Viet Nam, are representative of south Asia. And if you want to be singled out as an American, put on a baseball cap.
Men’ s hat fashion in this country started with the tricorn of colonial days. Both the military and civilians made use of it but in the back country, folks like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett were sporting a different style of headwear: the coonskin hat. But in a few years, and with the introduction of John B. Stetson’ s invention of the cowboy hat, the coonskin fell out of favor.
However, in the year 1954, America was reintroduced to Davy Crockett by way of Walt Disney on the new medium of television. This led to a resurgence in the popularity of the coonskin hat. Every kid in the country had to have one. I know I did. I wonder if that was responsible for the decimation of the raccoon population during the mid-1950s.
Until baseball hats became ultra-popular, the cowboy hat was emblematic of the American male. Men in the eastern part of the country were still wearing top hats but I imagine they fell out of favor when hoards of young hooligans made them targets for snowballs. While I can’ t say for a fact that this ushered in the popularity of the lower and rounded crown derby hat, I will stick to that theory. Derby hats were popular from the mid-19th century into the 1930s in this country, and are still seen in England, where they originated as bowlers. In the late 1920s, a new style of hat, one with a lower, creased crown and wider brim, made of softer felt, supplanted the derby. It was called a fedora.
The fedora was originally the title of a play written in 1892 and starred the actress Sarah Bernhardt. She played a character named Princess Fedora and wore a soft, brimmed hat with a creased crown. The play came to the US in 1889 and the style became a hit with women and a symbol of the early women’ s rights movement.
In England, Edward, Prince of Wales, started sporting a fedora making it fashionable for men to
wear. It became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic due to its ability to shade sun and shed rain, all the while being stylish and comfortable. Most men in the 1930s through the 1950s wore fedoras.
Then in 1960, a young trendsetter, named John F. Kennedy, was seen bare-headed, on national television, being sworn in as president. And that made wearing a hat old hat. The 1980s saw a brief revival of the fedora with the introduction of a movie titled Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the protagonist of the story was a swash-buckling, fedora sporting archaeologist named Indiana Jones.
I have to confess that I am a connoisseur of the fedora, but my first hat was inspired not by an archaeologist, but by a folksinger. Back in 1967 a song came out called“ Alice’ s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie. Later in 1969, a movie was made about the song and starred Arlo Guthrie playing himself. He sported a fedora in the movie and I thought it was a great fashion statement. I went down town to a haberdashery and invested five dollars in a preowned fedora, and never looked back.
So, if you find yourself in Brown County wearing a hat, then good for you, and we’ re glad you came. If you’ re in Nashville and need a hat, we’ ve got some dandy hat shops and they’ ll be glad you came. •
11 flavors of BEEF 3 flavors of TURKEY 3 flavors of BEEF BRISKET 4 flavors of BEEF STICKS 2 flavors of PORK 2 flavors of BACON
Also: Elk, Boar, Buffalo, Venison, Gator, Rabbit, Salmon, Kangaroo, Turtle, Ostrich, Trout, Camel, Python, Ahi Jerky Seasonings & Dips • Peanuts
125 S. Van Buren St. Artists Colony Shops Nashville, IN •( 812) 988-1592 houseofjerkybrownco. com
Nov./ Dec. 2024 • Our Brown County 33