Pork Pie Hats

I like the idea of wearing a hat, but except in winter, I rarely wear one even though I have several. Wearing a hat for any length of time usually gives me a headache. That, and I always feel a little conspicuous when wearing one.

Mom was a stickler for wearing a hat or scarf over our ears not only when we were young, but when our children were young, also. She was a believer that not having the little ones' ears covered was the cause of earaches.

I was thinking about hats Wednesday when I wore my Newsboy cap to the grocery store. The term pork pie hat popped into my head. I had to look up pork pie hat to learn more about them - what they looked like.

Which is when I realized that is what was on my head in a few pictures when I was two to three years old. Here with my older brother, Ronald, and baby sister, Betty. (Spring of '46)

And again with Ron on the tractor.

Supposedly, they are called pork pie hats because of the resemblence to an edible pork pie. They have been around since the mid 1800's, but were most popular during the depression years of the 1930's. Part of their popularity is attributed to Buster Keaton and his movies, where he is almost always wearing one.

Another old time photo taken the same day as the above. Here, Ron is holding a cat, Dad looks like he is telling our neighbors, Maurice and Shorty how to fix their plow, and I am sitting on Shorty's Ferguson tractor seat with my back turned to the camera, but pork pie hat clearly in view.

Naturally, I have no memory of this hat. And there are no pictures of my little sis wearing it two or three years later when she was the age I am in these photos. What does fascinate me, though, is this picture of my future husband:

Bud, when he was two to three years old in 1948. He could be wearing my hat!

Here's the picture that close-up was cropped from - Bud with his sister, Diane, and his Grandpa Nelson in Grandpa's car. Diane and I are the same age, Bud is two years younger. As far as I know, our parents weren't acquainted at the time, so I don't really think Bud has my hat.

I don't know if these hats were popular for kids when we were little or if they were just something both our mothers happened to like. I just find it cutely funny that Bud and I both were photographed in our pork pie hats back in the day.