If you want to get ahead...

[Redundant]

...get a hat!   Not an original comment from yours truly, that's a slogan I dug out from the distant recesses of my mind, and a little research tells me it was devised by "The Hat Council" back in 1934, so given I only fell to earth in 1956 I have no idea why I remember it.   Found this too from 1952:



Now, until recently I never thought I was a hat person, I always wanted to wear a hat, but I could never get passed the "Oh my god that looks ridiculous" stage, so apart from several years wearing the Royal Navy's white "Pork Pie" I have been, not to put too fine a point on it, naked from the ears up.

Not any more.   Whilst I freely admit to several diatribes on the physical cruelties of age [ear hair, nasal hair - you get the picture, or rather, better if you don't], I have recently discovered a positive effect of ageing, which is either that my head has "settled" somehow and has become hat friendly or my eyes no longer give a monkeys and don't bother reporting back to the brain regarding my sartorial elegance or lack of it.

I am now the proud owner of three trilby hats [dark blue, light blue and grey respectively] and two fedora [both black], the latter get an outing on relatively calm days, or at least as calm as it gets stuck in the middle of the Irish Sea, and the former tend to be utilised when walking forward acquires any degree of tilt.

At this point I am getting ambitious, so in the post, or so I am reliably informed, are my latest purchases, yet another trilby [black to complete the set] and what is described as [and I quote] "A High Quality Mens Waterproof Wool Trilby Cowboy Rodeo Felt Fedora Hat" - which is probably as bold as I am going to get.   Not sure how a hat can be a trilby, a fedora and a cowboy hat all at the same time but right now my head's ready to try anything...hats off to you all.

   

[Roger Kettle]

I REALLY have to see a photo of the trilby/fedora/cowboy hat.

[Redundant]

I forgot you have a fondness for Americana, would it be fair to assume a certain familiarity with a stetson of some kind?   I'll be glad to provide a photo once the hat gets here, my wife suggested it might be one of those you can "fold" or manipulate into different shapes.   I have seen a picture of course, albeit not adorning someones head, but given it's black with a black leather narrow hatband it's kind of difficult to say just how stupid I am about to look.   So far the fedora have sparked comments of a likeness to both Sean Connery and Alfred Hitchcock [the latter is sadly nearer the mark].

[Roger Kettle]

Sadly, I've never worn a stetson in my life. I tend to wear a rather dashing Viking helmet when I go shopping and a sombrero for formal occasions.

[Redundant]

Sadly, I've never worn a stetson in my life. I tend to wear a rather dashing Viking helmet when I go shopping and a sombrero for formal occasions.

I am astonished [for some reason] you haven't worn a Stetson, I seem to remember you listing Montana as one of your favourite places, a place not particularly well known for its Viking heritage.

It only seems fair that if I'm to post a picture of my Stetson/Trilby/Fedora [with my head suitably installed] that you should consider posting a similar offering [seriously torn between the two here but the Viking helmet wins by a hat-band].

[Roger Kettle]

Well, yes, I do love Montana, Red, and a lot of the locals wear stetsons but I've never really felt the need to try one on. I'd look like Yosemite Sam. Similarly, when I'm in London, I avoid wearing a Beefeater's hat. I'm afraid I can't oblige with a Viking helmet photo. Recent studies suggest that these helmets were actually without horns so I've sent mine off to be de-horned.

[Redundant]

Well, yes, I do love Montana, Red, and a lot of the locals wear stetsons but I've never really felt the need to try one on. I'd look like Yosemite Sam. Similarly, when I'm in London, I avoid wearing a Beefeater's hat.

I get that [I guess] although I think your analogy is a little on the weak side, might have been better with France and the Beret, or perhaps Scotland and the tam o'shanter which I somehow avoided wearing during my time in Barrhead and Faslane [HMS Neptune] outside of Helensburgh.   Unless [and not for the first time] the beefeater reference went straight over my head somehow.

I'm afraid I can't oblige with a Viking helmet photo. Recent studies suggest that these helmets were actually without horns so I've sent mine off to be de-horned.

As my friend Nip from Barrhead might say, "ye can talk the talk but ye canny walk the walk" - I of course am far too polite to suggest such a thing, given my relatively limited appearances within this forum...

[Roger Kettle]

I haven't been in France for over 40 years so a beret analogy would have been just plain silly. As for the Beefeater's hat, well, that was a bit lazy of me. It's just that I don't know the name of those stupid hats the Pearly Kings wear.

[Redundant]

I haven't been in France for over 40 years...

It's been a while since I was that way myself and there were not many berets around even then.   I love language, I particularly love the English language, although that feels a tad traitorous to the Manx language.   Truthfully though, albeit only my own opinion, even if I could speak Manx I don't think it's as beautiful as English.   Years ago I joined this form using a variant of the name CharybdisF75 and I loved it, in the brief time I was here the cut and thrust of language was spectacular and the humour was at many times simply sublime.   There was so much going on it was almost hard work just keeping up, never mind joining in.   But maybe some of that is just nostalgia creeping in, after all it seems I remember a great deal of apparently happy memories of my time in the Navy, but there's a voice in the back of my head that occasionally reminds me..."You hated it, it mostly made you unhappy and there were some pretty shitty people around too".   But I digress.

Earlier today I accidentally [I was tempted to use accidently but there's no fun if no-one calls you for it] hit the "Register" button instead of the "Login" one, and I obviously noticed registration is still disabled, and presumably has been since I read a related topic in October, in the same post Malc jokingly [I hope!] decried the possibility of new members of the forum, in defence of the oasis he has found here, and made a compelling case I must say.

I don't know if it's a conscious decision to leave registering disabled, and if it is I don't feel in any way qualified to pass comment on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, other than to say I hope it's just a "work in progress" thing.

I'd pray for forgiveness in regard to this minor diatribe, but I'm an atheist, believe it or not it's not alcohol induced, although I freely admit I may have have forgotten to take the odd anti-melancholy tablet or two.   I do find posting far more difficult since my sense of humour went AWOL, all I have now is occasional hysterical giggling and the odd postcard telling me how great a time it's having...still no sign of the bloody fedora/trilby/cowboy hat either...

[Redundant]

...Hats off to Larry, the two hats ordered have arrived, gale force winds prevented the maiden voyage of the Fedora/Trilby/Cowboy hat, but it is very very nice, and makes me look no more daft that any of the others.   The new black Trilby met all expectations and stayed on my head despite the best efforts of Irish Sea weather, why I almost had a Gene Kelly moment...

[Roger Kettle]

Get the camera out!

[Redundant]

...walking the walk...

[Roger Kettle]

Superb, Red! That is one good hat!

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I love hats. I currently have a small collection of leather Australian bush hats, which are basically like flat-topped Stetsons, and a 'Heisenberg' pork pie hat which I bought recently during my Walter White phase.

My family hate them (my hats, not hats in general), especially my better half, who actually bought me my first bush hat during a visit to Cosford Air Show on an extremely hot day, to protect my freckled ginger skin, and has spent all the years since regretting it.

I have the bush hats sent from Australia, but have never felt the need to travel there in order to wear them. Really, Roger - you should never need a reason to wear a hat other than they're good fun to wear. But they're also very handy in either strong sunshine or driving rain/snow/sleet/hail. They also give you a slight swagger in your step, and make you sing 'Witchita Lineman' when you're out walking.

Red, you look completely splendid! Roger, I think they're called Pearly King Hats. Incidentally, if you've not seen him already, type the name Bill Callaghan into YouTube, and watch the master of all Beefeaters at work. Absolutely brilliant he is, and very, very funny.

[Redundant]

Thanks Roger, it is a good hat, I had a moments doubt about whether or not the Isle of Man was entirely ready for a hat this cool, but then I remembered...I don't care!   I may have to "hang my hat" as it were at this point, I'm up to seven and rapidly running out of places to put them, someone else's god bless my wife though, not a word of censure, complaint or otherwise.   Hoping the wind holds back a little tomorrow so the "mongrel" hat gets an official airing. [I figured mongrel was easier that fedora/trilby/cowboy].