The best summer hat came into my hands, as if descending from a cloud. I'm constantly reviewing hats, touching them, feeling them, and of course wearing them. What always catches me off-guard, and never ceases to amaze me, is when I grab a hat and say, “Wow."
I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was late March and the winter was slowly, angrily, pulling away. We got a brand new shipment of straw hats and I nearly lost my mind. These were summer products we couldn't start selling, yet the kid in me needed to dive face-first into the boxes. Summer was here, and it smelled like a hayfield.
I rummaged around the standard garden variety straw hats, the flimsy paper straw, the funky toyo straw, and the crisp Panama straw hats that everyone fauns over. Not me though. What caught my eye, with the glimmering greenish sparkle, was this little turquoise diamond in the rough.
I grabbed it, yanking on it full force. I had to know what it was, and I had to have it. Of course, I shouldn't have been surprised, when it turned out to be a Stetson.
The Stetson Tate hemp fedora to be exact. There was something about it, the quality of the hemp or the meticulous weaving, I couldn't be sure. But whatever it was, this straw hat was like no other. The hemp gives it a cloth-like quality, you'd swear it's not straw. Every straw hat I've ever tried has a brittleness to it, but so what, it's not like you need to sleep in them.
Not the Stetson. I wanted to live the rest of my life in this hat. I put it on, trying it out, living out my fantasy dreams of the soon approaching summer. Spending time at the pool, going to the beach, and enjoying a baseball game with friends. What was supposed to be a 30-second test drive, turned into an afternoon affair.
The hat stayed on my head, in a good way, as I refused to let it go. I went out to dinner and got teased unmercifully. People said, “That's a summer hat, and it's still March." I told them I didn't care and they needed to shut their mouths. I was so offended like they were insulting my girlfriend.
Then my hunch was vindicated. The bartender said, “That's a nice hat, where'd you get it?" And I knew my instincts had been right. Though I couldn't sell it to him yet, or even part with my own, I assured the dapper gentleman he would be the first to receive the hat, as soon as they became available. Then he bought me a drink.
Cheers. Here's to a fashionable and stylish summer, and hoping you can find the best summer hat of your own.
