Mad About Hats

    In my late teens/early twenties, I lived for a couple of years with my older sister Phyllis in an apartment in Greensboro. Both of us worked at jobs and when we had a few extra dollars in our purses, we did what sisters do -- we went shopping.

    The particulars of those trips are lost in the sunsets of our lives, but one of our escapades managed to withstand the rigors of passing years. The reason it stands out is that my quiet unassuming proper sister and I sort of caused a scene in a department store. 

     It began when we walked into a display of hats. Years ago, hats were more popular and plentiful than now and the stylish accessories, poised in artful form on stands, begged our attention. There were big fluffy hats, little dainty hats, hats with oversized bows and colorful plumes, hats you might consider wearing and some you never would, some clownish and comedic.

    Neither of us needed a hat and had no intentions of buying one, but we could not resist the urge. One of us, I don't know who, picked up a hat and tried it on. The other one giggled and that is when silliness took off like a jet plane headed for Disney World.

    An innocent gesture soon turned into a competition of searching for the most ridiculous hat and modeling it, to see which one of us could look more ridiculous. Chuckles soon turned into cackles as we took turns posing then breaking into tear-filled laughter. Our funny bones had clearly been tickled.

    Swapping hats back and forth, we laughed out loud, doubled over, and for a few minutes, forgot the traumas of our childhoods and the worries of tomorrow, as well as our surroundings. If other shoppers happened to be in close proximity, we were unaware but having the time of our lives -- until.

    In the middle of one of our heartiest bursts of laughter, I saw in my peripheral vision a matronly woman marching soldier-like and briskly toward us. She approached, stopped on a dime, and spewed out a stern reprimand for our misuse of the millinery.

    We were stunned by her remark but like obedient schoolgirls responded kindly. The woman then pivoted and darted back to her post, satisfied that she had put an end to our spontaneous fit of gaiety. With residual grins on our faces, we put the hats back in place and moved on.

    Reprimand aside, we, too, walked away in satisfaction, for like a favorite song transports its listener to the peacefulness of heaven, we had been carried by laughter to one of the happiest places we had ever been. The cantankerous warden at the department store might have thrown cold water on our fun, but she did not dampen our spirits. Our laughter, way back then as well as now in reminiscence, is much louder than the woman's rebuke could ever be.

Published in The Goochland Gazette May 12, 2022.