I HATE HATS!!!

[kiltie]

:rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage:
Yes, I haven't posted a lot lately but holy moley, I can't keep this to myself anymore. There is likely a topic on this already floating around, but I don't give a rat's red rear, because this is so irritating.
I went to see Tom Waits a coupla weekends ago and, naturally, I wore a hat. I have NEVER been so embarassed to have a head covering on as I was that night. Several concert goers were sporting lids; mostly black stingy brims, an few stingy straws, newsboys, and the like. Well happy day, so far. Here's a big show with lots of younger folks with their headgear on looking, as a whole, fairly presentable. I find my way to my seat, plop down, and drop my hat on my knee. To my great disappointment, I saw I was likely the only one to doff my hat. The joker in front of me left his black Miller stingy ( yeah, I saw the liner when he took it off long enough to wipe his sweaty mongrel head ) on the whole show. What's worse, it looked like he'd pulled it out from under the couch to wear this evening, so covered in dust and cat hair it was.
Wearing your hat at an SRO event where there's no place to put the thing - maybe that's okay. Wearing it at a hot Tx. dancehall or juke joint; okay. Inside, at a concert hall, with seating, with premium priced tix; NOT OKAY! So here's the embarassed part: I just couldn't shake the feeling, as I left with my hat on, that someone else with any sense might be lumping me into this crowd of knownothings. That my hat might pigeonhole me with the crowd so hip that manners don't matter.
I'm not going to stop wearing, and I can anticipate most of the responses ( why do you care? offerings of hat etiquette ( sp?), etc...), but this is what will happen as the popularity of hats rises again. People as a whole have already lost sight of what is right, good, moral, ethical, and just plain ol' good sense ( I'm not being judgemental - that, folks, is learned behavior ), and this idiotic trend is just one more thing to get *jacked* up!
In short - STOP the TREND!!! Enjoy your hats and set a shining example for all, but when you see a kid in an ill fitting jacket handling a fedora, do EVERYONE - not just hat wearers - a favor and SLAP IT OUT OF HIS HAND!
This is not an elitist post. It has nothing to do with quality. It has nothing to do with maintaining the "cool factor" of being in the minority. Manners, Manners, Manners. Good sense, gentlemanliness...crimoney -simple good grooming. NO HAT TREND!
Please! someone give me some chocolate and a hug....ahhh - I'm much better now.

 

[Lefty]

If it wasn't a Tom Waits concert, I might be concerned. He wears hats. His fans wear hats. I think they're wearing them in appreciation more than anything else.

I love Waits, but his policies on buying and selling tickets suck. I bought 2 tickets to see him in Akron about a year and a half ago. They were around $75 each. Though I really wanted to go, I saw that people were willing to pay quite a bit for them. I put them on ebay and watched the price soar to over $1200. The tattooist from N. Carolina was going to fly here for the show.

Then, Waits dropped the bomb. Only the owner of the ticket may use it - to be proved by driver's license and the credit card used to buy the tickets. I refunded the buyer's money, less paypal fees - as stated in the auction.

My wife and I loved the show, but there's no artist, living or dead, that I'd pay $1200 to see.

 

[Orvil Newton]

Good Manners...

...and civil behavior are in short supply these days, I find. I do my bit though. Always tip my hat to the ladies, remove it when indoors (Unless under arms of course) etc.

 

[kiltie]

Lefty,
I hear you. I went a bill for mine and was quite happy, being I'll likely not get to see him again. The policy is in place to inhibit scalping, and I'm hip, but I wouldn't pay twelve hundred bones to go to my mothers funeral ( cuz she'd wake up and spank me ). Great show, but full of bozos with no excuse for not taking off their cotton pickin' hats!

 

[Feraud]

In short - STOP the TREND!!! Enjoy your hats and set a shining example for all, but when you see a kid in an ill fitting jacket handling a fedora, do EVERYONE - not just hat wearers - a favor and SLAP IT OUT OF HIS HAND!
This is not an elitist post. It has nothing to do with quality. It has nothing to do with maintaining the "cool factor" of being in the minority. Manners, Manners, Manners. Good sense, gentlemanliness...crimoney -simple good grooming. NO HAT TREND!
Please! someone give me some chocolate and a hug....ahhh - I'm much better now.

I fail to see how advocating slapping a kid sets a "shining example" for all? Is this how we teach manners, good sense, gentlemanliness, and good grooming?


I would suggest you ponder the idea that a hat is only a hat and does not reflect the moral character of its wearer.

 

[John in Covina]

Shifting mores and values.

Bad manners existed long before men wore hats or probably for that matter clothes made of cloth. The response to bad manners is tutelidge, good and friendly advice, and not after using the taser, a right cross or a lead filled sap.

You'll find that a good percentage will be happy to hear and take good advice, and some will blow both it and you off with their wiley rebel ways. As the generations move along, the things that are considered important to the great unwashed change whether it be knowledge, history or tradition the shift as to what is hip versus what truly matters is an ever widening gulf.

 

[kiltie]

Puh-leeeze

"I fail to see how advocating slapping a kid sets a "shining example" for all? Is this how we teach manners, good sense, gentlemanliness, and good grooming?


I would suggest you ponder the idea that a hat is only a hat and does not reflect the moral character of its wearer."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

This is why posts come few and far between. Did anyone see me advocating slapping ANYONE? Did anyone see a touch of blue humor in the statement? What happens in the computer world that people check their sense of irony at the door? Take the point for what it is: making a point.:eusa_doh:
Com'on folks -

 

[MattJH]

This is why posts come few and far between.

It's no secret that this forum, as polite and literate as it is, can be overwhelmingly stiff and dry sometimes. I definitely enjoyed reading your post, although I really do wish people would have more casual views on hat wearing. Since most seem to wish that hats would return in regular fashion, applying a set of rules and etiquette to memorize and implement on a daily basis will hinder that significantly. These are different times. Not worse, just different. Not only am I not surprised that nobody took their hat off, I doubt I would've, too, unless I was sitting down or standing while blocking somebody's view of the stage behind me. Just because an 80 year old instructional etiquette pamphlet from the 30's tells me I'm being rude doesn't mean I'm being rude. Know what I mean?

Also, boy does Tom Waits rule. Leonard Cohen is currently touring, too. What I wouldn't give to see him live, but his only dates are in Canada right now.

 

[Sefton]

Did you try asking if they would mind removing their hat because it was blocking your view? Perhaps if you had asked and shown that you too had a hat and were holding it rather than wearing it they may have responded well. Either way, public concerts are very unlikely places to find examples of (good) manners.

 

[kiltie]

Dumb,

Well said. I guess I'm stuck smack dab in the middle of two ways to see a thing: The old way, and the MTV way. There's not a lot of middle ground until somebody sets the tone. I've only know the old way ( from reading, old movies, grandparents - it's not like I'm old enough to have been indocrinated), and am predisposed to shun, fear, etc... the new. Ah well...

 

[spiridon]

kiltie, sorry you had the negative experience......but I gotta ask....since I'll be going to see Waits here in Mobile tomorrow night....how'd you like his set and song selection!?


....and to remain on topic....I'll be wearing a stingy brim to the show tomorrow night, but WILL remove it while inside.

 

[Jerekson]

This comes around to the basic principle that bothers me the most - modern hat wearers have no idea what they're doing.

Most of them don't even know what a fedora is.

All these kids wearing hats - they don't even think about what manners mean when wearing a hat. They would probably say that it's a stupid idea to take your hat off for anybody.

These are the same people that call me a cowboy while I'm walking down the street, and grab my hat by the crown right off my head without asking.

Blech.

 

[MattJH]

This comes around to the basic principle that bothers me the most - modern hat wearers have no idea what they're doing.

I think a more accurate statement is that modern hat wearers would prefer that it not be a chore to wear one. Common sense should dictate whether or not to take your hat off or leave it on, not a set of outdated standards. You can take the hat out of the older decades, but to presume that you can take everything else along with it is only setting yourself up for unnecessary disappointments and frustrations. On one hand, contributors to this forum wish more people would wear hats. But when they do, they will often scorn the way that they're doing it. Breathe. Relax. Count to 10. It's just a hat.

 

[mingoslim]

His policies on buying and selling tickets suck.

fftopic:

I love Waits, but his policies on buying and selling tickets suck. I bought 2 tickets to see him in Akron about a year and a half ago. They were around $75 each. Though I really wanted to go, I saw that people were willing to pay quite a bit for them. I put them on ebay and watched the price soar to over $1200. The tattooist from N. Carolina was going to fly here for the show.

Then, Waits dropped the bomb. Only the owner of the ticket may use it - to be proved by driver's license and the credit card used to buy the tickets. I refunded the buyer's money, less paypal fees - as stated in the auction.

I don't know Lefty . . . I think it is good that an artist cares enough about his fans that he is keeping the prices down so that all his fans (not just those who can afford thousands) can see his concerts and keeping speculators from snatching up tickets so they can sell them at ridiculously inflated prices . . . In the old days, ticket scalping was a crime . . . I think it still should be . . .fftopic:

 

[John in Covina]

*****************
You have to remember that what is written in jest may not be taken in the manner it was given. The reason is simple: we don't see your facial expressions nor hear your verbal inflections that would give it the flair that would signify satire, parody or other attempts at humor. Try using the emoticons more to suggest irony and jest.[huh]

 

[Lefty]

OK, they suck for me.

I was kind of on the fence with that, Slim. Certainly, I'm not a scalper and I checked the scalping laws around here to be sure. In Summit County, OH, you're allowed one sale per year, as long as you don't list the tickets at anything more than face value. I put them up at some amount less than face value, expecting them to get to around $500. I was shocked when they went over 1k.

Waits also has the policy of no more than 2 tickets at a time. Though this didn't affect me, I thought about anyone who wanted to go with their family or friends getting stuck sitting in different sections. With his policy, you also couldn't buy tickets as a gift.

I appreciate the idea of helping fans, and totally understand trying to keep prices down. The flip side of it is that, if someone's willing to pay, why not let them pay? I get both sides, I just wanted my $1200. That was two tickets to Europe at the time.

 

[MAB1]

I LOVE HATS !!!

Don't blame the hat. Blame the inconsiderate person wearing it. And also consider where you are?

 

[Chanfan]

If hats do come into more regular usage, I would expect more folks to become aware of (or to re-implement) hat etiquette. Yes, it may well be updated etiquette, but much of the old etiquette is practical in nature - blocking folks views in a concert, for example.

I do doubt that it would come back as absolutely as it once seemed to be enforced. It just doesn't seem likely with modern society. Personally, I enjoy knowing about the (old version of) hat etiquette, and will continue to try and use it.

 

[handlebar bart]

I think alot of people throw on a hat these days unaware of 'proper' etiquette- be they young or old. Case in point was last Saturday, we went out for breakfast and my son wore his Indy hat and I wore my new Schoble (thanks Johnny ). My boy entered the restuarant with my wife and daughter as I held the door, as he entered he immediately grabbed his lid by the pinch and took it off (he can take the felt cheapy off by the crown, but he knows to take the nice Stetson off by the brim). I enter and take off my hat and as usual he handed me his lid to put up for him. Well, standing feet away was a middle aged man and his wife lid formly planted on his head. His wife whispered to him a half a beat later and he took his fedora off. I guess my point is that some people don't know or forget 'the rules' and maybe they will catch on by example

 

[Guttersnipe]

confuesed on some hat etiquette

Could someone clear up some hat etiquette for me? I was always told by my dad that some places/events were "hatless" and others were "hatted"

Pretty much inside/outside decides whether or not to drop drop your lid (with some exceptions noted bellow).

Ex: Any formal gathering (church, work, school, etc) or eating/drinking (except if standing up, at a bar for example), Theaters, and generally inside places were "hats off"

Ex: whereas, some inside places, train station/on public transit, in a car, and sporting events (inside or outside) were "hats on"


Am I right, or does it turn out I'm an uncouth bum?