Throughout history, hats have indicated a person's religion, occupation and social status. Many of us were born at a time when people typically wore hats every day, in fact, were required to wear hats every day. Others of us were born at a time when hats were no longer an everyday accessory.
Yet, the culture of hats has been so deeply established in our ethos that we are still able to recognize and identify different types of hats and associate them with a definite country, occupation or religion.
Though most of us do not wear them, most of us can identify a sombrero, a fez, an Aussie bush hat, a tam o'shanter, a glengarry, the Alpine Tyrolean hat, the Russian fur ushanka, a Greek fisherman's hat, the conical straw Asian hat, the kippah, the kufi, bowler, top hat and beret.
Headwear is not only visually entrenched in our society; hats contribute to our verbal communication in descriptive and comparative ways. Most, if not all of us will understand the many idioms and expressions derived from hats. Recently, I was invited to curate and lecture on a hat exhibit at a local museum and I eagerly threw my hat in the ring. I wasn't sure how to approach the subject, so I had to put on my thinking cap and make sure I didn't speak through my hat, or I
