A Pageant of Hats, Ancient and Modern, by Ruth Edwards Kilgour, which I am currently reading.
Well, that book got me to thinking about a hat I used to have,
one that I owned for years, and got a great deal of use and
enjoyment out of.
It was a blue felt shapeable hat....very shapeable. And I shaped it in every possible way. I also liked to use different
accessories on my hat. Sometimes it would be one of several
pins I had. Sometimes it would be a scarf,with the ends tied into a bow.
I had that hat for more than ten years, not unlike the hat Miss
Opal wore in Lenora Mattingly Weber's Beany and the Beckoning Road.
"Her black hat had seen years of service. It was only the flowers, Beany realized, which blossomed anew on it every
spring. This spring Miss Opal had chosen pink, yellow, and blue
daisies."
Well, between that passage and the book about hats, is it any wonder that I began to miss my hat, which also saw "years of service," more than I did before? Is it any wonder that I decided it was time to get a replacement?
I went to amazon.com to search for a hat as much as possible like my lost, lamented one. And yes, I found one, and, after reading the reviews, I ordered it.
Yes, it is shapeable! And yes, I will be accessorizing it, but I
won't change the accessory every day, and I will never use a
pin on this hat... it's made of paper, but, according to the reviews, it doesn't feel like paper, and it is durable. The original price was $25.99, but it was on sale for only $6.06, and the shipping was free. I thank God for that; the original price would
have been a bit much for me at this time.
I've also ordered a sunflower self-adhesive embroidered applique sticker patch, which I'd actually selected before I found the hat. I have to laugh when I reflect that I spent more... but not much more... for the accessory than I did for the hat... just as I've spent more money on Bible covers than I did for my favorite Bible!
So when and where do I plan to wear this hat? Wear it where?
Where wear it? Not outside; I couldn't run after it if it were to
blow away.
I'm going to wear it, instead of a prayer veil, when I watch the Mass on EWTN... and perhaps when I just feel like wearing it!
But am I giving up on veils? No; I will still wear a veil when I
pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and when I make Online Adoration.
Was it necessary for me to buy the hat, and the sticker. No, and I realized that before I placed my order. Every now and then it is good to make a completely frivolous purchase... provided, of course, that it is something you can afford, and
something you really want.
