an estate sale .. (mom is a tireless picker and always has been... long before I was born... today is her birthday ... she turns 73... I just called her to say Happy Birthday and where was she?.... at an flea market ... ha!!!).... anyway she brought this hat home and I fell in love... I wore it for years until it no longer fit.

I wish I knew where it was today... I don't even remember what kind of hat it was .... but I loved it and wore it every day
... and have basically worn a hat every day of my life since .... be it through my baseball cap phase... or transitioning back into my hat phase.

through the years I would hang pictures of people like Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, James Cagney, etc on my wall just so I could look at their hats in hopes of finding one like it one day

here is a pic of me wearing that hat that I loved so ... this was taken in 1984 in my back yard with my friend Danielle who I remain friends with to this day

 

[Bushman]

For me, it all started with a Disney child's fedora which came with a chin-strap, and a film called "The Lost World: Jurassic Park". As a kid, I idolized the main big game hunter character Roland Tembo (portrayed by the late Pete Postlethwaite). The man had suck class, and yet was so daring. I used to wear that childs fedora everywhere, I never parted with it until the day I outgrew it. I would walk around my backyard pretending to hunt dinosaurs, because, really, when you were a child in the 90's, that's what you did. I've loved brimmed hats since then.

 

[Beardog]

I came to hats later in life. I bought a leather Aussie style hat, a Tilly hat, and an oiled cotton hat a couple of years ago, then moved into nicer fedora and panama style hats in the last year. Now I am seldom away from home without a hat on my head!

Good idea for a thread. I hope it takes off with replies!

 

[Big Man]

For me, it started with my grandfather. Although I never knew him (he died in 1932), I grew up hearing stories about him and always felt as though I did know him. I was always told that "Dad always wore a hat." My grandmother used to say that when he went to bed, my granddad took his clothes off and put them in a pile right beside the bed and his feet left the floor his hat came off and was put on top of his clothes. When he got up in the morning, as his feet hit the floor his hat went on his head. Almost every old photo I have of my granddad, he's either wearing a hat or has one in his hand. All these stories captured the imigination of a young boy, and I tried my best to be just like my granddad.

I've been wearing a hat for as long as I can remember, and don't foresee changing that any time in the future.