A Proper Summer Hat

Women in the south are fond of hats and the occasions that call for them. Weddings, funerals, gardening, debutante parties, parades. Most woman I know have at least one defining and uniquely their own hat. Mine - purchased at an estate sale - is of straw with brown stripes and tassels and a brim that can be worn up or down. It is an all purpose hat - for the days when I oversleep and miss the opportunity to wash my hair, for outside festivals when my hair wouldn't survive the humidity, for those times when I would rather not be recognized because I missed the opportunity to wash my hair or am at an outside festival. I have another for those regrettable times I spend among the shrubs - lime green with a multicolored wrap around band. And a floppy brimmed white one for the serious times though I confess I am still waiting for the proper occasion to wear it.

A proper summer hat can be many things - a diversion, a disguise, an attention getting device, a useful accessory for idle hands, an eccentricity. It can be subtle or outrageous, silly or fashionable, it all depends on the personality and mood of the wearer. I never cared for hats when I was younger and have even begun to formulate a theory that hats and maturity just may be connected somehow. A hat that says I know what it looks like and I don't care sends a message of strength and independence, of inner peace. A woman who can carry off a ridiculous hat is a woman with self confidence and dignity - she is a force to be reckoned with. Her hat says Stand aside and let me pass. There are few challenges a woman can't meet in the proper hat, particularly if the hat in question has had a previous owner. Second hand hats often retain something of their previous owner, a trace of their spirit, perhaps or a memory embedded in the fabric and reawakened by the new owner. It's as if an aura is passed along and in the passing, the hat and it's owners live on.

Sometimes it takes a brave woman to wear a hat. Sometimes the hat is what makes the woman brave.