Beech Tree News Network

Our friends, Greg and Renee, are in South Africa on vacation with their son and daughter-in-law.  They have posted some amazing pictures on Facebook.  One afternoon, my husband, Garey, was showing some of the pictures to one of our mutual friends.  He noticed the hat Greg was wearing.  “Tell him to bring me back one of those hats,” he said.  Garey sent Greg the message, “Jim wants a hat like yours.”  Greg texted back, “Drakes Farm Service, Morgantown, Kentucky.”  We all laughed, because the hat was a broad brimmed one, fashioned so as to protect the wearer from the hot sun.  Because it reflected the area where Greg was vacationing, we all assumed Greg bought it there.

Our friend, Cecil Goff, also had a broad brimmed hat, given to him by his wife, Kathy, in order to protect his face from the sun.  Cecil was an avid gardener, and when he passed away, his wife, Kathy Goff, had his garden tools and bench placed beside his coffin.  There was a straw hat nearby that I had never seen Cecil wear—he was a baseball cap guy.  As we approached, Kathy picked up the hat and told us the story behind it.  Because of the sun damage done to his face after many years of gardening, Cecil’s doctor suggested he wear a broad brimmed straw hat when he was in the sun.  Kathy bought it, but Cecil saw it as an unnecessary encumbrance.  If Kathy happened to notice Cecil in the garden without his hat, she would take it out to him.  Cecil would look at the hat and tell her he wished she’d put that hat where the sun never shines then he would relent and put it on, and Kathy would smile and return to the house, mission accomplished.

It has always intrigued me how something as simple as a hat can set someone apart and sometimes almost define a person.  Our daughter, Nikki, bought Garey a cowboy hat from The Hat Store in Texas.  When I was in Galveston, Garey flew into the airport in Houston for a visit.  When I picked him up, he was wearing a PBR (Professional Bull Riding) shirt, boots and his cowboy hat.  A security guard at the area took one look at Garey and said, “A real cowboy! That’s what I’m talkin about!” 

Garey loves that hat, but it’s not the one that defines him for his family.  His signature hat is an Australian safari-like hat with a chin strap.  Nikki also bought that one for her dad.  The hat has a shark on a diver down flag embossed on the front. (Garey was a scuba diver for years until his doctor said, “no more.”)  It’s the shark hat that reflects who Garey is at heart—adventurous and fun-loving.  Our family will always connect that hat with him.  

When Garey works, he wears a baseball cap.  Most southern men do, and like most southern men, Garey has an incalculable number of baseball caps. You might think your significant other has no idea how many baseball caps he has.  This is a misconception.  He not only knows how many caps he has, they are all numbered and catalogued, if only in his mind, and he will notice if one goes missing, even if it is a duplicate of five others.  As a young wife, I made the mistake of giving a couple of Garey’s caps to my brother.  He had three more just like them, but he missed the caps immediately.  I never did it again.  I learned it is okay for a man to give another man one of his caps, but it is not okay for a woman to give another man one of her man’s caps. It’s just cap etiquette.  (On a side note, I also learned during that period in my life to never throw away camouflage face paint, no matter if it hasn’t been used in three years, and there’s two inches of dust on the box that contains it, and you only found it when trying to make more room on the top shelf of the bathroom closet.)

My favorite hat is also a baseball cap.  It’s the one I wear outside when I’m working or playing with my granddaughter.  It’s ragged and worn, the logo on the front barely perceptible, but I love it, because it means “outside” to me.  Outside, away from paper and technology and talking heads on the TV.  It is my peace of mind hat, and when I have it on, I allow myself to have that.  I wish I had an inside hat that could do that.  I would have a perfect life indeed.