Hats aplenty on the bus

[Chanfan]

Just a little observation from a few days ago.

I was taking a bus from downtown (Seattle) to a park-and-ride, afternoon rush hour. As has been normal all summer, I've been wearing my Bailey Panama. It's full, so perhaps 50 or so folks on the bus.

I noted four baseball caps on the bus, two on women. One was pink in set up in the pony-tail out the back configuration, which I find one of the most pleasing ways for a ball cap.

However, I was quite surprised to note that there were more actual hats on the bus, five. Aside from myself, there was another panama, a felt with a medium ribbon and brim, and two stingy brims on younger hipsters.

Perhaps an anomaly to have more brimmed hats than ball caps, but worthy of note!

 

[Babydoll]

There's a guy that I've seen probably a dozen times walking around the neighborhood I work in on the Eastside. He's always wearing a straw boater, but he pairs it with a t-shirt (with varying printed designs), shorts (cargo - MANY pockets), socks, and dress shoes. :eusa_doh:

 

[HATCO]

A couple of peoples theory is that the rise of the automobile more than anything killed the hat.

Inside Home: No hat

Get in Car to drive to work: No hat

Get to work: No hat

Drive Back home: No hat.

Cars have low enough roofs that it can be a hassle to get in and out of cars with a hat let alone wear one...

Where ever you have less cars as a mode of transportation the more you will see hats. I live in suburbia where you have to drive everywhere. I rarely see the type of hats we sell. When I visit metropolitan areas the ratio of hat wearers increases dramatically.

Just a little observation from a few days ago.

I was taking a bus from downtown (Seattle) to a park-and-ride, afternoon rush hour. As has been normal all summer, I've been wearing my Bailey Panama. It's full, so perhaps 50 or so folks on the bus.

I noted four baseball caps on the bus, two on women. One was pink in set up in the pony-tail out the back configuration, which I find one of the most pleasing ways for a ball cap.

However, I was quite surprised to note that there were more actual hats on the bus, five. Aside from myself, there was another panama, a felt with a medium ribbon and brim, and two stingy brims on younger hipsters.

Perhaps an anomaly to have more brimmed hats than ball caps, but worthy of note!

 

[MattJH]

When I visit metropolitan areas the ratio of hat wearers increases dramatically.

I live in Philadelphia and I see fur felt and straw fedoras on a daily basis without fail. Comparatively, they're everywhere.

 

[SGT Rocket]

I like to adjust the seat in my car to make room for my hat.

When I drive the wife's minivan, no adjustment to the seat is necessary~ except for my legs. I have plenty of room in there to wear my hat.

 

[JohnnyGringo]

That was yet another selling point when I chose my Chevy HHR-plenty of headroom for me to be able leave my hat on while driving. Having to be hat-free was a problem with other vehicles I've owned, but fortunately not with this one. And....it looks very retro as well.

 

[Stan]

Hi,

Well, I can see where this would be a factor today. However....

I don't think you can figure that cars had much to do with the decline of hats in the first place, at least here in the US. Cars didn't downsize until the early 1970's. I've always been able to wear a hat in a vehicle, even the original mid 1960's cars like the Mustang/Camero and Falcon/Nova/Valiant, which were originally called 'compact' cars. That was as small as they came, with larger cars in the form of intermediate and full-sized. They offered plenty of headroom.

Now, I've had many a European car: MG's, Triumph's, Fiat's, Lotus, etc from the 1960's and 1970's. One can't wear a hat in any of those. You have to opt for the driving cap instead. Except for my Lotus Seven, that is. In that, you have to go bareheaded or use a helmet - any form of cap will fly off in the wind pretty darned quickly!

Once the cars started downsizing into the sub-compact range in the 1970's, hat wearing was already pretty much out. Heck, these cars were close to the same size as the older European cars I mentioned, so no surprise there.

Now, pick-up trucks and vans always had more headroom. There's little difference in headroom between my 1997 Ford F350 and the old 1946 GMC pickup I learned to drive on. Oh, the newer truck is wider and longer, of course, but the headroom is close to being the same, if not exactly the same.

The 1933 Ford 5-window and the 1940 Ford Business coupes I once owned had the same headroom as that 1946 GMC pick-up. I can say that there was really little difference between a pick-up and a car back before the mid 1950's or so, at least when it came to people space. Heck, in 1930's and 40's, all they did was stretch the frame a few inches, truncate the cab area, and add a short bed to make a pick-up from a car.

Ironically, in the 1990's they pulled the exact same trick in the opposite direction - they took a half-ton pick-up truck and reworked it into a car: Also Known As the SUV!

Hey! Maybe we can formulate a new theory here: The higher rooflines of the SUV's are the reason why hat wearing is making a comeback! lol

Anyway, my thinking here is that the decline of hat wearing was occuring well before the headroom inside cars declined to the point one could not wear a hat while driving. I don't think that the two are all that closely coupled. Now, once folks started to look for reasons to *not* wear a hat any longer, then lowering rooflines would have just added one more reason to their list.....

Might as well trot out the rebelling teenager of the 1950's as a Decline of the Hat theory. They were not going to wear a hat! Heck, *dad* wears hats, so I'm a-not gonna! So, there!! Pbbbbb!!!

That's a good a theory as any other I've ever heard! lol

Later!

Stan

 

[Stan]

Oh, I forgot....

Hi,

I drove to work this morning in a 1990 Ford station wagon, while wearing a Milan straw fedora. Any hat I have wears fine in that car. It has the lowest roofline of anything we have - except for the Lotus, that is.

Parked next to the wife's new 08 Escape, the roof on the wagon is about the height of the greenhouse on her's. Of course, the ground clearance is higher, too, so that's not quite accurate just looking at it like that.

Anyway, the trend these days is for these 'crossovers' which are cars designed to be SUV-like yet be half the weight and get more MPGs as a result. It's easy to wear a hat in those things.

Later!

Stan

 

[Vintage Betty]

worthlesswithoutpics

 

[tonyb]

The rise of the automobile may have been among the factors contributing to the decline of the hat, but I speculate that is because whatever weather protection a hat offered was rendered less necessary by the car.

It's doubtful that for most people a hat couldn't be comfortably worn in a car, or so my nearly four full decades of driving and nearly that much time as a regular hat wearer has me believing. I'm right at six feet tall, I've owned literally dozens of cars, and I've long worn tall-crowned hats. My hat very rarely makes contact with a headlining, although a headrest or two has gotten in the way, but even that is quite unusual.

As to the OP's observation ... Yup, hats are a bit more common out here than they were. I don't know what to attribute that to, but, like the decline of the hat, it's probably several things.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Aw heck, you're ALL right I think.

Post-war rebellion.

Headroom in autos (to a minor degree).

Less NEED for weather protection due to convenience and comfort of auto. I mean, there used to be a LOT more overcoats and umbrellas in the past as well. Now it's just easier to dash from one conveyance to another and get right back out of the elements than to carry and wear all that tackle that we consider so stylish now.

And less inclination to be formal as the metropolitan concentration of citizens feathered out into the 'burbs.

I do like this thread. It's heartening to hear about the brims outnumbering the bills on the bus - although I do also admit to having a weakness for that feminine-pony-tail-out-the-back-of-a-ballcap thing.

 

[arthur]

Getting downright ubiquitous

I always wear a hat and have noticed that in downtown chicago I'm seeing so many people wearing hats I'm feeling uncomfortably (dare I say)fashionable.

 

[handlebar bart]

Aw heck, you're ALL right I think.

Post-war rebellion.

Headroom in autos (to a minor degree).

Less NEED for weather protection due to convenience and comfort of auto. I mean, there used to be a LOT more overcoats and umbrellas in the past as well. Now it's just easier to dash from one conveyance to another and get right back out of the elements than to carry and wear all that tackle that we consider so stylish now.

And less inclination to be formal as the metropolitan concentration of citizens feathered out into the 'burbs.

I do like this thread. It's heartening to hear about the brims outnumbering the bills on the bus - although I do also admit to having a weakness for that feminine-pony-tail-out-the-back-of-a-ballcap thing.

I think I have the visuallol lol I drive thru Seattle daily to and from work and I am seeing more fedoras lately. And not just on the homeless[huh]

 

[stibbons]

Hat etiquette on buses

I've been wondering what the accepted etiquette is for hat wearing on public transport. I catch buses occasionally, and feel vaguely uncomfortable leaving my lid on. Obviously, it isn't always easy to remove it though. So if I'm sitting and it's convenient (I've got room in my lap for it ) I remove my hat. Otherwise it stays on and I put up with feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

Is that the usual thing to do?

 

[Chanfan]

I've been wondering what the accepted etiquette is for hat wearing on public transport.

I presume they are like trolleys in effect. In any case, I leave mine on, as typically it's so crowded, that there's little else I could do. Plus, I also think of the bus as a kind of "public space".

On the other hand, I tend to stow my hat on planes. On the train, I tend to keep wearing it. I'm not quite sure why that is. Possibly because a plain trip is likely to be longer, and folks are more likely to be looking forward vs. out the windows?

On the bus trip I mentioned, four of us kept the hats on. One gentleman did have his black straw stingy on his lap (on top of a jacket, folded up).

 

[MrFusion]

Hi,

One can't wear a hat in any of those. You have to opt for the driving cap instead. Except for my Lotus Seven, that is. In that, you have to go bareheaded or use a helmet - any form of cap will fly off in the wind pretty darned quickly!


Stan

fftopic:
Stan, I'd love to see a picture or two of the Lotus that you speak of.

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

I've been wondering what the accepted etiquette is for hat wearing on public transport.

I'm daily on public transport, in Belgium (Europe) and my empirical experience on what appears to be accepted etiquette is to
-blather loudly into mobile phones about private issues
-listen to obnoxious music coming out of some tin-foil speaker
-occupy as many seats as possible with as few people as can be
-and to shout at each other in unintelligible forms of speech

And you, Sir, worry about hat etiquette?

I might offer my personal perception: if it's not too hot, leave your hat on. That's what I seen men do, all my life. I'm sure they know about hat etiquette and it doesn't worry them a bit, I'm absolutely sure.

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

fftopic:
Stan, I'd love to see a picture or two of the Lotus that you speak of.

My experience, over here on the "continent", of Lotus 7 and other Caterham ..er.. freaks is one of amazement at their WW1 leather caps, fighterplane goggles, leather attire and utter, utter disdain for the effects of the elements upon their bodies (if not steeds).
I once spent a night at a cheap "F1" franchise-chain hotel in France, near Le Mans, the night before the "Classic" races there. Full of Lotus 7's (and a Jag or two) with their excentric British..er.."pilotes" (as they say in French). My Porsche Carrera looked like an utter bore, a mere VW. Even the Ferrari's looked (in a way) discreet, but at least they were ...red.
In the morning, a Frenchman (un frogue), wearing (of all things!) a shepherd's beret, shows up in the lobby. A true wolf in lamb's clothing. His car? A Renault 5 TURBO. You heard about that car? (starts with a "F", looks like..well...nothing). Classic cars, you said?

 

[Selentino]

I was raised in Philadelphia wich has always been a great hat town. I was sad to see that Just Hats was no longer there. I've been buying hats from them for years. A few years ago I attended my twenty year HS reunion and we were laughing because we took a huge group photo and some of the ladies were asking us to remove our hats for the pic and were saying "comon guys we've been asking since high school"
I now live in Washington and noticed that Seattle while not a true hat town is very acceptable of people wearing lids and whenever I'm there I see more and more men wearing nice hats. I just wish Bernies would clear out some of those junk fashion hats that people can't seem to stop buying.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I think I have the visuallol lol I drive thru Seattle daily to and from work and I am seeing more fedoras lately. And not just on the homeless[huh]

Aww Jees Bart!
I visit this site late at night. Now if I have nightmares about this guy I'm blamin' you!! lol