Hats

I am the proud owner of many a hat.
There is something to wear for wherever I'm at.

A hat for the summer,

A hat for the fall,

A hat for nary a reason at all.

I have one with big bows and one with a feather.

There is one I can wear when there's inclement weather.

A hat made of rhinestones,

A hat made of fur,

A black one, a white one, and a red one for sure.

I'm told that I am quite a vision in hats,

And I am not too shy to agree about that.

Hats for excursions,

And some just for play,

My hat is my crown, and I like it that way.

        By Pamela J. Randolph

I can't believe I sold this one.

I would eagerly marry into the British royal family just so I could wear hats.  I've always swooned over them, but I could never wear them because of my glasses.  No matter how many different styles I tried on, none of them ever looked right.  To my great disappointment, the glasses just ruined the effect.

Then around 20 years ago, I had lasik surgery to correct my vision, but it was badly botched.  Very badly botched.  At the time, I was on my way to becoming a professional travel and nature photographer, so this was a devastating development and caused me to sink into a severe depression.  The only compensation was that while my vision was not good enough to tell if my 35mm slides were sharp, I no longer needed glasses for distance.   Eventually I told myself that even if I couldn't see well, I could at least look good.  So to cheer myself up, I bought a bunch of hats.  Glorious hats.  I even had a few chances to wear them although ladies in hats were not common in Toronto.

Sold this one too.

I'm very far from being religious, but I seriously considered moving to the South and joining one of the African-American congregations famous for ladies wearing "church hats".  I think I would have fit right in.  The book Crowns is a marvelous celebration of these ladies and their (multiple) hats.

Fast forward to 2019 when we prepared to move to Mexico and had to downsize our possessions.  I sold or gave away most of my nice shoes and, I'm sad to say, a number of my more elaborate hats.  A church-going lady in Toronto bought several of them.  I never dreamed I would have any use for them in Mexico, but now I'm kicking myself for getting rid of them.  Because of Covid-19, our wonderful classical music organization has been holding its concerts outdoors during the afternoon, and it has been warm and sunny.  A perfect opportunity to wear fancy hats.  I'm very glad I kept a few of them, and I've been delighted to show them off to my fellow concert-goers.