Gentle reader,
I
never intended to collect hats/caps. In fact, back when I had a full
head of hair, I never even owned a hat and couldn't understand the
desire to wear one.
Still as the follicles
decreased (actually many fell out and took root other places on my
body!) and having interests in various things, the hats started being
bought or given as gifts.
Above, you can see all of them arranged on the floor in here. Racing ones front row, cars second, government agencies third, etc.
Above, is my ALMS or American Le Mans Series racing hat. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the oldest endurance race. Held on the circuit outside of Le Mans, France, the first race was in 1923. Some dozen-or-so years ago, Don Panoz, former owner of the Road Atlanta race course in Georgia, USA contracted with the FIA in Europe to hold a series of endurance races here in the USA based on Le Mans rules and inviting European teams to compete against the American teams.
The first race of the year (this year, Saturday, March 16) is the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. Historically, the 24 Hours of Daytona (also in Florida) was the first in the world endurance races. It is and was in January. Then Sebring in March, some in Europe at SPA, the Nurburgring, etc., then the big one in June: Le Mans. Since NASCAR bought Grand Am which included the 24 Hour race at Daytona, and created their version of endurance racers called "Daytona Prototypes" it has competed against the ALMS for fans, TV time and circuits. For more on this and Grand Am's buying the ALMS, Google one or the other.
The ALMS has been quite successful and teams with winning records are invited to compete at Le Mans. Many of the European teams (Audi, Peugeot, Aston Martin, etc.) attend Sebring at the start of the season and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta at the end of the season. Ok, enough about that hat!
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| You may recall that I had a blue Audi TT quattro for a while. I LOVED that car, but it started having expensive problems, so I sold it. I also am a fan of the Audi cars, street and racing. |
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| Above is a hat that I created by finding a source of genuine U.S. Border Patrol patches and a low profile green hat. Below is one I found on ebay. Not official at all, but a bargain at 99 cents! |
Below are three other USBP hats obtained via ebay. Digital Camo first, olive green next, and khaki last. I sold the first and last ones as they just did not fit my small head well. The green one, which is the most common, and all three for that matter, are not worn by any Agency personell.
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| Again, I liked the looks of the khaki one, but it was just too big on my pin-head. |
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Customs and Border Patrol was once part of the Immigrations and Naturalization Service of the US Federal Goverment. (I also have a genuine INS shoulder bag that I found at Salvation Army.) Since 9/11 and the creation of Homeland Security, INS and it's friendly, helpful name became ICE: Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
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Above is an example of an ICE hat. Correct? I doubt it. Still, fun to wear any of them at a place where groups of immigrants are gathered. Make's 'em nervous! Since I'm on the subject of government agencies, below is the CIA hat Nancy bought me and a vintage and genuine NCIS hat.
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| Above and below are my Grandpa hats. Four super grandsons so far. Still waiting for that girl! |
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| Above is a cheap hat that Handyman Magazine sent Nancy for subscribing. Logo didn't stay on for very long! Sheesh! |
Below are the four Leica hats. I have a 1946 Leica IIIC camera and have had a more modern compact autofocus 35mm one too.
Below are the DODGE hats. We'd bought a new 1997 Dodge Stratus ES and a few years later, DODGE announced it was getting back into NASCAR. So, they sent us the red one below along with a nice book and umbrella. I tried, really tried to like NASCAR, but just could not and still can't. Boring to me and many other folks.
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| Above and below is the really nice quality hat the NRA gives for joining. I don't remember ever wearing it. |
Below is one from 5.11 Tactical. It is a "Remember 9/11" hat. Nice quality.
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| Above and below is another giveaway hat from Summit Racing Equipment. It came with the cat-back exhaust system I bought from them for my Z28 Camaro. Again, another one I can't recall wearing. |
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| Above and below are ones that Nancy bought for herself. Can't recall her wearing any hat other than one that is part of her uniform. |
Last one is a "driving hat" that I sometimes wear while driving my car, top-down.
That's it for the hat collection. More to follow soon. Thanks for looking!
Scott
