Speaking of hats, there’s this A&J from June of last year. As you might divine, it is an unvarnished memory and observation of my own. Daddy would be 100 years old this coming Monday, Halloween, were he still living. My younger brother and his family are coming over Saturday, and we’re going to have a family party in Daddy’s memory. I’m sure there will be stories told (Again!) for the benefit of my niece and nephew, who never got to meet their paternal grandfather, and for our own amusement, of course. He was the prototypical Arlo.
132 responses to “A Tip of the Hat”
My dad too and he would have been 100 in June. I was thinking about the one and only baseball game he took us to. My brother and I, like Dad, wore suits and fedoras. So did everyone else. It was a different world for sure.
Ah, yes. I remember it well.
I don’t get dressed up just to go out in public, but there is something to be said for doing it. It is a good look.
My father would never even go out to the 7-11 on a Sunday morning to get the paper unless he was showered, shaved, and dressed well.
My Dad never wore a hat that I can recall. Maybe in the early 50’s before I was born. He wore a baseball hat from time to time when he retired. He was always out in the sun and usually was pretty tan. My Grandpa on my mom’s side had a bout of skin cancer as he was a farmer, but my Dad was fortunate.
The other thing that I cannot recall is whether he wore sunglasses or at least clip-on ones. I have slow reacting pupils, so I often have sunglasses on when I am outside. Studies have shown a link between eye protection and cataracts. Of course now the surgery is pretty straight forward and new lens for the eyes can be inserted. Not the thick glasses of years ago.
Hollywood today…64-year-old Mickey Rourke
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/10/23/03/399FEFAE00000578-3863542-image-m-16_1477191568199.jpg
Hollywood Yesterday…63-year-old Cary Grant
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3f/09/a6/3f09a6f05ce72bd481638e87cbc5ee82.jpg
Thanks to Iowahawk
I am an avid follower of Shorpy.com photo site, and it is amazing on the older photos of people dressing well every where they went. A picture of a ball game, suits and nice hats. Of course in the older photos it would be a straw boater, or a derby, but always hat and suit. When did we get so crass and relaxed that even pajamas in public is acceptable? Just another geezer wishing my eyes weren’t assaulted by so much tacky dress. My Dad never wore blue jeans in his life, always dress pants, even working around the house.
Very cool look, Jimmy.
Yes, Jackie, the painting is available but we’ll talk about it elsewhere, ok? Debbe- thanks! Glad you liked the work. It was fun.
Pentatonix have just done a cover of ‘Hallejuah’…. very neat. Maybe I can link it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRP8d7hhpoQ
A little off topic, but I got my signed strip from the Kickstarter campaign over the weekend.
My husband, not quite 50, wears a top hat with a holly sprig from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day but the rest of the year he wears a fedora. Most of his friends also wear hats, anything from a boater to a pork pie, on a regular basis. Milwaukee has a great haberdashery and millinery shop where you can off-the rack or custom-made hats and fascinators.
Why am I so ignorant that I have never heard this group? What a gorgeous version of Hallelujah, one of my absolute favorite songs. They are singing with Dolly Parton right now right now. Why can’t I look like Dolly?
Because she never eats food and spits it out.
Thanks for posting them, a new group for me to love.
“You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!” – Dolly Parton
I do not dress as I once did but I am still way over dressed in comparison to rest of people around me.
In 1960s we still wore hats and gloves to work, on airplanes, to church, to theatrical performances, any place special. I have photos of me in that red convertible touring America in dresses and hose.
Men wore suits and ties and hats, even to go deer hunting if they were gentlemen. Even cotton farmers.
Ghost I have always lo ved Cary Grant. “Would you like a breast or a leg?” She asked. “A breast, I’m a breast man.”
Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, picnic in sports car in To Catch A Thief. He was wearing suit as I recall.
I do like the fur ball Mickey is accessorizing with.
Another good one from that movie.
“I am sorry I sent her to finishing school. I think they finished her.”
Have seen this movie only once, age 11. Yet Cary Grant made that kind of impression on a young girl, setting standards. The debonair bad boy.
https://goo.gl/images/yv9wpX
Cary Grant forever. I guess I did marry my version of Cary but he gave up the three piece suits when we moved to Oklahoma. He never gave up the button down laundry ironed shirts and khakis, nor did he ever wrinkle or sweat.
He switched to sports jackets and dress slacks and a tie for most dress occasions.
The local paper ran some photos today of the 1963 World Series. I noticed lots of men in the stands wearing coat and ties.
The music to “Hallelujah” is beautiful. I dislike the lyrics.
My dad’s oldest sister was a teacher for her entire working life; her first teaching job was at a Grades 1-6 one-room country school. And she was a no-nonsense and “old school” (in all meanings of the phrase) person for her entire life. When I attended her funeral service some years ago, a former minister at her church recalled his first meeting with her. At the conclusion of the service, as he was standing at the front door to speak to the members of the congregation as they left, my aunt approached him.
“That was an excellent sermon you gave,” she told him. “But it would have been much better had you been wearing a black suit instead of a brown one.” The minister laughed politely for the split second it took him to realize that SHE WAS NOT JOKING.
This weekend I was in line behind an elegant and distinguished lady holding a bright pink dress hat she was re trimming. I complimented her and she to me about the suit and ensemble it went with. I asked if breast cancer and she said entire church was honoring those gone and still here. Men were wearing pink ties and shirts.
I hugged her for that but also for the church full of suits and hats. Only the ladies of the black churches do that now, suits, hats, ensembles. I love and respect them for that, love the honor they show their sanctuaries. I told her so, why must we in traditional white churches dishonor in our attire?
If that is prejudice I am on the other side.
I can’t play the You Tube at work so I am not sure what version this is. My daughter-in-law’s Aunt asked me to sing at her husband’s memorial service and wanted to use “Hallelujah”, but not with the original lyrics. There is another version that is appropriate for Easter, but we chose just to have the accompanist play it on the piano and I sang “You Raise Me Up”.
Ghost my accompanist was asked by the family to play at a funeral and his tie had musical notes on it (he often does not wear one) and a family member told him that his tie was irreverent. I told him that sometimes people say stupid things in their grief….then again some people just say stupid things!
I’ve mentioned it here before but when ever I lector or sign at church, I almost always wear a suit and tie. One of our very young cantors sang and her dress barely covered her. It is difficult to tell someone that is volunteering how to dress, but you would think common sense would dictate that you would wear a different dress. Not sure how our musical director (the one with the music note tie) handled it.
Steve I will never forget the first wedding I attended in a Catholic Church and women had bare shoulders and much more. I was horrified. But the couple who went with us were worse. She had on a lace crocheted dress with nothing underneath. And yes there were things poking out through holes in chest and bottom.
I said, well she is a Yankee but it offended me.
My daughters wedding was in the Cathedral Basilica and all bridesmaids and bride wore stoles and jackets with gowns. The captors all wore black pants and sacramentals.
Cantors not captors. The captors all wore morning coats.
My dad was 48 when I was born and I’m a couple of years older than Jimmy (he’d be 113 this year, to save you the arithmetic), but the only hat I remember my father wearing was a hard hat. Perhaps he wore something more stylish when he as younger. So many things I would like to ask him now that I’m his age.
My dad would be 113…not Jimmy