About cowboy hats.

[waksupi]

Here is an extract from The Best That Can Happen: The Grand Trek. It thoroughly discusses the benefits of cowboy hats.

I have never understood farmers’ preference for baseball caps, other than that feed and equipment dealers pass them out the way banks pass out ball-point pens. Cowboy hats are, after all, the perfect solution for those who make their living outdoors. Hats are important to the health of such folks.

It is well-known that, past the age of about ten, or whenever they start working in the fields, a little bit of both farmers’ and cowboys’ brains—or the males’, anyway—do leak out every time they take their hats off. They therefore take them off as seldom as possible. Well, some say the brains don’t leak out so much as dry out a little, or freeze. As a result, cowboys share with old-fashioned nuns and their equally frequently hatted brethren, farmers, a line above which the forehead stays distinctly pale. With age, some folks even develop a little dent in their forehead, which helps keep their hats from riding too low.

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but one of the reasons country folks can always spot city folks is that city folks do not have tan lines or hat dents on their foreheads. And they don’t even try to cover this up with a hat at all times when they end up in the country. This make country folks as suspicious of city folks as one might be of a naked woman without any tan lines, or with no bra straps dents in her shoulders. There is only one way on this Earth that can happen: not wearing your hat. Now, how smart can someone be, if they don’t wear their hat all the time?

There is another reason country folks always wear their hats. Why, everyone remembers once at one church supper one evening, when Claudie Baker, I think it was? accidentally knocked Floyd Olson’s hat off reaching for Maggie Shepardson’s slaw, and every Methodist in the county saw that Floyd was bald. Slicker and shinier than a fleeced sheep. He didn’t look like himself at all. Maudie Olson fainted on the spot. Heard they’ve been divorced since then. First divorce in the Olson family since anyone remembers, and Maudie’s living with her widow Mom in town, now. Anyway, between the benefits of keeping the smarts you started with and your looks at least consistent, it’s best to keep your hat on.

So, we can agree that wearing a hat is important. And, I think we can all agree that cowboy hats, especially as they come in a variety of brim widths and brim rolls and crown heights and hatbands, offer much greater fashion statement potential than a baseball cap. All you can do with a baseball cap is pick a logo, a color, and a brim orientation. With the variety of cowboy hat styles available, anyone can find one that suits.

Besides fashion, there’s politics involved, admit it or not. To wear a baseball cap is to allow yourself to be exploited as a living billboard for whoever made the hat and put their logo on it. Go ahead. Find me a baseball cap without some logo on it. Now, find me a cowboy hat with a logo on it. See what I mean? Cowboys really are independent.

There are practical considerations. Wide brimmed all around where the baseball ball cap shades only the eyes, the cowboy hat is surely superior. It does not leave the ears and the back of one’s neck bare to the sun. Thus, no cowboy would ever earn the nickname ‘red-neck.’

Cowboy hats are like built-in umbrellas. Being outdoors all the time does mean that you know what direction the weather comes from. You can see the storms coming and how fast they are moving, but that doesn’t mean you will have time to ride back to the farmhouse to get an umbrella or a poncho when you are miles out riding the fence line and see a storm headed for you.

Turn up the back of your collar, lean back a little and tip your hat just so, and the rain which has been collecting in the curves of the brim just sloshes off behind you. Your horse probably can’t tell the difference between the water you dumped on his back from the rain drenching you both, so it usually won’t mind. True, if you look down, the rain sloshes into your lap, but since the seat of your saddle as well as your hat has been collecting the rain, that doesn’t much matter. But if you want a dry neck and collar, now, a cowboy hat’ll do that for you.

A cowboy hat held upside down can also carry water like a bucket, unless it is the straw kind, of course, but those are only for around the house or garden. Murphy and Country appreciated this use of my hat more than once on hot days when a pond was on the wrong side of a fence line. It’s not a big bucket, but it’ll eventually get your stock watered when they need it. Don’t waste your time trying this with a baseball cap.

Baseball caps make poor fans. That dinky little brim doesn’t move enough air to even bother a mosquito. You’ll seldom see farmers holding their baseball caps by the brims, flapping the soft head parts around; they know it makes more sweat than it dries, with the head part being so limp. But you can get a real wind going with a cowboy hat. You can hold it by those dents in the front or by one side of the brim, and they are usually made so you can re-shape the brim after a bit. That’s the kind you want, anyway.

Cowboy hats also have a hatband, a great place for a pack of matches until it rains, or a pack of cards, or a letter, or a grocery list you are adding to through the day as you ride the fence line. Toothpicks, hoofpicks, a roll of tobacco, a picture of your mother or your girlfriend, the lottery number you know will win one day, a Swiss Army knife, about anything you need easier to hand than in your pockets, those thing go in your hatband…but only if you’re wearing a cowboy hat.

Horses are also much more impressed by cowboy hats than by baseball caps. Smack a horse on the rump with a baseball cap and they might raise their head to see what the tickle was. If you smack a horse rump with a cowboy hat just right, you get an attention-getting ‘Whop!’ from m the air caught in the head part, plus the brim has just the right flex and stiffness in it to make a clear and large impression on horse butt fur. They notice that more.

If the horse is out of physical reach, or is one which you don’t want to be within arm’s length of when you whop it on the butt, cowboy hats make decent Frisbees. For at least the first time or two, you can surprise a horse into action by spinning your hat at them from a safe distance. Or maybe it’s the same kind of surprise to the horse that Maude Olson had when Floyd’s hat came off. After the first time or two, the horse realizes the hat just bounces off even if it does hit, but it’s good for a couple times with most horses, more with others.

[bedbugbilly]

Love it! Great post - thanks for sharing and a "tip of the hat" to you waksupi! :-)

[NSB]

I copied this post and sent it to a friend of mine to read. I thought it was a good post. I guess my friend and I have different viewpoints (he’s a cantankerous old coot). He sent me a message back saying that cowboy hats and hemorrhoids have one thing in common, they’re both found on………(use your imagination here). Anyway, I have both types of hats. I wear the wide brimmed ones fishing and they do a pretty good job of protecting my neck and ears from sunburn. Do you think my friend’s trying to tell me something?

[contender1]

Great post.

I will take exception to the never removing a hat.
At the dinner table, & to greet a lady. I was raised to never sit at a dinner table with ANY kind of hat. And if I were to meet a lady, remove my hat & be polite. Momma & Daddy both taught me manners.

[fivegunner]

I Like cowboy hats, and Filson wide Brim hats and some of the old time hats that people wore it the 20`s to the 50`s. thank`s for posting .:-D

[KCSO]

Amen to the dinner table thing, My Mother kept a LARGE wooden spoon handy for wacking off any hat at the table and the head too.
I still have dents!

[owejia]

Can add a couple more thing about cowboy hats, know this from experience, they work a lot better at beating the yellow jackets off when you get into a ground nest and realize they have swarmed you, compared to a ball cap, of course this works better as you run as fast as you can. They work pretty good at turning cattle away too, unless it a mean old critter, which sometimes will charge just because of waving the hat.

[trebor44]

Horses love those straw hats, never had a problem with the felts! And don't forget about the snow down the collar when wearing a baseball cap!

[Riverpigusmc]

I have 6, most Stetsons but one from Finchers in beaver fur when I was in the Ft Worth stockyards. Go to a cowboy church in a pole barn, we only take our hats off to pray

[RKJ]

I only have an acre lot so it would be just wrong for me to wear a Cowboy hat as I can't call myself either a cowboy or a farmer. I do know where produce and meat come from so I'm not a city slicker and wouldn't take kindly to being called one. :) I do agree with the essay, right on the mark and pretty darn funny.

[doc1876]

I wear one of my many hats every day, sometimes two or three a day depending on the day. I just had a 45 year old hat rebuilt by a custom maker, Naomi Bennett in South Dakota. This hat is a griz 10x beaver, and I only wore it in the rain, or the snow. thing is like a tank, it just don't care. I gave up taking them off in the restaurants due to no place safe to set it.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Been wearing a broad-brimmed hat a long-time, even worn out a few sweat bands. Ball caps seem to show up in pick-up truck cowboys, in the old cabs the brim hits the rear windshield, in the new ones the headrest/whiplash guard gets in the way. That headrest is easy to remove and if you do any real work, your neck muscles keep your head in place. I've always enjoyed standing in a snow or rain visiting with another hunter or neighbor, watching the rain or snow going down their neck, then they realize I'm dry under my hat and head for cover. Big difference in sun strain on the eyes between a ball cap and a full coverage brim. I do use a stampede string in the wind or on horseback, particularly on horseback in timber, saves a lot of off/on the horse or chasing a hat moving at 30 mph across the prairie. I usually have two, the broke-in everyday hat and a 'town' hat that is being broke-in for the next rotation, seems mine last 15 years plus/minus. The dark hats are easier on the eyes out in the sun, less reflection from under the brim, just practical outside.

[Texas by God]

Great post.

I will take exception to the never removing a hat.
At the dinner table, & to greet a lady. I was raised to never sit at a dinner table with ANY kind of hat. And if I were to meet a lady, remove my hat & be polite. Momma & Daddy both taught me manners.Absolutely. And removed for prayer. My favorite 50 odd year old Stetson met the brushhog a couple of years back- and I haven't found a new one yet that is "right" but I'll keep looking. The overly large current fad cowboy hats are stupid looking in my opinion.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[G W Wade]

Didn't discover Stetson's till in my "50's" Wish had learned sooner. Steton's from 6 to 10 X, stay away from cheap wool hats if work in the rain LOL Got one blown off my head and rolled into a creek. Couple days later went down 2 sizes and from brown to green GW

[cwtebay]

Thank you for sharing that!
I have worn a lid for my entire life, as does my father and his father before. Felt Stetson unless it's hot then it's a Resistol straw. I wear a ball cap for outdoor work when the sides of a hat are a hindrance.
I was raised that a hat in the house was akin to dragging muddy boots across the carpet and still subscribe to that. I refuse to wear a hat while eating indoors also.
It truly chaps my behind to see that it's somehow accepted to wear hats / caps in church, funerals, nice restaurants, other folks' houses, etc.
I was also taught that women can wear hats in church and other places (think Easter type dress) but that is now being stretched a bit also.
I guess I just see ignoring that sort of etiquette is a part of the decay of polite society.
(I'll try not to sprain my ankle while dismounting my soapbox now)


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[rancher1913]

around here the ranchers wear the base ball style of cap, the cowboy hat just costs to much and gets destroyed to quick. some do have a sunday go to meeting cowboy style hat.

[Outpost75]

I was taught that it was improper to remain covered indoors unless you had the duty watch and were armed.

[Finster101]

I was taught that it was improper to remain covered indoors unless you had the duty watch and were armed.

I was always asked if my head was cold! LOL

[Scrounge]

I only have an acre lot so it would be just wrong for me to wear a Cowboy hat as I can't call myself either a cowboy or a farmer. I do know where produce and meat come from so I'm not a city slicker and wouldn't take kindly to being called one. :) I do agree with the essay, right on the mark and pretty darn funny.

Likewise, except I don't even have an acre. My family has a registered cattle brand in Colorado, but they bought the ranch and built the herd after I left home. I have enough other social defects I don't care to be known as "All hat, no cattle." I don't like much of anything but a cowboy hat, but I don't qualify.

Bill

[thxmrgarand]

This past week in Alaska there has been a news story running that reports on a handful of people wearing cowboy hats to a school basketball game. Since the visiting team was from a nearby Indian reservation, the only one in Alaska, people from that reservation said the hats and the people wearing them are racist. The school system apologized for the hats. You can read it on www.mustreadalaska.com, or the Anchorage Daily News. Since there is no pasture in the part of Alaska where this took place there are just about no cows or horses, no authentic cowboys I suppose, and maybe no authentic Indians either. No cowboy movies have been filmed here so far as I know. I suppose if there was a statue of some famous person wearing a cowboy hat it would have to be torn down. School systems everywhere tend to be run by people who belong in California. I don't know where we put our common sense but I hope one day we find it again.

[Jeff Michel]

My mother and the Marines shared the same opinion about hats indoors.

[Outpost75]

My mother and the Marines shared the same opinion about hats indoors.

As did mine also. WW2 era, a Major of combat arms was permitted to carry a swagger stick in lieu of a pistol belt, if OD or other duty status, while aboard ship or in CONUS, but hats were not permitted in the mess or in the club. By Vietnam era only drill instructors at recruit depots,and O6 and above elsewhere could carry swagger sticks. Then still not permitted in combat areas.

The custom on swagger sticks was done away with about the same time some ninny Nancy Boy decided that it was permitted for Marines to carry umbrellas...

[Shuz]

Great post Ric! Cowboy hatbands are also a good place to stash one's lube grooves!

[waksupi]

[QUOTE=doc1876;5354271 I gave up taking them off in the restaurants due to no place safe to set it.[/QUOTE]

This. The only restaurant here with a coat check, they set a hat flat on the brim on a shelf. No thanks. Every other place has a rack on the wall next to the door. I'm not hanging a $900 hat where it can be walked off with, or have it abused by the uneducated.

[beemer]

I was always asked if my head was cold! LOL

Yes, my head is cold. I was taught not wear a hat at the table but my hair is almost gone on top and it seems I am always seated under the air conditioner duct so I wear my hat. I'm getting old enough care more about being comfortable than all the fussy stuff.

[buckwheatpaul]

There is a lot of truth in this and I loved it; copied it; and shared it!

Plus the hat also protects those of us with pasty white Irish skin!

[Finster101]

This. The only restaurant here with a coat check, they set a hat flat on the brim on a shelf. No thanks. Every other place has a rack on the wall next to the door. I'm not hanging a $900 hat where it can be walked off with, or have it abused by the uneducated.

900 bucks !? I've bought cars for less than that.

[Walks]

I was taught that it was improper to remain covered indoors unless you had the duty watch and were armed.

Yep

[RKJ]

I mainly wear a ball cap, but after 20 years in the Army/Navy I don't wear one much any more. I'll take it off in a restaurant or someone else's house (yep, the DI's got that point across very well) but places like Walmart (where I'm holding the cart and purse for my wife) or public places I'll leave it on.

[KYCaster]

I can't imagine going about all day with three pounds on top of my head!

If I ever find a baseball cap with a "Build Back Better" logo on it I'm going to buy it. When it becomes an antique I'll have the only one around... It'll be worth a fortune!!!

Jerry

[Idaho45guy]

296177

[MT Gianni]

900 bucks !? I've bought cars for less than that.

Probably got less use.

[jaysouth]

Being a hillbilly in Tennessee with no cattle, I never wore a cowboy style hat. But when I passed 70, I quit worrying what other folks thought and bought a 1908 style cavalry hat to wear to my 8th Cavalry regimental reunions and gun shows. I get a lot of comments. My wife says I look like a dork, but like I said, I am too old to worry about what flatlanders and yuppies think. This summer I will wear it fishing and such.

296185

[Finster101]

Probably got less use.

Most likely so. Like anything else it pays to buy quality equipment if you are going to use it. I have motorcycle gear that some would balk at the price of. Not many cowboys other than wannabes in Kentucky where I grew up. I am thinking about getting a quality straw hat of some kind. I am outside a lot and the sun here in Florida is brutal on me. Need something that will shade my ears and face better yet stay on my head in a stiff breeze.

[oley55]

a great read, but I have a serious cowboy hat question. Ever since high-back seats became the standard, how the heck can you wear one in a vehicle?

[osage]

I watched an interesting Craftmen's Legacy episode a couple days ago. It featured Nate Funmaker a Master Hatter. Pretty interesting old tools, fitting of the hat to the individual as in color, brim width, crown and trim. I'm sure you would pay well for the craftsmanship.
I use a straw wide brim most of the summer.

[country gent]

I as taught your hat came off indoors, during the passing of a funeral procession, during the national anthem, and when respect was due.
In a restaurant or when sitting my hat rests on my knee. I have lost costs and hats from racks. Was at a funeral and put in a real bind as a gentleman grabbed the wrong dress coat and my keys were in the pocket luckily he brought it back shortly after he found out.

[waksupi]

Most likely so. Like anything else it pays to buy quality equipment if you are going to use it. I have motorcycle gear that some would balk at the price of. Not many cowboys other than wannabes in Kentucky where I grew up. I am thinking about getting a quality straw hat of some kind. I am outside a lot and the sun here in Florida is brutal on me. Need something that will shade my ears and face better yet stay on my head in a stiff breeze.

These are a pretty good hat for summer. I use a stampede strap on mine, worn on the back of the head, rather than the dorky under the chin of early western movies.

https://www.crazycrow.com/mountain-man-hats/texian-palm-leaf-hat

[Idaho45guy]

How many folks either know what this is or have one...

296205

[txbirdman]

Hat carrier for your pickup. Holds the hat with the crown down and the brim against the ceiling

[GregLaROCHE]

When you are in the summer sun nothing beats a straw hat.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

When you are in the summer sun nothing beats a straw hat.

Yep, bought a straw in Brownsville many years back and it protected me from the hot sun on South Padre.

[doc1876]

900 bucks !? I've bought cars for less than that.

How long did the car last? I have over ten hats that are over 35 years old. and yes, I wear most of them at lease once a week.

[megasupermagnum]

900 bucks !? I've bought cars for less than that.

I'm pretty sure he means $90, or at least I hope so. I do have one hat I really like that I see are now up to $125. Everything wool is expensive. I sure do miss the days of getting good cars for $900. I still own a truck I bought before Obama started the cash for clunker scam which imploded the market. I traded a car I bought for $600 for it. It now has 325,000 miles, and still gets around. I put 15,000 miles on it this year, been to 4 states, bunch of animals final resting place before the dinner plate. The money I spent working on it last year is still less than a single new truck payment.

[waksupi]

I'm pretty sure he means $90, or at least I hope so. I do have one hat I really like that I see are now up to $125. Everything wool is expensive. I sure do miss the days of getting good cars for $900. I still own a truck I bought before Obama started the cash for clunker scam which imploded the market. I traded a car I bought for $600 for it. It now has 325,000 miles, and still gets around. I put 15,000 miles on it this year, been to 4 states, bunch of animals final resting place before the dinner plate. The money I spent working on it last year is still less than a single new truck payment.

No, $900. It takes 34 beaver to make a quality hat. They don't come cheap.

[Finster101]

These are a pretty good hat for summer. I use a stampede strap on mine, worn on the back of the head, rather than the dorky under the chin of early western movies.

https://www.crazycrow.com/mountain-man-hats/texian-palm-leaf-hat


Thanks for the link. My hat is supposed to be here Sunday. I like being outside but the sun beats me up. A ball cap jsut doesn't cover enough. I usually pick up elcheapo golf hats at a local pro shop. They don't last long though. Hope this one works well. If it does they have another style I like as well. I wouldn't mind investing in a Stetson if there was a local shop where I could try one on. I would feel like a poser though, I ain't got no experience at cowboying.

[clintsfolly]

I bought a cowboy hat in Tx about 79. My wife thru it away in 2001. I still give her crap over it I wore it fishing, early fall hunting and camping. She claimed it stunk. It was gone a few weeks when I went to get it as I had found a place to get it cleaned. But I get even 3-4 years ago we where in Jackson Hole Wy and I got a new one. Made by Beaver Creek and I used her credit card!

[Sturmgewehr]

My go to hat is the Outback Waga Waga. I do own a few Stetsons as well.

[waksupi]

Thanks for the link. My hat is supposed to be here Sunday. I like being outside but the sun beats me up. A ball cap jsut doesn't cover enough. I usually pick up elcheapo golf hats at a local pro shop. They don't last long though. Hope this one works well. If it does they have another style I like as well. I wouldn't mind investing in a Stetson if there was a local shop where I could try one on. I would feel like a poser though, I ain't got no experience at cowboying.

You will look like a wealthy southern plantation owner!

[Finster101]

You will look like a wealthy southern plantation owner!


Well, I look in the mirror every day and I'll chalk up your description to poetic license. :drinks:

[Thundarstick]

I tried to like a cowboy hat several times growing up on the farm, there just in the way all the time. There's a reason you don't see mechanics wearing hats, in the way all the time, and most farm work in these parts involve lots of mechanic work! I guess they are pretty handy in the open on horse back, but nope, couldn't give me one.

I guess a $900 cowboy hats about the same as $1000 sneakers to some others.

[Outpost75]

Here in West Virginia they order State Trooper's campaign hats from Miller Hats in Houston,TX.
Quality is fully equal to USMC drill instructor version.

[doc1876]

a great read, but I have a serious cowboy hat question. Ever since high-back seats became the standard, how the heck can you wear one in a vehicle?

Personally, I just gave up, and set it in one of the vacant seats. If necessary, some one is chosen to hold it in their lap, if they have clean hands. I have a couple of the truck hat racks, and I really don't like them. they work ok, I just can't reach that far anymore.

[jaysouth]

Here in West Virginia they order State Trooper's campaign hats from Miller Hats in Houston,TX.
Quality is fully equal to USMC drill instructor version.

See post #33. The 1908 Cavalry pattern hat is from Miller hats. $237 to get to my front porch. Miller calls my hat 7X beaver.

[Outpost75]

See post #33. The 1908 Cavalry pattern hat is from Miller hats. $237 to get to my front porch. Miller calls my hat 7X beaver.

Roger that, my Italian SASS buddy Buffalo George has the same cloned version of William Holden's hat from The Wild Bunch which I gifted to him for his hospitality for having me as a guest in his home and traveling to visit the Pietta and Uberti factories and to shoot Cowboy matches in Europe in 2011.

[Vegas Vince]

Outstanding!!!![

[johnho]

Never liked baseball caps and switched over to wide brim hats for golf. Out east cowboy hats aren't popular at all especially for general wear. Finally got a couple of nice felt Stetson fedoras. In the summer I wear a nice ($) Panama hat.

[JoeJames]

Cowboy hats are pretty rare here in Arkansas until you get about as far west as Fort Smith, which after all is right on the Oklahoma border.

[doc1876]

I have a lady in South Dakota that makes 100% beaver for around 450-500... Naomi Bennett. I have one of her hats, and am getting ready to get one in black for formal occasions...

[Waisting lead]

I learned the lesson of the need for a good hat when the deer was outlined by the sun.
Ever since I've been wearing a wide brimmed fedora style hat ,and I've never spent over fifty dollars for one.
I've seen the expensive ones but I've destroyed too many to waste money on one of those.

[trails4u]

Not really my thing... I have one, a very cheap one, that I was forced to buy in order to participate in the wedding party for a dear friend. Side effect being....my wife is a Texas girl, and apparently likes a man in a cowboy hat, even a cheap one. :) I do find myself wearing it from time to time....