My Grandfather's Hat

[Dinerman]

Nice work, and a great looking hat.

 

[Pilgrim]

Man, did you go to the RIGHT guy for that work!

Art, you are a Master! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[AlanC]

Thanks, guys. I really love it, and have been wearing around the house most of the day. I've got a primitive bash in it now, and will debut it tomorrow for church.

 

[Hondo]

Thats fantastic!!!, Very cool, impressive I must say, I have an old Stetson that needs repair, any recommendations on a repair shop?

 

[Jay]

Ah, another hat snatched from the edge of destruction! On second thought, that's not the edge, more like the deep end of destruction. Art really spun the clock back on that. I dig the bow too! Wear it in good health.

Jay

 

[Feraud]

What a beautiful restoration job. The hat should last you a century.

 

[RBH]

Wonderful job on a WONDERFUL hat!
Wear it and enjoy.

 

[Earp]

What a wonderful job Art has done and what a great hat! A true connection with your grandfather is now always at hand! Good job saving this heirloom. Wear it with pride.

 

[Davidson]

Can't find that on ebay!

Can't buy on ebay (or anywhere else, for that matter) what you just accomplished. I dearly wish one of my Pawpaw's hats was still around, in any condition. He was a carpenter, I have his last hammer from 35 years ago.

Hey Art, the hammer is in "well used" shape. Wanna branch out?

 

[Brooksie]

What a wonderful ending to this story, and yes Art did a beautiful job on your Grandfather's hat. Thank you so much for sharing this story and the before and after pics. Off Topic... I don't have a hat of my Grandma's but I have a little evening bag that was hers from the 1920's, it is in almost as bad of shape that your Grandfather's hat was in but it holds just as much sentimental value as your Grandfather's hat does for you. I inherited this purse after my Grandma passed away when I was 9 years old, I have had this purse for about 30 years now and I could not begin to even think of giving it up even though it is totaly unusable. I have tried on several different occations to try to find somebody to restore it but I have not been able to find anybody. Thanks again AC for sharing this story.

Brooksie

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Superb! I'll bet you can't wipe the grin from your face when you wear it!

Somewhere your Grandpa is smiling.

 

[hatflick1]

So many times on ebay a fedora is listed as "used to be my grandfather's."
For me it always felt like a cheap dismissal of the man now gone, a shrug off of events that must have befallen him when he wore the hat, how many times he probably wiped the sweatband with a hankerchief after one of life's close calls or a set-to with the missus.
I spent the first eight years of my life with my grandfather. I have a pocket watch, a shaving mug and two engraved pen knives presented to him by employees of his construction company. These are my mementos. They are priceless.
Hence, I am heartened that you are preserving your grandpa's old hat. Wear it proudly whether you get it restored or not.
As a friend said who wears his own grandfather's old salty Stetson, as ripe as the Kansas fields he tilled long ago, "Hey, if it was good enough for him..."

 

[AlanC]

A quick Douglas shot on the way to church...

 

[Art Fawcett]

Well said Hatflick, well said.

Many of the "old timers" here know my story, most don't, so it might be a good time to share.

Sometime a hat is more than a headcovering.

My father & mother were divorced when I was an infant. My mother died when I was eight and for a couple of years I was shipped to different relatives to live. I met my father when I was ten. He was young, brash, remarried, and about to lose another wife. Though his life fell apart within two years of my meeting him, and after him sending my two sisters to live with aunts, he decided that I needed to be with him no matter what and so, no matter the circumstances, he never abandoned me. Through those awful teenage years, through the drama's I created, it was always him and I against the world. I grew up to be amazingly just like him with only a few differences. After I married for the first time at 17, he remarried a lady 20 yrs his junior and we both went separate ways. There was a time we didn't speak for 14 yrs ( like father like son) and it wasn't until 1994 that we decided to rekindle the relationship.

In 2000 my father ( at 76) started having mini strokes that was the beginning of dimentia. He wore a hat all his life but in later years deferred to basebal caps as he could put them in the dishwasher. A gruff, practical man he was, stubborn as the day is long, was often described to me as a "real character", and one of the best bricklayers in Northern Ca where he spent 56 yrs plying his craft. He was one of those "greatest generatoins" guys that went to war, returned home to try to live in peace, but never really found it. That same year I buried my best and only friend of 35 yrs ( I moved around alot), held his hand as he passed.

By 2002 Dad's disease had progressed so far that he needed constant attention, couldn't be left alone, and with my stepmother only in her late 50s ( yes, they stayed married for 36 yrs) she couldn't afford full time care and also couldn't retire ( too young for benefits) she decided she had to move him here to Southern oregon where she could buy a mobile home and live off of his $700 monthly SS. So, we moved them here, did what had to be done, and I travelled from the San Fran area to southern Oregon every other week to be here and help with his care for 15 straight months.

In those months I came to really know my father. We enjoyed those small moments that we never think about in our daily lives, you know, sitting on the steps together, not saying a word, just sitting shoulder to shoulder. Going for ice cream for "the girls", taking the short rides in my pickup that made him feel like he was "on the job" again.

He saw me wearing a panama that I had made for myself in the summer of '03 and his eyes told me I needed to make one for him. He couldn't put words together anymore, couldn't tell you my name or his wifes, but when I presented him with his own AF original the next trip up he didn't have to. The tears told me everything. He wore that hat night & day ( yes he slept in it) until the day he passed in Nov '03. It was the most rumpled POS and still is. I know because I see it every morning when I wake. It sits atop my armoire along with his ashes and serves as a daily reminder of who I am and where I came from.

A hat is not always just a hat and when AC asked me to take this on even though I have declined most, I couldn't turn him down. It just isn't often that you get a chance to make someone's Grandmother smile and remember where she's been.

 

[AlanC]

Thanks a lot, Art, for your story and for taking on my hat. That helps give your work even more special to me.

Here is a bit more jovial shot of me:

And full shot:

 

[John in Covina]

Love them while you have the chance.

I lost my father some years back and pretty much every day I think of him. I think of his life as a young immigrant coming from Norway to the US mere months before the Crash of 1929 and the begining of the Great Depression. The good fortune that his father remained employeed thru the Depression but always with the knowledge of how uncertain things were. His service in the US Army in WWII and coming home to work as a machinist, becoming a husband and father. He worked so hard for everything we had. His fortitude and ingenuity was legendary as was his honesty and kindness. I have his Borsalino which was redone and I wear it to honor him.

Not to take away from Mother's Day, mom was the woman behind the man doing so much to make so much possible.

Honor your father and mother.

Best wishes with a great hat and best wishes to Art who helped remind us of the special place family can have in our lives.

 

[undertaker]

That hat looks great. I would love to know what your grandmother thought of it.

Regards,
J.S.

 

[Foofoogal]

Absolutely fabulous. I don't venture much out of the powder room but as an antiques dealer I am definitely into resurrecting stuff.
My grandfather was always called Bud and he wore a hat everywhere everyday and had a felt hat almost like that.
Art, you are a master and Alan you look so perfect for any Mothers Day. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[AlanC]

That hat looks great. I would love to know what your grandmother thought of it.

Thanks, everyone. I emailed pictures to my parents this evening, and my Dad was going to let my grandmother know tonight that the hat was back. He's going to show her the pictures tomorrow. Next month I should be able to show her the hat in person. I've also got my Dad looking for pictures of my grandfather wearing the hat, or any hat for that matter. He said he knew there were some of him wearing hats.

One of the pictures I sent him was the open crowned picture above. He said he remembered his father sending his hats to the cleaners where they would reblock them, and that they would come back looking like that. He remembers my grandfather bashing them the way he wanted them when he got them back. Great stuff.

 

[Joel Tunnah]

A+ work Art, and thanks for sharing the personal stories. :eusa_clap

Joel