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Andra Watkins

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Or, so some readers said when I started appearing online without a certain headpiece. A raffia crown, tied up with a faded ribbon. I remember when I found my first—and still my only—Helen Kaminski. In a city not unlike the one in which I type. Ordered blocks that marched down to cold water. I wandered into a Victorian arcade, a layer from another time, and I lifted her off the rack, and I slid her on.

Or, so some readers said when I started appearing online without a certain headpiece. A raffia crown, tied up with a faded ribbon.

I remember when I found my first—and still my only—Helen Kaminski. In a city not unlike the one in which I type. Ordered blocks that marched down to cold water. I wandered into a Victorian arcade, a layer from another time, and I lifted her off the rack, and I slid her on.

She was the only one. I convinced MTM I needed her for a bike ride. He bought it (my argument and the hat), even though the forecast predicted rain.

I wore her in the drizzle, an inaugural pedal through grapevines and gravel paths and shots and shots of wine. She held me up just fine. A bridge from adventure to adventure.

If that’s what Vancouver holds.

MTM is here to work. I’m here for………what exactly?

After weeks of order, I crave chaos. Sleeping in. Civilization. A few days of nowhere-to-be-but-wherever-I-find-myself.

Still.

I think better, hear voices plainer, when I leave my hat on.

Do you have a favorite hat, Dear Reader?

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Through April 15, I’ll nag you to BE A WINNER!!! Tweet, Facebook, type and review your way to Charleston, South Carolina in the To Live Forever Journey to Charleston Contest. The more you enter, the better your chance to WIN. Click here to find out more: Support My Aching Feet.

Some BIG announcements are coming. Don’t you want to say you were part of the IN CROWD? Read the book, and say you were there first. To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis is available in paperback and e-book formats at these outlets: Click to Purchase To Live Forever.

As long as you ask questions, I’ll answer them. Reader Questions will be back tomorrow. In the open air. HAT ON.

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58 Comments

  1. I did a review for Amazon. I gave you 5 stars. I am very proud of you and the book.

    1. Thank you!! I’m looking forward to seeing you when I get home. The Great Egg Coloring Day is scheduled, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Alice and Cayleigh over some dye, some glitter and some boiled eggs.

  2. Ah, that was my other choice yesterday but I thought…nah, she and MTM haven’t seen each other, really, in weeks. I’ll leave that to them. And here you are.

    1. We’re still not seeing much of each other. He’s at a ULI conference, and I’m wandering around a big city by myself. Still, we’re in the SAME city, which is something. 🙂

      1. Does your wandering involve walking? Hard to get out of your system once you start, eh?

  4. I LOVE hats and if you’re in YVR you MUST find this milliner: Lillie and Cohoe. The best. I can’t paste a picture here but you’ve inspired me. I feel a post comin’ on. http://www.lillieandcohoe.com/

    1. You. Are. EVIL. Two Vancouver locations. They have the perfect rain hat for when I was walking and needed a rain hat. But maybe I’ll still need a rain hat. Hmmmmmmm……..

      I’ll look for your post. I’m sure it will be more erudite than mine. 🙂

      1. Didn’t you just say to 1WriteWay “There’s always a reason to buy a hat.”? Go on. You know you want it. You know you do….

  5. No hats here. Unless you count the dew rag I used to wear while sitting on the Harley. 😉

  6. I used to wear hats, especially men’s hats, when I was much much younger, trying desperately to imitate Annie Hall. For years I had a cheap red fedora that I loved but my husband didn’t. Since coming to live in the South, my hat wear has evolved to an assortment of baseball caps with long bills, a dove gray Tilly hat, and a white broad-brim Kayak. The latter is my favorite, except that I just saw a pink one for sale … hmmm …

  7. Many years ago (19 to be exact) we went to the Kentucky Derby. I craved a Helen Kaminski hat that I saw in Elza’s (remember that store – and her?) but Dan put his foot down. Determined to own that hat, I bet on the big race and won enough money to purchase my desired chapeau. I still own and wear it proudly.

    1. I bought my Helen Kaminski because you bought your Helen Kaminski. 🙂 I’ll bet you never knew that. Ten years on, it’s one of the most resilient hats I have. I was planning to have to get another one in June, because the walk would destroy my existing one. Only, it held up just fine. So, I have to get another one because of how they stand up to wear. 🙂

      1. That is so cool. I never envisioned myself as a fashion inspiration. Do you remember Elza’s? And Elza? She was one of a kind! So glad you are having a little R&R with your hubby.

  8. My favorite hat was one my mother wore one spring–I was about 6 I think–so this was in the early 1960s. It was creamy white on the outside, had a very wide brim (she has a long neck and looked grand in large brimmed hats), and under the brim, it was pale pink and the crown / brim was ringed by silk apple blossoms. She wore it with a pink suit that was of her own making. I think I remember it had hand made knotted buttons (made with self-covered cording) which was then wound into a knot–they were amazing.

    As for me, my favorite hat is one I purchased on a visit to Princeton in the winter. It is faux fur, and has a deep crown, and a large cuff of faux fur all the way around. It comes down over my brow and is quite warm in the cold. Last time I wore it out in the cold with my black shawl and velvet scarf I felt very dashing.

    I do have a has similar to your Kaminski, but mine has an extra twist to the brim and looks rather more like a school-girl’s hat, so I don’t wear it as much as I used to.

    1. I just love these stories. I have an old hat that belonged to my aunt, and I try to imagine her wearing it. I love your fur one. It looks so good on you. 🙂

  9. I was missing the hat as well. Glad to know its antecedents. I love hats! My favorite hat is a black fleece hat. I crochet hats too.

    1. I really prefer winter hats over summer hats. I need to live in a colder place………. 🙂 Crochet hats rock.

  10. My favorite hat is an old Tilley hat that I use as a gardening hat. It’s cotton duck cloth with a large brim in a khaki/dark green combo. The poor thing is permanently rumpled and stained. I I love it because it is indestructible and it keeps the sun off my face. Plus it has this goofy string that I can place under my chin to keep the hat on my head if the wind starts blowing. I look like a complete dork when I wear it, but I don’t care because it does its job and keeps me sunburn-free.

  11. All hats aside, be careful of the breeze when you ride those bikes in your skirt. 😉

    1. I don’t have the nerve to ride a bike here. Our hotel has them, but I walked a bunch today, and the traffic…….well, I think I’ll stick to walking.

  12. Ah had me a gen-u-wine Tom Mix one as a young’un. The envy of all the cowboy-crackers kids.

  13. Most of my favorite hats have actually been warm and fuzzy rather than fashionable. I’m rather fond of my sleeping hat (for cold nights camping). I tend towards the beret when I’m out and about.

  15. My favorite hat is the hat my friend bought for me to take to Ireland. It was made in Ireland for the rainy weather and I wore it in Ireland and I’ve also worn it picking up trash along the roadside and hiking up Rapid River as well as all sorts of other places. It’s my favorite. However, it doesn’t look good on me (doesn’t enhance my appearance).

    1. I’ll bet it does. You need to post a picture of yourself in it, so that we can be the judge.

  16. I probably have a hundred hats. They’re all favorites. My daughter’s into shoes, I’m into hats. Imagine that.

  17. I love your hat. It should have it’s own Twitter account – @andrashat

    I have a bunch of baseball baps. I guess my favorite is my Atlanta Braves one because it belonged to my late grandfather.

    1. That reads as “Andra shat” and for some the whole “coochie” thing is more than enough to wrap one’s head around.

    2. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I wonder if @andrashat is taken………

      Lance, that’s an excellent hat. You should post a pic of yourself wearing it.

  18. I love hats!! More to the point, I love the idea of wearing hats! In reality, I do not wear them. I have rarely found a hat that
    a) looks good on me,
    b) feels good on my head (translate: won’t give me a headache),
    c) meets both of those qualifications AND has a price I’m willing to pay.

    That said, I love your hat, but whether you are wearing it, or not, I love your smile and your writings more. Enjoy your little break in BC.

    1. I think hats look good on most everyone, but that’s just me.

      Had a nice wander today. And found a Lush. Which means I’ve spent the last hour in the bathroom………..

      1. Just learned my “something new” for the day…. Had to Google Lush. Thought some of their Easter offerings looked interesting; although I need products oriented to showering, not soaking (the knees can no longer be trusted to provide sufficient boost for comfortable and safe leveraging back to a standing position–would hate to have to call a fireman for extrication. 🙂 )

        1. They used to make shower bombs, Karen. I tried them, but they didn’t last as long as the bath ones. I am sure I will end up back there, and if I see a shower bomb, I will buy it and send it to you. 🙂

  19. I’ve never looked good in hats. Fortunately for me, I still have a thick head of hair to wear on my scalp or I’d be in a bit of a bind.

    1. My hat currently covers my Root Horror Show. I may wear it to dinner. In the dark.

  20. I have a favorite winter hat that is a bit big for my head, but I love it anyway. My kids are traumatized by my continued use of VISORS during the summer in spite of their insistence to throw them away for life! Visors protect you but keep you hair in place, DUH! 🙂 You wear that hat well, Andra.

    1. I have a raffia visor, Maria. I LUUUURRRRVVVVEEE that thing. I’m absolutely in your corner.

  21. In my early teenage years, I wore your grandpa’s fedora on a regular basis. I still have it but it’s a relic. I never wear hats nowadays. Can’t stand having anything on my head besides hair. At least I have a head full even though the gray is starting to outnumber the brown.

    1. You should post a picture of you in his hat. I haven’t seen it, and I would love to. (My gray outnumbers the rest, too.)

  22. I love hats, but don’t have the head for them. If I wear one, it’s just a big ol’ floppy garden hat when I venture out of doors for any length of time. My often sunburned face, scalp and shoulders thank me!

    1. Everyone has a head for a good hat. I’ll bet you look great in your sun hat, Katie.

  23. I never wore hats, feeling I did not look good in them. A moral to this is that I SHOULD have worn hats, to keep the sun off of my face. Now that I’ve been subjected to a little cut and paste on my nose for basal cell and chemo cream for some other facial “irregularities”, alas and alack, I almost always wear a hat. My favorite is not unlike yours, though it now looks as cryptic as my face; all battered and mended. Hmmmm. Maybe that chemo cream will help it.
    Enjoy your time in BC. You deserve it!

    1. Do you have a favorite hat these days, Penny? I’d love to see a post with you in your garden in your hat. 🙂

  24. Hats are the best! I’m always looking for a new one and am off to look up Helen Kaminski… Enjoy Vancouver, it’s a great time of year to visit!

  25. In the land of perpetual sunshine (it was 90 degrees today) I must wear a hat. I have some beautiful raffia ones, but I really love my soft, wide brimmed and washable hats. I think I look a little kooky in them. I have perpetual hat hair and I’m far from stylish. But I have pretty good skin for my age, and without my hat, I almost hate to think. 🙂 A friend and I actually talked about your hat as we had lunch last month. We talked about how much we liked it, as well as about how smart you were to be wearing it. We have quite a few years on you…trust us, you’ll be really, really glad in about 20 years! Enjoy Vancouver…and the absence of a hard deadline!

  26. i’ve never been there but i’d love to see vancouver one day. as for hats, i love your hat and i must say i don’t have personal favorite, as i tend to go without them –

  28. I think I need a hat. I wore a sparkly pink top to work today…set the house on fire! Part of my new desire for BoHo Chic…or Granny BoHo. A hat would work wonders!

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