It was on December 30, 2000 that I bought it at a surf shop in the shopping center named Garden City in Australia. In the diary I wrote about that trip to Australia, I wrote the following describing the purchase: “I bought myself some shorts and a floppy hat“. The very next day the first ever photo of this hat was taken, and here it is:
Little did I know at the time how well traveled and how beloved this hat would become. It was my stalwart companion, always on my head in my travels, and would see the world as I did. This blog is a memory of those trips that I shared with my hat!
Of course after purchase it came back to the US with me, where it enjoyed many happy days keeping my in the shade. In 2002 it would go on its next vacation – to Japan. Sadly I have no photos of me wearing the hat from that trip, but here’s one from it’s next vacation, also to Japan in 2004:
You can see it’s unadorned in that shot, and still as black as they day I bought it! I know it really enjoyed those first two Japan trips, but it had always yearned for it’s homeland. That wish came true when I returned to Australia in late 2006:
By now the hat had well and truly caught my travel bug, and eagerly jumped into my suitcase every time I packed for a flight. This enthusiasm would bring it back to Japan in 2006…
To Hawaii in 2007…
Back to Oz in early 2008…
Puerto Rico that summer…
And then Florida later in the same year:
The above shot seems to be the earliest I have of anything pinned to the hat. In this case it was a Disney ‘anniversary’ badge, which we displayed prominently to ensure special treatment in the parks! Apparently this pleased the hat, because on our next trip to Japan in 2009…
It returned with a souvenir. While it’s not visible in the above shot (possibly taken before it had been acquired), you can see it here in a shot from Australia in early 2010:
Yes my friends, the hat had gained it’s first badge. This was a pin of Nel, a character from Bleach. I put it on the hat when I got it from a machine in Japan, and never ever took it off. Here’s me, the hat and Nel enjoying the lovely summer weather of Blackpool in England:
Our shared voyage continued! Back to Oz once again in early 2011…
And then San Diego that summer…
The hat seems to have gained a second badge above, specifically of Pikachu. Lord knows where that came from or what happened to it, but this is the only photo showing it so maybe I (mercifully) removed it and flung it into San Diego bay 🙂
However by this time one badge was hardly enough, as this shot from Oz in 2012 shows:
A dalek and Paddington had joined Nel! The first had been obtained at NYCC the previous October, and the second was a gift from my BFF Florence. Paddington quickly befriended Nel, and would never again leave the hat.
You can see in the above shot (from Summer 2012), that by now the hat had aquired even more badges. A kangaroo and a German shield had been added – both gifts from my parents. Those five (Nel, Paddington, Dalek, Kangaroo, Shield) became fixtures from that point on.
In these years there were other vacations: Albuquerque, Disney (again), Australia (again). Needless to say the hat came on every one. It was showing it’s age by now, and had faded somewhat from over a decade of use, but it soldiered on and sat ever proudly on my head. I remember it particularly enjoyed (what would be) its last trip to Tokyo in 2013:
Not to mention Canada that same year:
And a particularly memorable return to Oz in 2014 (it’s seventh time home)!
I’m not going to say it wasn’t showing it’s age by now. Countless hours in the sun, folded up in my pocket or a bag, and put through the washing machine had left it a bit ratty. But it still had life in it yet, and as far as I was concerned had a decade or mores worth of travel yet to complete.
Those are the only shots I have of anyone other than me wearing the hat. They loved it of course, for it was a great hat. A great hat.
On the way to Vegas this summer I lost it. I either left it on the plane or in the taxi I took to the hotel. I didn’t notice until the next day, and despite calling (many) lost property departments I was unable to retrieve it. This is the last ever photo taken of the hat, less than 10 hours before it was lost (I was hamming it up for a text here; I wasn’t really this grouchy!):
If you look very closely you’ll notice one pin – the dalek – is missing. I had become concerned about the clasp loosening over the years, and had removed it the morning of my departure intending to fix it and put it back when I returned. That simple act saved that pin, but ironically of the five pins on the hat that was probably the one I was least attached to. The others were lost with the hat.
Fourteen years it gave me so much happiness. Eighteen international trips and a dozen or more domestic ones, not to mention the day-to-day summer wear (such as hundreds of lawn mowings). A man couldn’t ask for a better hat than this one.
I miss you my floppy black hat! I’ll miss you forever! Wherever you are, I hope you’re as happy as you were on my head.
