Hats

It's true that I like to call attention to myself. It, in part, explains my calling to education: I'm on stage for three 90-minute periods a day. One cannot be a teacher unless one likes to be in the spotlight (and that's true even if one is a teacher who favors a teaching approach that is student-centered). I like to drive around with a perfectly homogeneous minivan but I make sure to put an obnoxiously yellow out-of-date Quebec license plate on the front. In public I frequently wear tee-shirts that call attention to myself, like this one I wore Friday to a trip to Fort McHenry.

If you're a kid at a historic site, how can you fail to find your dad if he's wearing such a goofy tee-shirt? Oh, and on a side note, why did a Facebook friend say she liked Sam's shirt but say nothing about mine or Caroline's? 

Well, now I have a stable of hats to stand out in public.

As the kids get taller, it's helpful for their dad to be wearing something on his head that makes him easily recognizable. 

 
So, here's the cast, in clockwise order from the left:

"Whiz Kids" Phillies cap. It's become my default cap for running on sunny days, so it's looking very, very weathered. I've come to recently like it after about two years of being not-quite satisfied with it. I still prefer the seventies-era fat P style of Phillies cap, but every time I get one of those, I seem to lose it.

"International Harvester" cap. This is my oldest one. When Sam was much younger, I felt besieged by so much John Deere apparel marketed toward my son. But my Pap drove a Farmall, and wearing a John Deere cap won't do. So I got this cap. Biggest criticism: it's adjustable and has never felt fully comfortable on my large head.

"G" for Gettysburg. I think this will be great to wear in rainy fall or spring weather. Right now, I'm not entirely happy with it. It's too polyestery. But I couldn't find a softer, sloppier fitted cap when I last visited campus.

"Hawks" for the Hawkthorne Football Club, Melbourne Australia. Awesome souvenir from Sherry's trip to Australia. I asked her to get me a cap for the cross-town rival Demons. However, the Demons apparently stink this year. So she got me a Hawks hat instead. It fits surprisingly well for an adjustable cap.

"Fightin' Phils" cap (most recent addition). I was at first puzzled by the Reading AA affiliate of the Phillies to change its logo and mascot over to the Fightin' Phils. But I've warmed up to the irony of a pugilistic ostrich. It's a very comfortable cap. I like it a lot.

"9" might be my favorite cap. It harkens to the road trip I took to Fenway with Ben, Gary, and Chris last summer. However, it makes many mistake me for a Red Sox fan, which isn't good. But how can one not be a fan of Ted Williams. Oh, and the Phillies might want to think about putting a maroon "20" on a toothpaste blue cap for sale at their own store. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

There is a Holy Grail in my quest for the perfect cap: a replacement to this gem Sherry got me for Christmas years ago. Eventually the wool shrank and it no longer fits my head. I'm still looking for someone who sells a New York Knights cap that has the authentic fit of a 1930s cap.