How do folks react to your hat wearing?

[GHT]

'What shall we talk about?!'

Touche! Lacey delivered that line with humour and menace in equal measure. When asked if I had my trousers on, it reminded me of a line that I heard when I saw the show version of Rocky Horror. The Narrator wore full evening suit, tux, bow tie, starched shirt and no pants, instead he wore fishnet stockings. What a chance to reprise that gag. I actually googled fishnet stockings not expecting anything more than a pair of stockings, but when I saw the model's legs and those killer heels.............

 

[SteveFord]

How do people react? My wife is amused and says it could be worse, other women say things like "Cool hat!" or "That hat is so YOU!", men usually don't know what to think as this is wool pullover and baseball cap country.

 

[GHT]

My most sincere apologies good Sir! I hadn't realized it would take so much effort on your part. Of course, if you had simply taken the photo while you were still wearing your suit, coat, tie, and hat...

That's true, but then again if you wanted to see the effect of roundel glasses you only had to look for Michael in the What Hat thread.

 

[GHT]

Looking at some old threads, I came across this wonderful page. https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/on-yer-bike.12519/ So many enjoyable bicycle tales, I was betwixt & between whether to put my tale in the bike thread, or put it here. From the reaction of those that I met, the choice is here.
The New Forest is a 40mph zone throughout, not that some obey it, but it's great for cycling. There's a number of tracks too, a little bumpy but quite manageable, I've yet to get a puncture on them. Twice a week, more when the weather is clement, the old, boneshaking, 1922 Phillips comes out, it's got a lady's frame, which is ideal for me, the whole point of cycling is to follow doctor's orders and keep the hip replacement joint exercised. There's a quite a few different types of watering holes in The Forest, most popular are the thatched roofed pubs, but there tea rooms, cafes and my particular favourite, a former railway station.


It's not just the hip that has a problem, my bladder doesn't have the holding power that it once had and as Holmsley is within bladder distance, I cycle there and back. After refreshments, I came out today and found a group of cyclists gathered around my bike. They were, like me, retirees, in fact seeing them gathered around my bike, they look like a pack of 'Q' Tips, those little white sort of cocktail sticks with a cotton wool bud on the end.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, turning round and seeing me caused a spontaneous laugh. They were all dressed for cycling, modern day cycling. I was dressed as was, when the bike was new. Turns out that they are members of some retirement club, and would I like to join? Thanking them for their offer I declined, explaining that we, that's my wife and I, are so busy we wouldn't find time. Then one fellow said that he thought that he had seen me somewhere, probably prompted by my mode of dress. "Would it be here?" I asked him, holding up a picture of my MG at a classic car show. "That's it!" he said, "last year at East Boldre." "Correct." I said. "You wore a hat that day," he replied, "So did my wife," I answered. https://newforestrun2019finish.shutterfly.com/pictures/9#101

I then had to pose, phones and cameras came out, click, click, click and off they went. Cycling home I thought that I should have got a photo, but not to worry, I have one that I've used previously, I can recycle it. Sorry about the pun.

 

[SteveFord]

Cool story, you're Officially Old School!

 

[scottyrocks]

View attachment 210678

That's a darn fine getup!

 

[GHT]

Cool story, you're Officially Old School!

That's a darn fine getup!

Thanks to both of you. Old school is something that I hear quite regularly, there's a young lady, whose a post graduate trainee manager, at our supermarket who used the term. When I asked her where she heard it she told me that her Grandfather says it. He's a lecturer at Southampton University is what she told me, and he always wears a hat and bow tie. She then added that his hat isn't so smart as the one that I was wearing, he wears the bucket type floppy hat, beloved of fishermen. She showed me his photo on her phone, I said he looks a bit like Peter Sellers in Inspector Clouseau:


"Who?" She replied, "Never mind." I answered. I was wearing one of Esther's finest.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Thanks to both of you. Old school is something that I hear quite regularly, there's a young lady, whose a post graduate trainee manager, at our supermarket who used the term. When I asked her where she heard it she told me that her Grandfather says it. He's a lecturer at Southampton University is what she told me, and he always wears a hat and bow tie. She then added that his hat isn't so smart as the one that I was wearing, he wears the bucket type floppy hat, beloved of fishermen. She showed me his photo on her phone, I said he looks a bit like Peter Sellers in Inspector Clouseau:
View attachment 210866

"Who?" She replied, "Never mind." I answered. I was wearing one of Esther's finest.

View attachment 210867

For some reason it made me sad to hear that someone didn’t know who Peter Sellers is. Another great who went way too young.

Thanks for sharing; I always enjoy your style and your stories.

 

[GHT]

For some reason it made me sad to hear that someone didn’t know who Peter Sellers is. Another great who went way too young.
Thanks for sharing; I always enjoy your style and your stories.

What a kind compliment, thank you. Maybe my story telling is in the genes. Let me tell you a tale about my mother, and how she contrived my name by twisting the husband that she so adored, right around her little finger. The story is not about hats, it does though, have some parallels with your disappointment that the younger generation know nothing of movie greats like Peter Sellers.

My Mother was a great fan of the movies, and like many of her generation, she would say of a new film release, not what's it about, rather, who is in it? Such was the power of movie stars back in the era. One of the stars that my mother would go to see time and time again was one Spangler Arlington Brugh. But he is more famously known by the stage name that MGM gave him: Robert Taylor.

It helped that Taylor was something of an Anglophile, he spent many years living and working on this side of the pond and worked with the British leading ladies of the day. My Father was, throughout WW2, incarcerated in a German POW camp, so my Mother only had the rare letter, heavily censored, and probably sought comfort from the escapism of the movies.

My parents like so many of their generation, upon Dad's release, lost no time in producing their contribution to the next generation, the baby boomers. My Father's surname just happens to be Taylor, and you can be sure of what my Mother wanted to call her new born boy. My Dad's father, my Grandfather, was a victim of the war. To honour him my Dad wanted to give me his own Father's name, which was Herbert.

"But Herbert is so Victorian," pleaded my Mother. "Well what do like?" Asked Dad. "Oh," said Mother, "something fresh like Robin." At the time we didn't have a television, but their was a lady presenter, name of Robyn, whose fame went beyond TV. "Robin?" Said Dad, "he will get teased. (due to the lady called Robyn.) Mother looked suitably crestfallen. Seeing his wife like that, Dad softened. "Look," he said, "why don't we compromise and go for the hybrid?" "Hybrid?" My Mother said. "Yes," Dad replied, "let's call him Robert." "What a good idea," said my ecstatic Mother.

And the connection to Peter Sellers? Like Sellers, Robert Taylor was an accomplished actor, starring in many roles, on both sides of The Atlantic, but come the sixties and so many of my cohort had never even heard of him, such is life.

So now you know my name, and you know a little of my parents. Sadly my Mother died young, she was just 33, it would be over fifty years before they were reunited, Dad died in 2008 at the age of 92. But no need to get down, now they are togther, as they were here, with me.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

What a kind compliment, thank you. Maybe my story telling is in the genes. Let me tell you a tale about my mother, and how she contrived my name by twisting the husband that she so adored, right around her little finger. The story is not about hats, it does though, have some parallels with your disappointment that the younger generation know nothing of movie greats like Peter Sellers.

My Mother was a great fan of the movies, and like many of her generation, she would say of a new film release, not what's it about, rather, who is in it? Such was the power of movie stars back in the era. One of the stars that my mother would go to see time and time again was one Spangler Arlington Brugh. But he is more famously known by the stage name that MGM gave him: Robert Taylor.

It helped that Taylor was something of an Anglophile, he spent many years living and working on this side of the pond and worked with the British leading ladies of the day. My Father was, throughout WW2, incarcerated in a German POW camp, so my Mother only had the rare letter, heavily censored, and probably sought comfort from the escapism of the movies.

My parents like so many of their generation, upon Dad's release, lost no time in producing their contribution to the next generation, the baby boomers. My Father's surname just happens to be Taylor, and you can be sure of what my Mother wanted to call her new born boy. My Dad's father, my Grandfather, was a victim of the war. To honour him my Dad wanted to give me his own Father's name, which was Herbert.

"But Herbert is so Victorian," pleaded my Mother. "Well what do like?" Asked Dad. "Oh," said Mother, "something fresh like Robin." At the time we didn't have a television, but their was a lady presenter, name of Robyn, whose fame went beyond TV. "Robin?" Said Dad, "he will get teased. (due to the lady called Robyn.) Mother looked suitably crestfallen. Seeing his wife like that, Dad softened. "Look," he said, "why don't we compromise and go for the hybrid?" "Hybrid?" My Mother said. "Yes," Dad replied, "let's call him Robert." "What a good idea," said my ecstatic Mother.

And the connection to Peter Sellers? Like Sellers, Robert Taylor was an accomplished actor, starring in many roles, on both sides of The Atlantic, but come the sixties and so many of my cohort had never even heard of him, such is life.

So now you know my name, and you know a little of my parents. Sadly my Mother died young, she was just 33, it would be over fifty years before they were reunited, Dad died in 2008 at the age of 92. But no need to get down, now they are togther, as they were here, with me.

View attachment 211021

Thank you Robert. What an actor. What a story. What a Mother!!
Be well. Bowen

 

[scottyrocks]

What a kind compliment, thank you. Maybe my story telling is in the genes. Let me tell you a tale about my mother, and how she contrived my name by twisting the husband that she so adored, right around her little finger. The story is not about hats, it does though, have some parallels with your disappointment that the younger generation know nothing of movie greats like Peter Sellers.

My Mother was a great fan of the movies, and like many of her generation, she would say of a new film release, not what's it about, rather, who is in it? Such was the power of movie stars back in the era. One of the stars that my mother would go to see time and time again was one Spangler Arlington Brugh. But he is more famously known by the stage name that MGM gave him: Robert Taylor.

It helped that Taylor was something of an Anglophile, he spent many years living and working on this side of the pond and worked with the British leading ladies of the day. My Father was, throughout WW2, incarcerated in a German POW camp, so my Mother only had the rare letter, heavily censored, and probably sought comfort from the escapism of the movies.

My parents like so many of their generation, upon Dad's release, lost no time in producing their contribution to the next generation, the baby boomers. My Father's surname just happens to be Taylor, and you can be sure of what my Mother wanted to call her new born boy. My Dad's father, my Grandfather, was a victim of the war. To honour him my Dad wanted to give me his own Father's name, which was Herbert.

"But Herbert is so Victorian," pleaded my Mother. "Well what do like?" Asked Dad. "Oh," said Mother, "something fresh like Robin." At the time we didn't have a television, but their was a lady presenter, name of Robyn, whose fame went beyond TV. "Robin?" Said Dad, "he will get teased. (due to the lady called Robyn.) Mother looked suitably crestfallen. Seeing his wife like that, Dad softened. "Look," he said, "why don't we compromise and go for the hybrid?" "Hybrid?" My Mother said. "Yes," Dad replied, "let's call him Robert." "What a good idea," said my ecstatic Mother.

And the connection to Peter Sellers? Like Sellers, Robert Taylor was an accomplished actor, starring in many roles, on both sides of The Atlantic, but come the sixties and so many of my cohort had never even heard of him, such is life.

So now you know my name, and you know a little of my parents. Sadly my Mother died young, she was just 33, it would be over fifty years before they were reunited, Dad died in 2008 at the age of 92. But no need to get down, now they are togther, as they were here, with me.

View attachment 211021

I'm tellin' ya. One great story after another. Always a pleasure, Robert.

 

[Fourman110]

In a rush to the parking lot from work the other day I heard "Sir" a couple of times before realizing it was someone from my company trying to get my attention (Sir is my father or someone else typically). I wear either a cap or fedora to and from work every day and happened to be wearing a new Well Dressed Head cap that day. It's got a less than subtle pattern which is a rarity for me. As I usually prefer subtle patterns (but wanted Five Points for a very long time and couldn't resist a sale....) so I was feeling a bit self conscious and doubly surprised I was being run down. S"Sir, what kind of cap is that? I've never seen anything like it." We chatted for a couple of minutes about turn of the century cap styles and Keith (WDH). I went from being a bit self conscious to realizing I've got someone else contemplating a classic cap style. Great way to end the day!

 

[GHT]

Thank you Robert. What an actor. What a story. What a Mother!!
Be well. Bowen

I'm tellin' ya. One great story after another. Always a pleasure, Robert.

Grateful thanks to you both, much appreciated.

In a rush to the parking lot from work the other day I heard "Sir" a couple of times before realizing it was someone from my company trying to get my attention (Sir is my father or someone else typically). I wear either a cap or fedora to and from work every day and happened to be wearing a new Well Dressed Head cap that day. It's got a less than subtle pattern which is a rarity for me. As I usually prefer subtle patterns (but wanted Five Points for a very long time and couldn't resist a sale....) so I was feeling a bit self conscious and doubly surprised I was being run down. S"Sir, what kind of cap is that? I've never seen anything like it." We chatted for a couple of minutes about turn of the century cap styles and Keith (WDH). I went from being a bit self conscious to realizing I've got someone else contemplating a classic cap style. Great way to end the day!

Good manners and a great compliment, and from a stranger, a great way indeed to end your day. As a small boy my Mother taught me that a smile begets a smile. I had to look up begets, a word that I still use, and Mother's advice still rings true. A smile that's genuine can brighten your day.

 

[GHT]

Thomas Bertram Lance, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in President Jimmy Carter's 1977 administration is oft credited with the expression: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? Adding that unnecessary final touch always ruins what was a perfect function.

Those of us old enough to remember the trading stamp know how easy that worked, admittedly their demise was brought about by change, but how much easier are trading stamps than a wallet full of loyalty cards? Loyalty cards keep tabs on you, that's why we will never see the likes of Green Shield or Sperry & Hutchinson again. "How wonderful," they thought, if we could repeat that with cash. A card that can track all your expenditure, keep tabs on all your outgoings, let's computerise cash.

Cynical though it sounds, that's exactly the point of demonising cash. How can they change centuries of habit? By making it faster by card, that's how. Compliment the customer when they pay by card, stigmatise as dinosaurs those who won't get on board. Let me give you an example.

"Nice hat!" That was said to me recently when I went to buy a train ticket for my wife. We are encouraged, of course, to do such things as buying train tickets, airline tickets and any other ticket that was once purchased by cash, on line, by card. But technology and me, don't seem to have the same affinity as the world and his dog have. So I get my old MG out and take it for a run through the forest to our nearest railway station.

The ticket clerk asks what I want, I explain that I want to buy a return ticket to London, but not returning on the same day. I'm told the price. Previously I would have proffered the cash, receive the ticket(s) and left. Now that simple transaction has been well and truly fixed. I wait while she taps at the key board, then she peers at the screen, then she asks again about the date of travel. Then she looks up and says, "nice hat," but she's not really paying me any attention at all.

The screen seems to have froze, she calls Marjory, her fellow assistant. Marjory asks, in fluent gobble-de-gook, if she's done this, that or the other. Now it's the one finger, tap, tap, tap on the keyboard. The previously twenty second task has probably gone on for ten minutes or more. It made me wonder how gunpowder ever superseded the arrow. An archer can release twenty or more arrows by the time it took to fire and reload those early firearms.

At last she gets there, the tickets print off, I'm asked for thirty-seven pounds. I offer one twenty, one ten, one five, a single one pound coin and five twenty pence coins. "Don't you have a card?" She asks, I answer her question with a question, "don't you take cash?" "Well yes," and seeing me looking ready to argue the point she reiterated here earlier compliment, "that really is a distinguished looking hat."

"Thank you," I replied, but I didn't leave. She seemed to be having difficulty counting thirty-seven pounds. Is it because so many just tap the reader with their card that she has lost the ability of simple arithmetic or is it part of the plan to make us all pay by card? Counting cash and getting it right takes time you know. Finally she smiles, "Thank you," she replies, and before she can comment on the hat again, I doff it and say, "my pleasure."

Outside there's quite a crowd around my MG, and the sight of me gets them all clicking away. I remember this cash versus card argument in another thread and Lizzie perceptively said that with a card purchase, or loyalty card, you are the product. How right she is.

 

[steur]

What a kind compliment, thank you. Maybe my story telling is in the genes. Let me tell you a tale about my mother, and how she contrived my name by twisting the husband that she so adored, right around her little finger. The story is not about hats, it does though, have some parallels with your disappointment that the younger generation know nothing of movie greats like Peter Sellers.

My Mother was a great fan of the movies, and like many of her generation, she would say of a new film release, not what's it about, rather, who is in it? Such was the power of movie stars back in the era. One of the stars that my mother would go to see time and time again was one Spangler Arlington Brugh. But he is more famously known by the stage name that MGM gave him: Robert Taylor.

It helped that Taylor was something of an Anglophile, he spent many years living and working on this side of the pond and worked with the British leading ladies of the day. My Father was, throughout WW2, incarcerated in a German POW camp, so my Mother only had the rare letter, heavily censored, and probably sought comfort from the escapism of the movies.

My parents like so many of their generation, upon Dad's release, lost no time in producing their contribution to the next generation, the baby boomers. My Father's surname just happens to be Taylor, and you can be sure of what my Mother wanted to call her new born boy. My Dad's father, my Grandfather, was a victim of the war. To honour him my Dad wanted to give me his own Father's name, which was Herbert.

"But Herbert is so Victorian," pleaded my Mother. "Well what do like?" Asked Dad. "Oh," said Mother, "something fresh like Robin." At the time we didn't have a television, but their was a lady presenter, name of Robyn, whose fame went beyond TV. "Robin?" Said Dad, "he will get teased. (due to the lady called Robyn.) Mother looked suitably crestfallen. Seeing his wife like that, Dad softened. "Look," he said, "why don't we compromise and go for the hybrid?" "Hybrid?" My Mother said. "Yes," Dad replied, "let's call him Robert." "What a good idea," said my ecstatic Mother.

And the connection to Peter Sellers? Like Sellers, Robert Taylor was an accomplished actor, starring in many roles, on both sides of The Atlantic, but come the sixties and so many of my cohort had never even heard of him, such is life.

So now you know my name, and you know a little of my parents. Sadly my Mother died young, she was just 33, it would be over fifty years before they were reunited, Dad died in 2008 at the age of 92. But no need to get down, now they are togther, as they were here, with me.

View attachment 211021

That's a fantastic story. Robert. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[GHT]

That's a fantastic story. Robert. Thanks for sharing that.

Very kind of you to say so, thank you.

 

[SteveFord]

Many years ago I was living in Hoboken, NJ and used to wear a collapsible silk top hat because I happen to like them.
This caused me to be trailed by a small crowd of young black school girls who would chant, "Halloween Is Over! Halloween Is Over!" until one day I finally got sick of them, collapsed it against my chest, turned around and popped it at them.
They scattered and I believe that was the end of that!
A trip down memory lane.

 

[Bill Hughes]

My wife, son, and I were at Men's Wearhouse today. My son and I were getting fitted for custom suits for my daughter's wedding this April. I walked in wearing what I wore to worship services this morning. The salespeople there are used to seeing me wearing a hat. I usually get nice comments but today was different. The store was the most active I've ever seen. My salesperson had to keep running off to help others. Which was fine with me as my wife and I were busy making some color choices etc. I was sitting at a tall table/desk looking at swatches when I noticed several people hovering around me. I had my fedora sitting on the table/desk crown down. When I looked up the comments started coming. All very nice and polite. Before I knew it they had formed a semi-circle around me and I was fielding questions about hats and hat styles. Later, one of the salespersons said it looked like I was holding court!

This was the outfit I was wearing. (Picture taken outside of the church building this morning.)

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Thomas Bertram Lance, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in President Jimmy Carter's 1977 administration is oft credited with the expression: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? Adding that unnecessary final touch always ruins what was a perfect function.

Those of us old enough to remember the trading stamp know how easy that worked, admittedly their demise was brought about by change, but how much easier are trading stamps than a wallet full of loyalty cards? Loyalty cards keep tabs on you, that's why we will never see the likes of Green Shield or Sperry & Hutchinson again. "How wonderful," they thought, if we could repeat that with cash. A card that can track all your expenditure, keep tabs on all your outgoings, let's computerise cash.

Cynical though it sounds, that's exactly the point of demonising cash. How can they change centuries of habit? By making it faster by card, that's how. Compliment the customer when they pay by card, stigmatise as dinosaurs those who won't get on board. Let me give you an example.

"Nice hat!" That was said to me recently when I went to buy a train ticket for my wife. We are encouraged, of course, to do such things as buying train tickets, airline tickets and any other ticket that was once purchased by cash, on line, by card. But technology and me, don't seem to have the same affinity as the world and his dog have. So I get my old MG out and take it for a run through the forest to our nearest railway station.

The ticket clerk asks what I want, I explain that I want to buy a return ticket to London, but not returning on the same day. I'm told the price. Previously I would have proffered the cash, receive the ticket(s) and left. Now that simple transaction has been well and truly fixed. I wait while she taps at the key board, then she peers at the screen, then she asks again about the date of travel. Then she looks up and says, "nice hat," but she's not really paying me any attention at all.

The screen seems to have froze, she calls Marjory, her fellow assistant. Marjory asks, in fluent gobble-de-gook, if she's done this, that or the other. Now it's the one finger, tap, tap, tap on the keyboard. The previously twenty second task has probably gone on for ten minutes or more. It made me wonder how gunpowder ever superseded the arrow. An archer can release twenty or more arrows by the time it took to fire and reload those early firearms.

At last she gets there, the tickets print off, I'm asked for thirty-seven pounds. I offer one twenty, one ten, one five, a single one pound coin and five twenty pence coins. "Don't you have a card?" She asks, I answer her question with a question, "don't you take cash?" "Well yes," and seeing me looking ready to argue the point she reiterated here earlier compliment, "that really is a distinguished looking hat."

"Thank you," I replied, but I didn't leave. She seemed to be having difficulty counting thirty-seven pounds. Is it because so many just tap the reader with their card that she has lost the ability of simple arithmetic or is it part of the plan to make us all pay by card? Counting cash and getting it right takes time you know. Finally she smiles, "Thank you," she replies, and before she can comment on the hat again, I doff it and say, "my pleasure."

Outside there's quite a crowd around my MG, and the sight of me gets them all clicking away. I remember this cash versus card argument in another thread and Lizzie perceptively said that with a card purchase, or loyalty card, you are the product. How right she is.

View attachment 211749

Another great story Sir. You again are a true gentleman, you spared the poor dear to make change!
B

 

[GHT]

My wife, son, and I were at Men's Wearhouse today. My son and I were getting fitted for custom suits for my daughter's wedding this April. I walked in wearing what I wore to worship services this morning. The salespeople there are used to seeing me wearing a hat. I usually get nice comments but today was different. The store was the most active I've ever seen. My salesperson had to keep running off to help others. Which was fine with me as my wife and I were busy making some color choices etc. I was sitting at a tall table/desk looking at swatches when I noticed several people hovering around me. I had my fedora sitting on the table/desk crown down. When I looked up the comments started coming. All very nice and polite. Before I knew it they had formed a semi-circle around me and I was fielding questions about hats and hat styles. Later, one of the salespersons said it looked like I was holding court!

The court of King William? Actually it's no surprise that you look like you are holding court. That's a fine hat that you have there and it compliments everything else, right down to those highly polished shoes, no prizes for guessing that you are ex-military.

Compliments to you and congratulations to your daughter and son-in-law to be. We are going to a wedding on leap year day, my wife is making the bride's wedding dress. Two hundred hours so far, don't ever make a wedding dress.