A Season for Grace Countdown Week Post #4

 

Hats Off to Dad, Part 2

by Beth Collins

        Dad’s “air conditioned” hat 

Yesterday’s blog post paid tribute to our father and his crazy Christmas hat. Following Stacy’s lead in A Journey for Hope, I decided to introduce readers to another hat from our dad’s collection in A Season for Grace. As I noted yesterday, Dad was a unique individual who marched to the beat of his own drum. He also mowed the lawn in a hat of his own making, a customized straw topper which Stacy and I nicknamed his “air conditioned” hat. 

Theorizing that the tightly-wound straw hat wouldn't allow enough airflow to cool his head under the hot Florida sun, Dad used scissors to cut strategically-placed holes around its crown. I confess that we were both mortified as teens when he wore it, as his modifications to the hat were obviously after-market. 

But after our father died in 1992, we gained a new appreciation for the hat as an object that personified his uniqueness and individuality. Stacy had custody of the “air-conditioned hat” for many years. It hung on a peg in her Little Elm, Texas garage, as it had in our parents’ carport during our youth. 

A few months after Stacy died in October 2022, I went to Texas to help go through her things and found Dad’s hat. Knowing I couldn’t part with this piece of family history, I brought it home to Virginia, where it now has a place of honor in my garage. This mangled piece of straw tells the story of a man who forged his own path and embraced his quirky side. 

Which character wears an “air conditioned” hat in A Season for Grace? I’ll give you a hint – he lives on a horse farm and has an unrequited crush on a beautiful woman. If you want to know more, you’ll have to read the book! 

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You can still buy the ebook version of A Season for Grace for the preorder price of $2.99. Be sure to claim your preorder gift by filling out the form on the publisher’s website. Just have your Amazon order number handy. If you prefer the paperback version, it will be available on August 20th.