Hats

I have never really been a hat person. It would be just one more thing to keep up with. Then after climbing at Seneca Rocks one early March week end. I was laying in bed that Sunday night I had a odd sensation emanating from the top of my head. I've had this feeling before but never from my scalp. After a few moments of pondering this. It then it hit me. I sun burned the top of my head. That's a landmark occasion in a not yet 30 guys life! The dew rag became part of my outdoor attire from then on.


Twenty years later, I am still not a hat person but, I have a couple and more dew rags than I can keep track of. Mostly to protect the top of my head from the sun. When you're the inspiration for Fishbelly White a figment of T. Garlands imagination. You have to be careful. Old friends are like good hats with the exception 20 some years of mutually assured character assassination. They just fit you well.

I still have hair its just a Tad thinner. I have hats like my green cowboy hat with the mesh for ballgames out door shows or long walks. I even have a cap to wear running. I've been wearing it for a little over a year now and ....I like it! Surprised even me. I'd seen them in catalogs and adds. I never really thought I ran far enough to worry about exposure to the sun. Its more of a indication of how slow I run .
It's white with reflective trim , mesh sidewalls or what ever you call the part of the hat that runs from the band to the top . Not much weight to it. really unobtrusive. I hardly notice it , Unless I run with out it. Which I have done more than once since hats are kind if hard to keep track of.. least ways for me. I like how the bill blocks the sun and especially on those hot humid days , the bill works like a rain gutter. Keeps the sweat out of your eyes and off your face. Has held up to weekly washings sometime biweekly . That's when I make up for not washing it in the previous week or two,


The original reason I purchased the hat was to keep the skin from peeling off my head.I've found my $8 hat to be a bargain at R.E.I. . Now I still have hair, might be thin but it's still hanging in there. Once it gets to a certain point there will be no come overs. I'll just shave everything. I would now but its too much work. I like the low maintenance aspect. I don't have a scraggly beard because I think it looks good or as a Festus Hagen memorial. I just don't like to shave.

I also have an A.L.F. ( Alex Lowes Friends ) hat not the TV character type but a Nepalese type that fits under a climbing helmet. Made by a Little co-op in Utah for Conrad Anker and Alex Lowe. Bob Ingle hung with Conrad and went on a trip to Alaska with him. He brought home a slide show along with a box of hats to sell. The hat looks dorky but serves its purpose well. Alex was lost in a avalanche a few years ago. Conrad married his widow and we haven't heard from Bob or his big brother Bill in years. You can still find the the hats in catalogs like Mountain Tools or Back Country Magazine.

Then there's my Patagonia Balaclava, kinda a hood and turtle neck combo. Nice for hanging out in 10 degree weather. Not that it gets much use in Al. But you just never know. Been a cool summer! It resides in a drawer with a assortment of headbands watch caps / toboggans, gloves and mittens that seem to come and go. Seasonal workers do that I guess. I still have my original Navy watch cap I was issued in boot camp. It never fit right and rarely wore it even in the Navy. I thought I threw it away a couple of times, but seems to crawl back.


In there amongst the pile in the drawer is my headband. Well, its not really mine its my sisters. It used to go with a matching pair of mittens and a coat with fake fur trim. That was back in 1967 . The mittens and coat are long gone. My sisters a long way from here too.

How I got the head band I can't really say. Inherited in a way. We used to play football or basketball Sunday afternoons at the Dry Run Elem. pretty much all through the school year. I just started borrowing it. She left for college in 70 and it stayed behind. Its made of wool not the smart kind we have today either. Wool that actually came from a sheep. Organic, Forty some years later its trendy. I have a couple of other head bands . Some are camo and a reflecting one for night runs, it matches the vest. When I was working second shift I would sometimes run at midnight.
One night running north on 75 I was crossing the bridge running in the center of the road as a tractor and trailer started to cross the intersection on 641 headed west. The only lights were Bairs store and the IGA. This was Before Path Valley family Restaurant. He stopped in the middle of the intersection and stared for a moment. I must of looked liked like an angel or alien or the JOGGER from the Bobby Bare song . All aglow in reflective glory.

I have a couple just for xc-skiing or cold runs made out of smart wool,, capilene or some other poloy hydrophobic insulating Kleenex type material that works better than plain old wool. It still works though. Not just keeping my ears warm , but as a memory jogger. ( pun not really intended. ) of things from the past. Things you actually feel more than remember. An external memory device ..a link to times and places you're not sure existed even then .
I don't really find any comfort in clutter and it stays in the drawer where I can find it on cold days. If my sister would want it back its hers and I have others. Until then I'll keep it. Like most things we keep in our life's it still serves a purpose.