Middle-aged Bimbo.

While packing my curio cabinet, I found this old Mrs. Baird's Bread paper hat. The plant employees wore these, as did cafe and cafeteria cooks. I got this one either on a tour of the Mrs. Baird's Bakery on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, or possibly at the State Fair of Texas. That plant is being bull-dozed as I pack, and Mrs. Baird's is now owned by Panificación Bimbo, S.A. de Mexico. 

Even though we are both out of business now (Mrs. Baird and myself), I was surprised to discover the hat was adjustable to fit my 7-5/8th head. Maybe I can still be adjustable too.

I am a man of constant sorrow.

Whatapopshat.

Watsonburger was a small group of hamburger stands that started as Watson's Drive-In in Denison, Texas in the 1950s. It was right next door to the majestic (now demolished and gone) Denison High School. The family 'borrowed' some ideas from "Whataburger" (for which they got in some legal troubles later, IIRC), and opened several new hamburger restaurants as Watsonburgers, mainly along Highway 75 in north Texas and southern Oklahoma. Most are gone now, but a few remain.

I dined at the one in Sherman, Texas yesterday (Original Burger and fresh-made onion rings), and bought this hat. A good meal and a nice cap make a great lunch combo.

The criminal under my hat.

Ce n'est pas un casque légal de bicyclette.

Plantation Hat

Lunch at Williams' Tavern (c. 1832), Washington, Arkansas. Home of the Bowie Knife (not the tavern, but the blacksmith down by the giant magnolia tree). Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller began the effort to turn Washington into sort of a "Williamsburg of the Ozarks". Interesting place... a whole town designated as a state park and historic site.

Why Pop has hats.

Out of necessity.

Well, not entirely true. I've been dedicated to hat-wearing as long as I can remember, but it is no longer an option (or fashion accessory).

- Posted from my iPhone

Paschal Pop!

My new Ecuadorian hat ("Panama"), with Havana crease, debuting as my Easter bonnet. I purchased this direct from Ecuador early last winter, and it has been biding its time, waiting for spring. Spring has sprung, and so has my new chapeau.

I like it very much, and am now willing to move up to a higher grade weave.

Go fish.

This is my unstructured baseball cap from Cabelas, sans any sort of logo. It's yellow-gold in color to help Mrs. Pop locate me in a crowd.

I have affixed a small green button on the front that says simply, "fish". No one has asked.

Something wicker this way came.

Continued next Spring.

A reel cowboy and Moore.

Friday was the kick-off of the Texas State Fair ("Our state fair is a great state fair!"). City Hall sent out a memo saying Western wear "was approved" for the day. Dallas.

I walked over to Main Street at lunch to watch the Texas Sate Fair Opening Parade. I participated in this parade a few times in the late '60s and early '70s, as a member of the Preston Trail Ride. We rode horses and wagons from Preston in Grayson County (a historic crossing of the Red River between The Republic of Texas and Indian Territory USA) down the old Preston Trail (pretty much Highway 289 and Preston Road today) to open up the State Fair every year.

On my stroll, I was wearing this J.B. Stetson 5X "Cattleman", my El Paso made (meaning, "real") Tony Lama kangaroo skin rodeo heel boots, a tooled belt with a handmade Pearl Beer buckle, and a starched Oxford cloth western Shirt from Cavender's.

Making my way to the parade, a father pointed me out to his daughter, saying, "Look! A real cowboy!" Well, no and yes. I've done it, but I don't anymore, and haven't in a long time (almost 40 years). But I paid my dues and earned the look.

Behind me is a slanted building designed by I.M. Pei, and a Henry Moore sculpture often used as a public urinal in the past by Dallas' homeless. Who says "art" serves no purpose?

The Texas Two-Stetson.

What's old is new again. See for yourself.

Step up, son.

Some may recall my late, lamented John B. Stetson straw hat. It lives on as my yard-work hat, but it is not presentable for public viewing. I've been looking for a Western style replacement hat, but without luck (in my price range). But...

I made a barbecue expedition to Garland yesterday to try out a little drive-up called "Meshack's" (borrowing its name from a long closed South Dallas BBQ joint of some fame). It was worth the trip, and stands in my book right now as a top three BBQ spot in DFW. It's on Avenue B. Check it out.

Being out in the "Land of Gar" is a rarity for me, so I decided to make the most of the trip and swing by the Resistol Hat Factory and check out their outlet store. There it was, a Stetson 10X "Rancher" straw with side vents, in one of the two sizes that fit my cranium (a 7-5/8th).

I wore it to church this morning, and someone commented (looking at my sneakers), "Where're yer boots?" to which I replied, "It's a hat, not a costume."

Second chance.

I got this Ecuadorian straw hat several years ago from Orvis. One could call it a Panama if one felt so inclined... I don't.

The sub-fino straw was woven in Ecuador, and then made into a hat here in the USA. It's a "one size fits all" hat, and I have blamed that design (it's the elastic sweatband) for the odd transition between the brim and the crown. The proportions are off, or the crown is too high, or something. I've just never felt comfortable with it, eve though I like the general shape.

Any way, it's hung unused in my office. My old favorite straw died this spring (I think it's decomposing), so I set out to find a new straw hat for the summer (no pun intended). I'm giving this one another try after buying and returning a similar hat from Woolrich that was advertised as a "Panama-style" hat. The hat was from China, and instead of straw, it was made from woven paper. Back it went.

Financial constraints prevent me from ordering a Havana-style Panama hat, so this hat (much like the previous post) is getting a second chance.

Not a Panama.

This is a toquilla straw hat from Ecuador, commonly called a Panama hat because of their popularity there as an export item during the years the Panama Canal was dug. The name stuck. So, it really is a "Panama" hat, but Panama hats aren't from Panama, but Ecuador instead.

I've had this hat for a few years, but never really liked it's "roll-up" style. This year, in need of a new, cool straw hat, I formed the crease in the front of the crown (it had been just a plain barrel). I like it much better now. But I really want one like my cousin Harry Truman wore.

Summer Helmet

A Made'n Murhica pith helmet. The manufacturer's name is the unfortunate "Dorfman-Pacific". I say unfortunate, because I get looks like I'm wearing a "Dorkman-Specific" hat when I don this. But it's incredibly cool (ventilated), and I wear it when I am riding the Arched Bicycle of Canterbury (seen in the background). Helmets are required in Dallas.

Roosting for the rooster.

They gather in flocks in other parts of the house as well. Very Hitchcockian.

Falling for a new hat.

Fall has arrived (or, is arriving as I type), albeit about a month late. The first "cold" front of the season is blowing in, with temperatures expected to drop into the upper 40s by sundown. Right, too.

That's why I wore my new waxed-cotton ball cap. Heightened expectations.

Not me.

I got this Panama hat at Orvis, hoping I'd like it. I don't.

All the elements of a good hat are there, but the shape just doesn't quite work for me. The crown is too big, the break between the crown and the brim is too soft. I wear it on rare occasion. Very rare.

Earliest Pop's hat?

This photo dates from 1956, and judging by the cool weather attire, I should be five years old. That's my brother in the watch cap (14) and my sister (2) looking on in amusement as I have just been finned by a not-dead-yet sand bass.

I can't quite tell what my hat (and jacket) are saying here. At first glance, I look like one of Brando's motorcycle hoods in The Wild One (Marlon himself?), but more likely this is an attempt to emulate one of my childhood heroes, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle of The Tokyo Raid fame (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo).

However, if you consider that my brother's attire looks to have been influenced by On The Waterfront, it might be safe to guess that my mother had a thing for Brando.

Texican Immigrant Laborer.

Cleaning off the roof after the spring-fall of twigs, branches, and dead animals. After almost two centuries in Texas, my gene pool from 100,000 +/- years in Scotland and Bavaria has yet to adapt to the land I have arrived in.

This sweat band-less straw hat does the best job of absorbing sweat of anything I have ever used. A hat's sweat band always blocks the sweat, causing it to pool up and drain into my eyes, driving me blind with rage and stinging salt. But with the sweat band removed, the straw in this hat draws the sweat up into the crown and out the brim, evaporating and cooling my head.

This is the intended design of a straw hat, ruined by improvements.

Hard headed Kraut.

This is one of my several bicycle crash helmets. Probably one of the least functional hats I own, and the only one that my wearing is mandated by law. It's crash-design speed is approximately 15 mph, and yet if I were to simply fall over backwards, my head (based upon my 6'1" stature) would hit the ground at over 20 mph.

It doesn't keep the cold and wet out in the winter, and doesn't do a good job of letting the heat and sweat out in the summer time. Its effectiveness at protecting me from head injury is still debatable, but it does add to my road visibility (if reducing my ability to see just slightly), and it probably serves its best use in helping protect me if I fall off my bike when I am getting on or off it at a standstill (not an unlikely scenario for a klutz like me).

Whatever. I guess I'm just a slave to fashion (and the law).

The original Pop's Hat revisited.

That's June Anne LaGrone (granddaughter, and namesake of my sister and mother). I walked into the room, and she yelled "HAT!" and grabbed it off my head and put it on hers.

Another REAL Pop's hat.

This bucket hat belonged to my dad. It is in my favorite accent color PMS-123, (better known as PMS Yellow).

Frau Summer has declared that wearing it in her presence ist Verboten.

She's away.

I'm so glad.

Handkerchiefs.

I'm the only person I know who carries one at all times, either folded into a point in the breast pocket of a jacket, or folded into a square and stuffed into a hip pocket, or simply stuffed into a front pockets of my pants. I usually use them to wipe sweat off my face and out of my eyes. I never use them to blow my nose. I have offered a scrupulously clean one to someone who was crying.

And I have been known to tie a knot in all four corners and wear one as a hat when I am working outside (or to wear underneath a bike helmet).

In the photo above, I am about to begin the process of removing the mildew that blossomed on the carport beam. Dallas' formerly moderate humidity has given way to almost Houston-like levels (thanks to suburban sprawl, swimming pools, and lawn sprinklers).

Global damping.

Don't look at me.

This is very nice genuine Panama of a superior straw. It has a slider/keeper for the chin strap that's made out of a nut shell. It fits great, it breathes wonderfully, so my head stays cool, provides ample amounts of shade, stays on my head in strong winds, and it's quite attractive.

But it looks kind of affected. Too stylish? Too Bohemian? Too something.

It works great, just don't look. It embarrasses me when you look.

The Ghost of Summer past.

Dolomite

This is another hat I got at Neiman Marcus during a Last Call sale. It was reduced 80% of the regular price (costing $40). It's an Italian-made 100% fur hat in the preferred mossy green that makes me feel invisible. This hat is incredibly soft-to-the-touch, and the temptation is to just keep stroking it with my fingers. Whatever fur was used is of premium quality.

In the backround is a light dusting of snow.

The Dolomites are the Italian Alps, hence the title: Italian, snow, mountains.

A reach, I know.

Fuzzy logic.

This is your basic nylon ball cap, but with a crucial difference for the folliclly challenged. This cap, made by a company called Weatherproof, specializes in the use of microfibers. The exterior is a water-repellent nylon, suitable for fog and drizzle.

The interior of the crown, however, is the source of true joy in this cap. It is lined with micro-fleece, keeping bald/balding pates comfortably warm in the winter months. The human scalp is one of the primary radiators of body heat. A bare scalp in winter could lead to impaired cognitive abilities.

Not a small matter of importance, especially if you have a big head.

Pop's inner laborer.

This is my straw Stetson. I bought it many years ago at Neiman-Marcus (back when they handled a few items of Western Wear for real oilmen). It listed for $225, mainly because of the fancy pheasant hatband, but it was still top of the line panama straw. I got it at Last Call™ for $25.

The years took their toll. The hatband migrated to the straw that inspired Pop's Hat. But this hat labors on... mainly when I do yard work or cook out.

P.S. That's a bootlace substituting for a hatband.

First grab.

June Anne LaGrone (granddaughter) makes her first grab of Pop's hat.

Red letter day.

Back to basics.

This is the sweat-stained Panama that started this adventure. I've tried to replace it a couple of times, but failed. It has patina.

Pithy Pop

Yep. It's a pith helmet, made by Dorfman-Pacific from an open-weave, stiff paper fabric.

I love this hat. Great sun protection, very cool, excellent evaporative action, and it has an adjustable leather sweatband with a removable terry-cloth brow pad. It's the perfect hat for Texas summers, with only one drawback...

...unless you're a Postal Carrier, it looks kinda pretentious, which I hate. I may BE pretentious, but I hate to look it.

Blowing a fuse.

Probably one of the more "honest" hats of this type I have. It's a brushed cotton-blend cap with a Mossy-Oak bill. The writing/logo on the crown is from FUSECO, an industrial fuse and electrical component supply company in Dallas.

A dear Xn brother of mine gave it to me. He's a salesman for FUSECO, hence the honesty... a given gimmie cap.

Growler

Linden and I took Hosea to the Dallas Zoo weekend before last. It was his first trip to the zoo, and we wanted to achieve certain firsts.

1. First trip to the zoo,
2. First weekend with us away from his parents (brainwash time, heh, heh, heh),
3. First Flecther's Corny Dog, and,
4. First rubber tiger hat.

He liked to look at his reflection in the windows and make tiger poses like the little boy in Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."

All boy.

Faux Pop's Real Hat.

As mentioned, I had two hats refurbished by Texas Hatters recently. I re-refurbished my dad's hat, and I had my own hat that Texas Hatters made for me in the mid-70s refurbished as well at the same time.

It's a little "fancier" in my book, and less desirable, than Dad's. Like so much in my life, I was trying to imitate the things about Harry C. Summer, Jr. I admired, and vainly perhaps trying to improve.

I view Harry's Hat as "Authentic", and P.M.'s hat as a "Replica".

I never understood my father's attitude (and fear/awe) of his own father, Harry Clifton Summer, Sr.

I'm getting closer to understanding.

On the moors of Dallas.

This hat is a great Anglo-American hybrid hat. It's made of genuine Harris Tweed™ fabric from Scotland, with a GoreTex™ liner from the U.S.A., and sold by that Yankee outfitter, L.L. Bean™.

I don't wear it as often as I might for two reasons: Even with the GoreTex™ breathable membrane (or perhaps because of it), it tends to get a little too humid in milder weather (temperatures in the 50s, say), and although it's sized as a "large", it's a European large. Apparently, my head size is "giant" in Europe (actually XL, based on some other European hats I possess).

Today is a day for this hat. Slight mist, light wind, 38 degrees. Sure it's a little snug, but sic transit gloria.

The Real Pop's Hat

This is a genuine, 100X beaver, Stetson hat that belonged to my dad, Harry C. Summer (Jr.). He bought it in the late 1950's/early 60's. It was not cheap (these were Dad's "high-roller" days when he was a custom-home builder in Dallas). He wore this hat when he worked in the field and when he played in the field. By the mid-70's, it was horribly sweat stained. In about 1978, I took it to Manny Gammage's Texas Hatters in Austin and had them refurbish it. He wore it another fifteen hard years.

I took it to Texas Hatters again late last year (now in Lockhart) and had them refurbish it again... but for me this time. Interestingly, Dad and I have the same 7-5/8th hat size.

It's a treasure.

The Streets of my City.

Loden green wool fedora. Water repellant. This is a great hat for snowy, sleeting days.

These are the kinds of days that scare most folks off the roads AFTER the danger has passed. I am walking down the middle of a street in downtown Dallas at lunchtime.

Anglophile.

One of my favorite hats, this is a felt "driving cap" that imparts a sort of British charm to this Texan of German/Scottish descent. This particular cap was made by Pendleton Woolen Mills of Portland, Oregon. I love the mossy-green color. Works great on a snowny/sleeting day in North Texas.

Summer in Winter.

This is my Timberland™, GoreTex™ lined, leather ball cap. I can wear this in Texas two or three days a year. Today's weather forecast is 32º, with rain, turning to sleet.

Today is just the type of day I can wear this hat.

Slick Mikey.

It's raining today. It rained all night. God is good (all the time).

This bucket-hat is 100% cotton, impregnated with oil to make it water-proof, yet breathe-able. I believe it to be the only thing I own (other than some wine) that was made in Australia.

It matches my English oil-cloth coat. The ensemble is very Anglophilic (which I am). Also very non-synthetic, which I like (like the Impaler Spruce Christmas tree behind me).

The Greening of the New Year

This is really nice, olive-drab, ball cap from Weatherproof™. It's made with a microfibre shell (very soft to the touch), and lined with black microfleece. very warm to the skull.

The pin on the crown is a brotherhood of Saint Andrew's pin. The X represents the way Andrew was crucified at his martyrdom. You see the same X in the Scottish national flag, as St. Andrew in Scotland's patron saint. It also shows up in the british Union Jack, where St. George's and St. Andrew's crosses are superimposed upon each other, signifying the unification of England and Scotland.

The Confederate battle flag also bore St. Andrew's cross. A common trait for the losers of civil wars?

New Yeller.

This is my newest hat, and current favorite.

Why? It's the school bus yellow color. It really helps my 5' 2" wife find her 6' 1" husband when we are out shopping. She looks for the yellow hat.

The Cabela's label is imitative of the type of label the Department of Defense used to put in U.S. Government issue military gear, so it has a utilitarian style that appeals to my faux-utilitarian fashion sense.

Out of the closet.

During the 2004 Election Cycle, I had a friend suggest it was not possible to wear this hat with this pin on it.

My response, from my perspective, was that it not posible to NOT do it.

Cedar-chopper Pop.

Bodacious Bar-B-Q is an East Texas institution (Tyler). It is from whence Dallas' "Baker's Ribs Barbecue" has come from (family connections).

Rejected.

Wearing it.

Hosea Foster Downing, my 23 month old grandson. Notice the hat (Klipsch & Associates, mine) and the Rhinoceros shirt (his). He's into horns.