About That Cap You’re Wearing

By Tom Poland 

 

My friend and former colleague at the USC’s College of Mass Communications, Bob Lamb, posted a photo of a man wearing his baseball cap backwards at a game. He was shielding his eyes with the game program. I guess he forgot what the cap’s bill is for. Or maybe he was more interested in being trendy.

I own about 60 caps but I never wear them backwards. I buy caps all the time and people buy them for me in faraway places like Australia. And people buy them as souvenirs of sporting events such as the Masters.

I have a lot of UGA caps as you’d imagine, but I also have caps that promote everything from the Napa Wine region, New York City, the College Football Hall of Fame, BMW, various professions, and restaurants. One of my favorites is an Ernest Hemingway cap from Key West. It is lightweight, cool, and attaches to my collar via a clip and leash so it doesn’t blow away on a windy boat. Hemingway was famous for his cap. As one writer speculated “Maybe Hemingway bought his in a gas station on the road to Ketchum, next to the cash register, among the beef jerky wrapped in cellophane. Or maybe in a tackle shop in Key West.” I wouldn’t doubt he had one designed just for him. Wherever he got it, his cap-clad photo is iconic.

 

 

Like most items of clothing, the cap came about more through necessity than fashion. Designed to cover your head and shield you from sunlight, it evolved in different styles and sizes, and it can come with an adjustable strap. Dome-shaped with a bill in front, it’s something we see wherever we go. I like a fitted cap.

Caps today are mini billboards, a big part of advertising. It’d be nice if BMW paid me for wearing its logo. Ever notice how corporations like to give away their caps? American capitalism at work on your head. (In more ways than one.)

You can get all sorts of caps today. I have a CIA cap but I never wear it. Might get shot or captured. And I have a U.S. Border Patrol cap that my friends refuse to let me wear into a Mexican restaurant. They fear something might taint their food. Mostly, the caps I wear are plain and functional. Saturday yard work means a cap is mandatory. A cap, I’ve found, makes a decent umbrella and I’ve learned to keep a few handy wherever I go. I keep them in my studio, in my car, and in a closet where the best and most sacred ones rest in a shrine. I seldom wear those … saving them for a rainy day.

I dislike some caps. Now and then a cheapskate will give me one of those mesh nylon caps, the kind that sits on your head like a pillbox. I got a mesh nylon John Deere cap that Deere should be ashamed of. Must have cost 23 cents. I trash those or use them as a net to clean out my fountains. Nor do I like the trendy square caps with the wide rounded bill. I see a lot of rough people wearing those.

I see a lot of bald guys who wear baseball caps. Can’t blame them. That summer sun scorches an unprotected pate. And I’d rather see bald guys with caps than bald guys with bad hairpieces. Saw a bad piece just the other day and it brought to mind what Mom used to say about a bad rug. “Looks like someone took a robin’s nest, turned it upside down, and squashed it on his head.” I remember long ago a dude with a mullet wearing a cap. That was a sight for sore eyes.

A lot of us like to wear caps festooned with the logo and colors of our favorite teams. I notice that as football season approaches you see more and more caps just as you begin to see flags flying on cars.

I like to see women wear caps, too. It gives them a playful, ready for football game, look. And it keeps the sun away, which we all need to do. (Always wear sunscreen.)

Caps are nothing new. The first baseball hats were made of straw, which the New York Knickerbockers were the first to wear back on April 24, 1849. Soon the team began to wear a cap made of fine merino wool that featured a crown, with a visor or bill. Ever since, caps have evolved to get better and better. They provide mankind a service. They look good with jeans and T-shirts too.

People have a way of turning caps into statements. Today, certain style caps are associated with rappers and gangs, and it’s long been a cocky statement to wear your cap bassackwards as Dad used to say. “Look at me. I am one cool dude.” Yeah, right. Just remember what your caps for when the sun gets in your eyes. Wear it as intended. Otherwise, someone will take a picture of you shielding your eyes with your hands and post it on the Internet and you’ll come across as a tad silly.

 

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

 

Tom Poland is the author of twelve books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press released his book, Georgialina, A Southland As We Knew It, in November 2015 and his and Robert Clark’s Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II in 2014. The History Press of Charleston published Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia in 2014. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture and speaks often to groups across South Carolina and Georgia, “Georgialina.”