A Curio of Hats

The shamble leg man, like the man in the hat though less obsessive, had a curio of hats. Broad brimmed and no-brimmed, some with ornate hatbands, others missing one all together; berets and toques, woolen hats and hats that looked more like scarves than hats; felt hats and hats made from calf-skin, crepe paper hats and hats fashioned out of newspaper to look like boats; floppy hats and tight hats, hats that appeared normal, but on second glance were actually socks folded and darted to look like hats. He had a second curio of hats that he keep for special occasions, this curio consisted of a brown and tan fedora, a Stetson, a bowling cap, or what he thought to be a bowler’s cap, tight-fitting and with tiny perforations in the earflaps, a Churchill panama, even though he found it unlikely that Churchill would have worn one, and an assortment of baseball caps that he kept in a shoebox taped and re-taped to avoid contamination with the other hats.