We people wear many hats, physically and theoretically.
We’re students, wives, husbands, mothers, children; the hats we wear are endless. For some, a hat is a fashion statement or accessory, something to hide the bad hair days, while others, like me, wear a small piece of it and their story in their heads. For our first article since being back for the semester, I set out to find my fellow hat wearers.
One evident thing is that you cannot write an article about hats on campus without talking about Elijah Prewitt-Davis. As someone who has had three classes and a class trip with Prewitt-Davis, I think it's fair to say that he and his hats are a package deal. “It got to a point where if I didn’t wear a hat, people would be asking, 'Where’s your hat?’ It's just a part of me.” Just like us and our phones, he and his hats pair well together. Speaking of faculty who wear hats, have you ever seen a cool guy with a wide-brimmed straw hat or wool driver's cap? That would be assistant music professor Mark McCafferty. “I have been wearing hats outside my entire life, and I have developed quite a habit of wearing them,” McCafferty said. But for him, it goes far beyond a simple, but rather awesome, fashion statement.
“I spent a significant amount of time outside, and I have also had several family members develop skin cancer. I wear large brim hats and sunscreen, hoping to prevent this, or at least to mitigate my risks. In winter, my head gets very cold, so I wear my wool driver's cap. I started wearing these during cold weather when my grandfather gave me one of his caps before he passed away.”
Like McCafferty, Dr. Brian Whalen, Assistant English of professor and Writing Studio coordinator, wears hats for health reasons: “The brim helps ground me, visually, in space, and it also helps block overhead fluorescent lights and sunlight (otherwise I risk getting tunnel vision, brain fog, and migraines). But I also just look so darn hip and athletic in my Adidas ball cap (so the mirror tells me).”
You do look hip, Brian, don’t worry.
As for me, 50 percent of the time I am wearing some sort of hat, scarf, or headband. For me, the hats I wear are either 1) to feel close to the memory for which the hat holds, or 2), like my classmate and fellow writer, Megan Thompson, puts it, “sometimes my hair is just gross and other times, it goes with my outfit.”
My camo Chevrolet hat (pictured above), I purchased at a Dollar Tree in Martin, Ky., right across the street from the Christian Appalachian Project. That hat means everything to me. It symbolizes my first time away from home, my first time in Martin, and the lifelong memories I share with my Appalachia class and the people we helped during our class trip. Wearing hats may not seem significant to you, and that’s okay! I only ask one favor from you; next time you see someone wearing a hat, just think to yourself, “Man, I wonder why they wear that hat?” You never know.