The True Book of Mostly Unrelated Stories

The Hat Trick
by John Mooy

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After a player would score three goals fans would toss their hats onto the ice to honor his performance. Prior to fans doing this, there was a story that appeared in a Toronto newspaper in the 1930’s or 40’s stating that Sammy Taft, a businessman would offer a hat to any NHL hockey player who accomplished the “hat trick.”

So, hats have played different roles in our lives for years. I remember as a young Detroit Tigers fan getting a baseball cap with the old English D on the front and spending evenings folding my cap so the crease in the front was just the way I wanted it to be. There was also a way you could fold your cap so it would easily fit into your back pocket.

Always around Marcellus during the summertime were our local farmers sporting caps that usually advertised some sort of farm products; corn, machinery, and the occasional cap with some insignia that we just didn’t know what it meant; it just kept the sun out of your eyes.

As we have gotten older baseball caps have taken on the name of “the rock-n-rollers toupee” in which the cap is used to cover the portion of our heads which was once covered with long flowing locks of hair. My father has passed that very necessity on to me. He also used to explain to me the difference between a cap and a hat. And on those occasions when he and my mother would get dressed up, it was not uncommon for Dad to wear a dress hat, also known as a fedora. Quite stylish they were.

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Curly Woods, a popular figure around town years ago could often be seen in Pantale’s establishment shooting pool, lighting his pipe and for some reason he always had bib overalls on with rubber bands holding the cuffs of his pants tight to his ankles. Curly sported an engineer’s cap on his head.

Many of you recall the legendary football coach of the Dallas Cowboys by the name of Tom Landry. As he patrolled the sidelines, he always wore dress slacks, shirt and tie, sport coat and topped it all off with a fedora. His trademark of sorts.

In old Chicago stadium on Madison Avenue, Tommy Ivan, coach and general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks could be found standing behind his team bench very nattily dressed and always wearing a fedora.

Back to Dad’s fedora which served an even greater role in my life than as a hat. It was in our living room that when Dad had a new deck of cards (he was a card player) he would often challenge me to “pitch” cards in our living room. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun this game was. It was simple and came with a certain degree of difficulty if you were going to  be any good. Here’s how it worked. Dad would place his hat upside down in the middle of the living room floor. He would usually split the deck in half and we each took twenty-six cards.  He let me go first. While seated on the edge of our chairs, I would lean forward and with my right elbow on my right knee, I would take one card and with a simple flick of the wrist send the card spinning toward the hat. The card would establish a pattern of flight by usually going down, moving up, and then curving to the left and down into the hat. If the card landed in the hat, not on the brim, you received one point. It was like a lesson in flight and aero dynamics.  The hat started out perhaps eight feet from where we were seated and as we became more proficient, we moved the hat back. When you started to establish a rhythm with your tossing, it was not uncommon that Dad could sail ten to fifteen cards in a row into the bottom of the hat.  At that point I was less accomplished but loved the challenge.  

Quite a game, and all you needed was a dress hat, a deck of cards and a friend.

Have a great week, Marcellus!
You’re the best.
You folks are the ace of spades in my deck.