Hats Off

Tim's Favorite Hat

Just last week my husband and I were talking about the problem of men wearing hats when they ate in restaurants.  We were trying to figure out what had changed.  It used to be when people sat down to eat, the hat got taken off, but now...hats are on all the time.  It's a pet peeve of mine, I guess.

But looking around we realized that restaurants used to have coat racks and poles at all the booths with hooks so you could remove your hat AND coat (which is another thing we do now...eat fully clothed for the outdoors in winter).  Now if you set your hat down it has to be on the table or on a seat.  And on a seat, you are very likely to forget it.

This Saturday, we went to an old, well-known and loved diner in these parts that tourists frequent for the experience and locals frequent because they always have.  Moody's Diner was very crowded, but we got a seat quite quickly and sat down in our booth.  As we sat there, I suddenly realized that they had poles with coat hooks between each booth!  Just like the "olden days" we'd been talking about just a couple of days ago!

"Hey, look, Tim!  A hat rack!"

Tim put his hat on it saying, "Yeah, now I'll probably forget it."

"Yeah, probably!" I said, thinking that saying this was the best way NOT to forget it. 

We ordered our meals: blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup for me, and the meatlovers' omelette for Tim.  Then we brought out an iPhone and an iPad - anachronistically waiting for our food.

When the waitress came we quickly stashed the technology.  And after a quick blessing, we made short work of the food.  That's what I like about restaurants...no cooking.  Cooking takes so long and eating takes so short.  It hardly ever seems worth the time.  I guess it's one of those "enjoy the journey" things, but I don't particularly like the trip.  And then there's the clean up besides...no fun on that trip either.  But that's a blog for another day!

So we ate and left.

Ate and left....

ate and left...

hmmm.  

What could we be forgetting?

We got down the road apiece and Tim groaned.  "Guess what we forgot."

"Oh, no!  The hat!" I joined his groaning.  "I can't believe we did that! Should we go back?"

"No, it's okay.  It wasn't a hat I liked anyway."

"Okay, if you're sure you don't want to..."

"Nah, I have plenty of hats.  The only one I really like is my Whitefish anyway."

Sunday morning dawned, and it was time for church.  We decided to take the Miata; it was going to be a lovely day and on the way home we could put the top down and enjoy the freedom of sun and wind and pretend we were 25...or even 55!
As Tim reached up into the closet to grab his favorite hat it was not waiting...  No!  Not the Whitefish!
Yup, the Whitefish!  It was gone.  He had worn it to the diner after all.

On Monday morning I placed a call to Moody's Diner.  "Yes, we have it."
I didn't tell Tim.  He was headed out of town for business late that afternoon for a couple of days.
As soon as he left, I drove the 45 minutes north to the diner to pick up his hat.  While I was there, I had a bowl of lobster stew...my reward for being a good wife.  This time I kept the hat on the outside edge of the seat, so I would have to pass it to get out of the booth.
I considered wearing it while I ate.