As a child, we wouldn’t do anything resembling Christmas decorations, but, for some reason, I always had a nice, new straw hat for spring. You might even call it an Easter bonnet. We didn’t celebrate Easter, of course. I remember one such hat was navy blue with an up-turned brim and a velvet ribbon band which trailed down the back rather like the Madeline character from the French children’s books.
My grandparents would travel from Toledo, OH to Mt. Clemens, MI where there was a Kosher resort. It smelled of sulfur. There, they could keep the dietary requirements for Passover without the need to turn their own home upside down. I remember attending the Seder and chanting the Four Questions for my grandfather when he was quite elderly as he wept; he was so proud of his youngest grandchild. I was always nicely turned out in hat and white gloves.
That is my first memory of a special hat, not just something I wore in the winter for warmth.
Summer is something else entirely. I did the typical sun worship, covered in baby oil when I was younger, but started taking skin care seriously when I turned 30. I also learned that sun beating on my head is a migraine trigger, so I have a series of hats to wear outside, some for beach, some just for walking round town, some straw, some made of stronger material to shield from the strong rays while lounging on the beach, as you see in the photo below.
South Beach, 2015
The hat in the Featured photo was purchased at the Peter Beaton Hat Studio on Nantucket in 2017 in their historic downtown area. No doubt about it, I turn heads when I wear that hat. Strangers compliment me. It is very Audrey Hepburn “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and I adore it! But I never wear it to the beach.
Below is a photo from an Alumni Board meeting up at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Northern Michigan in November, 1993 with the incomparable Peter Norlin, a leading star from my brother’s era. The hat is pictured in the upper right corner in the group shot, below.
I have a collection of hats for warmth, for sun, for fun, for rain, for “just because”. A few I rarely wear, others I wear all the time, whatever the weather calls for. The red Canada Goose hat is new and warm. It is my current go-to hat this winter.
The beige knit hat on the bottom was my winter hat for years and years. It is special to me. Let me show you why. Can you read the label below? “Made Especially for you by Patti”. Yes, this hat was handmade for me by my dearest friend, Patti, one of Retrospect’s founders, my friend since 10th grade, one of my bridesmaids. I’ve worn it so much that I’ve stretched it out. I’ve tried to have it blocked, but it is still loose now, which is why I bought a new winter hat in December. But this hat will be with me forever.
Here is a link to my tribute to my friendship with Patti: No Friend Like an Old Friend.
Betsy PfauRetired from software sales long ago, two grown children. Theater major in college. Singer still, arts lover, involved in art museums locally (Greater Boston area). Originally from Detroit area.
What a great tribute to your hats, Betsy. Each one has a story of its own from your life, and thank you for sharing them with us. You have so well shown us that one’s hat can be so much more than just a hat. Thus, the hat that your dear friend Patti made for you is the most memorable.
As expected by now, you also have terrific pictures of wearing your hats to illustrate your stories. (And it certainly helps that you look terrific in them all. As my own story indicates, that cannot be said for all of us and our hats.)
p.s. I must admit that, the first time I went through your story, I thought the second sentence of your second paragraph read “It smelled of suffer.” Maybe not so far off, though.
Thanks, John. Funny about the “suffer”; nope – sulfer, awful scent. For the “first memory” prompt coming up, I took out my father’s home movies and there are my grandparents, coming out of the Colonial Inn (funny name…definitely NOT the one in Concord Center) and it brought everything back to me (weeks after I’d written this story). Rotten egg smell, but also hot springs with natural healing elements, which I’m sure is why that resort was located there.
I figured there must be hot springs involved; like going to Bath, right? And I agree that that is truly an odd name for an inn, especially to us New Englanders.
Yes, I didn’t know it at the time, as I was quite young (my grandfather passed away when I was 11) and I had forgotten the name of the resort until I saw the sign in those movies last Saturday. Having all those photos and movies is just a wonder for me. I go through my mother’s albums and come up with photos of my cousins when they were young, take a photo and text or email it to them and get such wonderful responses. It is a great way to be in touch.
After reading Laurie’s comment, I realized it was my lousy spelling (since corrected) that confused you, John. Sorry about that…I even checked and got my original as a correct spelling of the word, though perhaps more confusing. Sigh…
Brava Betsy. once again you have the photos to back up the tale! And fun to read your linked story about your old friend Patti.
By chance last year I saw a production of Bye Bye Birdie staged by the St Jeans Players, an UES neighborhood theatre group that two friends of mine are in.
I’d seen it on Bway years ago, now what a fun show for the amateur group to mount!
Thanks, Dana. For a brief moment, I wondered about the Bye, Bye Birdie reference, but then realized it related to the start of my friendship with Patti (and how she met her future husband John, as a matter of fact; and all these years later, they went on to found MyRetrospect).
Betsy, my grandparents loved to go to Mt. Clemens for the medicinal baths, and I remember that awful sulfur smell. You are the ultimate hat-lover, and I really enjoyed all of your photos.
So interesting that your parents went to Mt Clemens too, Laurie. Guess it was the thing to do for that generation.
Thank you for your story, from one hat lover to another.
Thank YOU, Cynthia.
Hat lovers, unite! Betsy, I think I have the identical blue hat you show in the photo for sun protection. It will be fun, whenever COVID ends, to wear something really fashionable.
I wore that blue hat so much I finally threw it away and replaced it with the same model in beige. Very useful for the beach. But it will be nice to get back to more fashionable hats, Marian.
Love this story, Betsy. We hat-lovers are out in full force today. Funny that you got a spring hat every year as a child, although obviously not an Easter bonnet. Love the idea of a Madeline-style hat, I’m sure you looked adorable in it. Also, I am drooling over your featured photo hat, which looks wonderful on you – I have no doubt that you turn heads in it! I think I need a Peter Beaton hat too!
Thank you, Suzy. That Peter Beaton store has the GREATEST hats. I saw someone wearing one the year before I found it (we go to the Nantucket Film Festival every year when there’s no COVID) and asked where she got her fabulous hat. And you can pick whatever ribbon you want. They have dozens of choices. You would look great in one of their styles.
This was a very meaningful treatment of the topic, with wonderful photos. Hey, MY GRANDPARENTS lived in ‘toledo (the grandma I wrote about in “Joey’s Button” who had been a young Communist in her earlier days). I wonder if they knew each other!
Thanks, Dale. My grandparents were Sam and Belle Stein. Sam had a jewelry store on Adams Street in downtown Toledo that my uncle took over when my grandfather died in 1964. Since my grandparents fled the pogroms in 1906, were already married with two children, I don’t think they were active in the Communist party. I wrote a story about them earlier for the immigrants prompt.
My Grandpa and Grandma fled (separately) from Russia and Lithuania from the progroms at the exact same time! But he was 16 and arrived alone in New York, while she was a little kid in 1906 and came with her parents–to Canada, not the USA. They met in Toledo when she was in her teens.
My grandparents came from Bialystock, Lithuania. I wrote a fairly lengthy story about them for this site entitled “My Grandparents’ Story”, that went live on July 3, 2017. You can read about them there, if you like. I also wrote an earlier, shorter version called “Belle & Zalman”.
Betsy, from what I can see you look very Audrey Hepburn in all your hats, especially with the large sunglasses. All adorable, but I especially love the little black hat in the shot from the Interlochen Center! And how lovely to have a winter hat knitted by a dear friend…it must have kept you warm in more ways than one.
Thank you, Barb. I am flattered by the Audrey Hepburn comparison. I think she had a good 8 inches on me and entirely different figure, but like Suzy, I greatly admired her style and loved her in all her movies (I particularly love a little trifle with Peter O’Toole called “How to Steal a Million” about art forgery. She wears all Givenchy clothing…to die for!)
And yes, the hat from Patti remains very special. Though stretched out, I still wore it two days ago. It wasn’t a terribly cold day, so didn’t need the new red hat for very cold days and my hair was in a pony tail so the comfy hat fit perfectly and does make me smile!
That’s a knockout opener, Betsy. I’m guessing the design was not based on a Nantucket sou’wester, but Hepburn probably strolled along island lanes at one point or another. Great to have a friend-knit hat, and pleased to know it came from Patti.
Thank you, Chas; don’t know if Audrey ever trod the lanes, or just inspired the hat, but I truly love it. And yes, Patti’s hand-made hat is very special to me for many reasons.