My hat is gone and I feel like I've lost a friend

[Insp. Bumstead]

I lost my hat a few weeks ago. I don't know how or where it happened. I just woke up one day, reached for it on the nightstand and realized I couldn't remember the last time I had seen it. I realize the title of this thread is mawkish. After all, hats are bits of fur and cloth, not people. Please just indulge me for a second as I try to work out my thoughts about this.

This hat was my first real fedora, a carbon grey Federation 4 with a trimmed brim. I don't believe in accumulating a lot of stuff so I only had the one. For the past 5 years, that hat kept the sun, rain and snow off my face traveling and living in three continents. The inside smelled like sweat and French girls' perfume and Chinese cigarettes. It smelled like doner kebabs and onions eaten in a dirty alley at 4 in the morning. It smelled like the ocean, and indeed, still had the salt stains from when I got drenched by a wave in Taiwan. When I went over the handlebars of my mountain bike in Hong Kong and slid down half of Lanshan mountain, I added a little bit of my blood to those stains.

It wasn't much to look at. My lousy creasing job left the crown higher on the left side than the right, and I never got around to fixing it. The rear brim was so soft it would flop up and down in a gentle breeze, probably from me falling asleep on it so many times. Not to mention the front of the pinch was slowly morphing into a curlicue shape from me grabbing it so much. But it fit my head and it fit my fingers, and it was mine, dammit.

I'm not a sentimental person, and of course a lot of people have way worse problems than this, but it feels like I've lost an old traveling companion who I'll never see again. Foolish as it sounds, I'll have to have a bit of a mourning period before I get a new hat. Thanks for listening Fedora Lounge.

 

[randooch]

That's a well-written eulogy. My condolences.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Insp. Bumstead, I know I'd feel exactly the same way if I misplaced one of mine. You have my sympathy, my friend. -dixon cannon

 

[dhermann1]

I think I discovered the Lounge after losing my first fedora. I was getting out of a cab in Brooklyn, and as I get out, and turned, and saw the cab speeding away, I realized that the hat was still on the back seat. I was crushed.
My sincere condolences.
I hope that it will be for you, as it was for me, a lesson well learned.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

That is sort of a sad story to misplace a hat and not know where it went or what happened to it? Hope you can find a replacement that you will enjoy all the same.

 

[mikespens]

Sounds like you've lost an appendage Inspector, my sincere condolences. Your next hat may seem like a prosthesis for a while but sure you'll adapt and carry on.

 

[hatophile]

I would say though, it sounds like that hat had some character! French girl's perfume? Whoa!

 

[Insp. Bumstead]

Thanks for listening guys, and for sharing similar stories. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it felt good to let out the story to like-minded folks.

 

[Corky]

Great story.

The obvious solution to your dilemma would be (after a suitable period of mourning, perhaps long enough to save up the cost of a replacement) to get yourself another a carbon grey Fed 4 with a trimmed brim.

That's the reason many of us get pure bred dogs. One enjoys the company of the perfect Black Lab or Border Collie for the duration of it's life span, then after the dog has gone to a better place, one is sad for a while, then one goes back to the breeder and selects a replacement. Life goes on.

But since you are a One Hat Man, I suggest another course of action. Why not wander over to your local Optimo hat shop, and get yourself an upgrade?

The Akubra is a fine hat; but if you plan to wear one hat for the next few years, the look, feel, and wear of a hat made of beaver felt is infinitely preferable to that of a hat made of rabbit felt.

 

[hatophile]

Will beaver retain the scent of French perfume?

 

[gtdean48]

Will beaver retain the scent of French perfume?

Or vice versa???

 

[John in Covina]

Hope of finding and return.

 

[Lije Baley]

Will beaver retain the scent of French perfume?

Seriously? That's where many of us first smelled French perfume.