I really like hats. I don’t really wear hats that often, but I like having them around. There are certain situations where you need a special kind of hat, and it is a great joy to be able to put that needed hat on.
I have a lot of shelves in my office, and I had a great brainstorm one day and put all my collected haberdashery around the top level. I have more at home, but these are my display hats, and their stories, left to right from my computer chair.
A bear hat that I got from my sister. This is probably my current favorite. It comes in handy for Baylor parades and sporting events.
A Hawaii ball cap I got from my in-laws from their Hawaii trip.
A Home Depot hat (the kind with the giant top part that farmers and elderly men wear) that Scott Eberle gave me from his time at said depot.
A sombrero I won at Six Flags in high school for “fooling the guesser” (he overestimated my weight – my scrawniness paid off for once!).
A straw hat from Tractor Supply Company that Scott Eberle gave me from his time at said company (he currently works for the Austin Fire Department – maybe I’ll get a fireman’s hat from said department!).
This awesome hat I bought for $5 at Wal-Mart. With my aviator sunglasses on, I put this on and transform into Earl the trucker.
A Farmersville Farmers hat I got from Aaron Glenn.
The excellent cowboy hat pictured at the top that I got from Wal-Mart, and lasted through four summers of summer camp. It’s my swimming hat.
This sweet homemade hat featuring a manatee.
My sweet wife, who was my sweet girlfriend at the time, hand-stitched this on to the back:
What a woman.
And finally, the triumvirate of the better cowboy hats and the Australian walk-about hat.
In the office, they serve as decoration, and a visual symbol of all the metaphorical hats a minister must wear.
There are also hats I mourn. I had a Snoopy “WWI Flying Ace” hat that I still miss, and I donated my barbarian helmet my dad made from a mixing bowl and two scraps of wood to summer camp. And one hat that bit the dust last year will certainly get its own entry, as it involves Greek class and the book of Revelation.
I was thinking the other day about hats and remembered, as if from a dream, the cartoon linked to below. I think it must have affected me on a deep level as a very young child, because I still feel this thrill of adopting a whole new persona when I put on a special hat.
(Make sure and appreciate some of the things that were deemed appropriate for children in 1956 when this cartoon was made, such as Elmer’s threat to see Bugs’ spurting blood, the questionable portrayal of Native Americans, and smoking!)
Bugs' Bonnets
