I think I mentioned somewhere along the line

that I took my old look back.

It started about 1970 because I saw an old picture of my father taken right after WW2 when he was on a fishing trip.

Khakis, flight jacket, Ray Ban aviators and a fedora.

I swapped the khakis for Levi 501s and it was my uniform until the first of the Indiana Jones movies came out. When that happened I had to ditch part of it because I got tired ot listening to a cartload of pimple brains telling me I was dressing like Indy. Truth is he was dressing like me.

Actually it was a classic late 30s through 50s look and I tend to be Old School. I like funky stuff like that. I always have.

Anyway a while ago I took back my look. My A-2 jacket like my G-1 has a couple of seaplane related patches along with a Pratt and Whitney high winged eagle on it as to differentiate from the Saturday afternoon serial idol. 

I also snagged a trio of fedoras. One is brown really nice and of top quality. The other two somewhat of  inexpensive hats I bought for poor weather so as not to ruin my nice one. Of the second two, one is a darker brown and the other is grey.

One of the problems with buying off of Amazon is you don't get to check stuff out and try it on. The grey fedora arrived with a three inch brim and was 'crush-able' which means it was pretty floppy.  The brim was also about a 1/2 inch too wide.

Quick fix with a razor knife. It's now a 2 1/2 inch brim like the others and is also the brim is now pretty still thanks to an old trick.

I shaped the brim first and then hosed it down with an entire can of Rave hair spray. This is a pretty good product for things other than hair. Of course, it was designed for hair years ago. A thin misting on a woman's beehive hair-do and she was good for about a 35 or 40 knot wind and not a hair out of place. A heavier coat of the stuff and she could probably walk under Niagara Falls and come out the other end looking wet, bedraggled but by God, she'd have great looking hair!

Anyway, this is a trick I learned from a Colorado cowboy while I was in the army. I watched him prepare a new hat his got torn up while riding a bull. The bull put a hoof through it.

He took a teakettle and steamed the brim to soften it and make it pliable and shaped it the way he wanted. Then he put it on top of a lamp with a 60 watt bulb in it and let it dry out.

When it was dry he hosed down the entire brim with hair spray, soaking the brim through and through. Then he parked it on the lamp again and when it dried he was good to go.

Right now between the razor knife and a can of Rave hair spray my grey fedora is good to go.

It is pretty cool pulling a thirty-five year old trick out of the bag. When I saw that trick I thought I would never have to use it but paid attention anyway. I'm glad I did.





To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY