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On Retirement And Hats

Redshoes51

One of the Regulars
Messages
278
Location
Mississippi Delta
Looks like he has carved out a specialty niche in the hat makin world.

Tim Bender has been a big name in creating hats for Civil War reenactors... he is quite an authority on the history of headwear from that era...

This young man is working to fill the void created by Tim's retirement... he is working quite hard to that end. Having said that, he is working to spread out into the fedora market...

~shoes~
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Good Afternoon...

It's a young fellow in Georgia, I believe... Goober Grabber Headwear...

They are fun...

https://www.facebook.com/GooberGrabberHeadwear/

~shoes~


Some of his hats remind me of Clearwater:

http://clearwaterhats.com/

Sometimes these less expensive hats can be a lot of fun. However, I sent a Clearwater to VS for a rebuild and Art chided me for throwing good money after bad. I got his point: for what I spent of the hat and the cost of VS’s work I could have bought a new custom rabbit hat from VS (or Gannon, or Phoenix, or NE, etc.). Still, I like that Clearwater, and it’s different from every other hat I own.
 

Bagelstreet

New in Town
Messages
11
Location
London, England
"Retirement and Hats..."

My weakness for guitars has translated to hats... some of the hats I've bought, I've been very pleased with... others, not so much.

Retirement...I retired at the end of June, 2018 after teaching in the university system here in Mississippi... and within two weeks, I hurt my back seriously enough that I wound up having to have back surgery... that took three months for the pain to reside, and THEN developed an infection (MSSA) that almost killed me... hospitalized in ICU and the hospital for a month... then a slow slow recovery... surgeries... learning to walk again... etc etc etc...

Social distancing has not been an issue for me... my infectious disease doc warned me to stay away from anything that might set that infection off again... so the past few months have been easy for me...

One more back surgery to undo the damage that the initial surgery... and maybe I can start enjoying retirement. I have an order in with Phoenix for a hat I want... one through another hat-maker...

I love my hats and guitars...

~shoes~

Oooff, I hope you get through the back and health issues soon.

I'm another guitar freak but just starting out on my hat journey. Both are rather moreish aren't they?! Hats are smaller and less expensive - in the main at least!

And I'm 42, so retirement is a loooong way off - although if furlough is a preview of it I'm alredy looking forward to it!
 

Redshoes51

One of the Regulars
Messages
278
Location
Mississippi Delta
Some of his hats remind me of Clearwater:

http://clearwaterhats.com/

Sometimes these less expensive hats can be a lot of fun. However, I sent a Clearwater to VS for a rebuild and Art chided me for throwing good money after bad. I got his point: for what I spent of the hat and the cost of VS’s work I could have bought a new custom rabbit hat from VS (or Gannon, or Phoenix, or NE, etc.). Still, I like that Clearwater, and it’s different from every other hat I own.

Good afternoon...

I like Clearwater's work as well... there is one of their hats I am interested in.

The downside of ordering through the hat makers with whom we are familiar... is that there is such demand for their work that the timeline for delivery gets stretched out quite a bit. I placed my order with Phoenix at the end of January... so that should be close to coming to fruition...

I love hats...

... and guitars...

~shoes~
 

Redshoes51

One of the Regulars
Messages
278
Location
Mississippi Delta
Oooff, I hope you get through the back and health issues soon.

I'm another guitar freak but just starting out on my hat journey. Both are rather moreish aren't they?! Hats are smaller and less expensive - in the main at least!

Augh... guitars... I pass a guitar shop and my truck automatically knows to turn around and go back...

Smaller and expensive.. Yes Indeed!!

I got divorced in 1997... my midlife crisis turned into guitars and amps... that is cheaper than wimins, I suppose...

~shoes~
 
Messages
19,409
Location
Funkytown, USA
I can now talk about retirement and hats in real time because I am on the cusp.

I just completed my last day and am currently waiting on my last parent/teacher conference appointment to show up in Meet.

The first hat to sit atop my noggin when I go outside for the first time as a retiree will be my Penman.

Congratulations, Scotty. I'm sure it's well earned.
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Thank you. 30+ years. A nice sendoff this morning, probably as nice as it could have been online.

I'll be going back to the building to say proper good-byes when schools are allowed to reopen (whenever that is).


Congratulations! I remember when I was starting out the old timers were telling me your career is a marathon and not a sprint. Way to go to finally cross that finish line.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,775
Location
New Forest
I can now talk about retirement and hats in real time because I am on the cusp.
Welcome to the OFC. (Old Farts Club) The question isn't at what age you want to retire, it's at what income. Retirement is the time in your life when time is no longer money. And remember, a retired husband is often a wife's full-time job, or so my missus informs me. I've become a dab hand with the vacuum cleaner, the duster and the can of polish. And it helps if you can cook. Oh, one more thing, buy her flowers occasionally.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
I had a small bunch of factors that made up my mind for me as to when to retire.

I had a quadruple bypass 4.5 years ago. Shortly after that was the first time in my life that I began to seriously question my mortality.

I had always known at what point I would be fully vested re pension, in both years of age and working, and because of that and the operation, made up my mind as to when I would retire. I ended up staying 5 months longer, for again, various reasons.

I've been working with kids since I'm 16. I still enjoy it, but, now reason #2, it's time to do something else that is completely unrelated.

I will not be a stay-at-homer, that I am sure of. I will be w/o a place to go every day through the end of June, and then I have my regular seasonal day camp position, assuming that camps open on-time or at all.

During this upcoming month and half I will be looking into assuring myself a place of employment as of September 1, either part or full time, as long as it's something I want to do.
 

1961MJS

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,370
Location
Norman Oklahoma
Hi
Congratulations Scotty, Both of my parents did 37 years in the same school district, within walking distance of the grade school and high school where they taught. Not the SAME 37 years, Dad was more than 10 years older. Both passed away, and both lasted more than 20 years after retirement. Dad had open heart 1 month before he turned 65 and never went back.
Later
 

tropicalbob

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,954
Location
miami, fl
Thank you. 30+ years. A nice sendoff this morning, probably as nice as it could have been online.

I'll be going back to the building to say proper good-byes when schools are allowed to reopen (whenever that is).
Congratulations! I was thinking of cashing in my chips this year, but I figure that as long as they're going to pay me my full salary for online courses I might as well take advantage of it for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't be surprised if the state (for which I work) offered us geezers some kind of deal to get rid of us. One nice thing that's happened is that a number of my ex-students are emailing me for advice or just to chat, which I don't mind saying I feel pretty good about. Any plans yourself?
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
Congratulations! I was thinking of cashing in my chips this year, but I figure that as long as they're going to pay me my full salary for online courses I might as well take advantage of it for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't be surprised if the state (for which I work) offered us geezers some kind of deal to get rid of us. One nice thing that's happened is that a number of my ex-students are emailing me for advice or just to chat, which I don't mind saying I feel pretty good about. Any plans yourself?

Thank you, Bob.

Yeah, I kind of touched on my general plans in post #113 - time off for a month or so, then camp, then a job in a completely unrelated field.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
Hi
Congratulations Scotty, Both of my parents did 37 years in the same school district, within walking distance of the grade school and high school where they taught. Not the SAME 37 years, Dad was more than 10 years older. Both passed away, and both lasted more than 20 years after retirement. Dad had open heart 1 month before he turned 65 and never went back.
Later

Thank you. I had my bypass at 56 so I still had a few years to go before retirement. But now I have spent my first full day as a retiree, and I'm not sure how it feels. Teachers are off for a week at a time 3 times a year, and then for me, a week after camp before school begins, so it hasn't quite sunk in yet.
 

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