Cowboy Hat Or Baseball Cap?

[Mountain Cowgirl]

Hot days in late May or June in the evening I drive up the Burnt River canyon and kill rattle snakes on the road. Deer and elk I hike all over the hills hunting them. When it comes to rattle snakes I am strictly a road hunter.

Oh my goodness! Burnt River Canyon and on down through the Hereford Valley is rattlesnake paradise. When I worked around that area it was our after-work evening pastime going out for a drive to kill rattlesnakes and red diggers. Rye Valley and Gold Ridge is another area I wore my knee-high boots with loose straight-leg jeans covering the shaft. I took a couple of strikes in my 70 years but never pierced my boots.

To return to the hat/cap discussion in those days I wore my 20X custom which was 50% real beaver and I had shaped a bit like my Indian great grandfather's fashion and the rest like my family's cowboy tradition except 4" brim. The tradition was a 5" brim since it started with the Arizona desert side of the family back in the 1800s. I had a straw one made by a guy in Mexico in that tradition. It was great for blocking the sun, but that brim caught way too much wind, and once I moved up to the river, where the wind is almost daily, it became a problem. I was never into the chin string thing.

My other favorite hat was a leather one I made from scraps that were leftover from my custom boots made by an old maker in Baker City. I was visiting friends there and the heel came off my old Lucchese and he fixed it and he had just finished a pair of boots that spoke to me so I laid down a month's wages and ordered a pair. Western-style high top lace-up with a 2 1/4" "cowboy" heel and a little decoration to girl them up. He also had made a hat, so I asked to buy leather for making my own. He obliged with scraps and I paid for some nice softer leather to make a pair of high top lace-up moccasins.

I had a lot of caps in those days with all kinds of names on them. I also had a couple of hard hats that I wore around equipment like backhoes and loaders or felling trees.

A little spontaneous improvisational poetry about beaver cowboy hats for your pleasure this fine morning.

Rodent Headwear
by Faye Fox 03/29/2021

Why the fame for a beaver made hat
They are just rodents, a big wood knawing rat
They are sought by many of both sexes
From the north in Montana to the tip of Texas

20X is 50% beaver with other added felt
Save up some more and get a matching belt
The genuine thing is money well spent
Even if it cost your wages and your monthly rent

Real beaver sheds water better than a bunkhouse roof
Handy this is during a storm when you are out on the hoof
Compare that to soggy saturated wool felt hat
It is like putting out the dog and letting in the cat

Puzzling me most is fine beaver hats worn at the opery
With a chin string hanging down it looks a bit slopery
Assessing the chin string from where I sit
I feel no breeze, so what use is it?

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

Oh my goodness! Burnt River Canyon and on down through the Hereford Valley is rattlesnake paradise. When I worked around that area it was our after-work evening pastime going out for a drive to kill rattlesnakes and red diggers. Rye Valley and Gold Ridge is another area I wore my knee-high boots with loose straight-leg jeans covering the shaft. I took a couple of strikes in my 70 years but never pierced my boots.

To return to the hat/cap discussion in those days I wore my 20X custom which was 50% real beaver and I had shaped a bit like my Indian great grandfather's fashion and the rest like my family's cowboy tradition except 4" brim. The tradition was a 5" brim since it started with the Arizona desert side of the family back in the 1800s. I had a straw one made by a guy in Mexico in that tradition. It was great for blocking the sun, but that brim caught way too much wind, and once I moved up to the river, where the wind is almost daily, it became a problem. I was never into the chin string thing.

My other favorite hat was a leather one I made from scraps that were leftover from my custom boots made by an old maker in Baker City. I was visiting friends there and the heel came off my old Lucchese and he fixed it and he had just finished a pair of boots that spoke to me so I laid down a month's wages and ordered a pair. Western-style high top lace-up with a 2 1/4" "cowboy" heel and a little decoration to girl them up. He also had made a hat, so I asked to buy leather for making my own. He obliged with scraps and I paid for some nice softer leather to make a pair of high top lace-up moccasins.

I had a lot of caps in those days with all kinds of names on them. I also had a couple of hard hats that I wore around equipment like backhoes and loaders or felling trees.

Question is.......why "those days"? Just don't wear any kind of hat anymore?

Along with her felt and straw, my wife loves wearing a baseball cap. I love it when she wears any of the three.

A person doesn't have to be working a ranch or active member in a rodeo association to wear a cowboy hat or even a baseball cap. A person can simply like the look, as wife and I both do. But, then again, we are big fans of both ranching/ranchers and rodeo.

 

[DaneG]

Fur lined cap at least 5mo of the year with flaps, ball cap or straw Stetson in summer, felt one for town.

 

[Faster horses]

Oh my goodness! Burnt River Canyon and on down through the Hereford Valley is rattlesnake paradise. When I worked around that area it was our after-work evening pastime going out for a drive to kill rattlesnakes and red diggers. Rye Valley and Gold Ridge is another area I wore my knee-high boots with loose straight-leg jeans covering the shaft. I took a couple of strikes in my 70 years but never pierced my boots.

To return to the hat/cap discussion in those days I wore my 20X custom which was 50% real beaver and I had shaped a bit like my Indian great grandfather's fashion and the rest like my family's cowboy tradition except 4" brim. The tradition was a 5" brim since it started with the Arizona desert side of the family back in the 1800s. I had a straw one made by a guy in Mexico in that tradition. It was great for blocking the sun, but that brim caught way too much wind, and once I moved up to the river, where the wind is almost daily, it became a problem. I was never into the chin string thing.

My other favorite hat was a leather one I made from scraps that were leftover from my custom boots made by an old maker in Baker City. I was visiting friends there and the heel came off my old Lucchese and he fixed it and he had just finished a pair of boots that spoke to me so I laid down a month's wages and ordered a pair. Western-style high top lace-up with a 2 1/4" "cowboy" heel and a little decoration to girl them up. He also had made a hat, so I asked to buy leather for making my own. He obliged with scraps and I paid for some nice softer leather to make a pair of high top lace-up moccasins.

I had a lot of caps in those days with all kinds of names on them. I also had a couple of hard hats that I wore around equipment like backhoes and loaders or felling trees.

A little spontaneous improvisational poetry about beaver cowboy hats for your pleasure this fine morning.

Rodent Headwear
by Faye Fox 03/29/2021

Why the fame for a beaver made hat
They are just rodents, a big wood knawing rat
They are sought by many of both sexes
From the north in Montana to the tip of Texas

20X is 50% beaver with other added felt
Save up some more and get a matching belt
The genuine thing is money well spent
Even if it cost your wages and your monthly rent

Real beaver sheds water better than a bunkhouse roof
Handy this is during a storm when you are out on the hoof
Compare that to soggy saturated wool felt hat
It is like putting out the dog and letting in the cat

Puzzling me most is fine beaver hats worn at the opery
With a chin string hanging down it looks a bit slopery
Assessing the chin string from where I sit
I feel no breeze, so what use is it?

That was great!! Do you have any photos of the boots and hat that you mentioned earlier? It would be neat to see them.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

Back in Oct 2019, before this virus crap hit, we had dinner, and was listening to a great country-western band, at a local nightclub here. They were playing George Strait, Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, etc. music. Wearing our Wrangler jeans and the rest, including our black felts. Anyway, as we left, I asked this one lady, whom we noticed was an excellent dancer, "so where's your cowboy hat?". She told wife and I, "got tired of having it knocked off while dancing, so leave it at home now."

Before I met my wife, she was wearing either a felt or straw to every square dance she went to, along with going line dancing sometimes. She loved wearing her hat. Never got it knocked off and I never knocked it off.

So, don't know who this lady has been dancing with, but the men should be more careful. LOL

 

[Mountain Cowgirl]

Question is.......why "those days"? Just don't wear any kind of hat anymore?

Along with her felt and straw, my wife loves wearing a baseball cap. I love it when she wears any of the three.

A person doesn't have to be working a ranch or active member in a rodeo association to wear a cowboy hat or even a baseball cap. A person can simply like the look, as wife and I both do. But, then again, we are big fans of both ranching/ranchers and rodeo.

For the same reason, I don't wear a hardhat anymore. Because that style of hat and boots were tools for me. I do wear a ball cap when walking to keep the sun off my nose since the last big precancer spot was removed. I have a flat big-brimmed straw hat I wear when doing yard work. It was only about 5 years ago I gave away my "cowboy" hats to younger cousins that use them almost daily. I don't care for wearing a hat without a functional reason and just for show. I love scarves also, but only wear them on windy days when they serve a function.

@Faster horses No photos on me, unfortunately. I lost most of my photos from my younger days due to fire and flood. The few photos I have are from relatives' and friends' collections. I have lived by myself for 50 years and so many of the things I wish I had photos of with me in them, I don't. No one to take the photo. Also, I had a cheap camera and used cheap film and even copies I gave to friends are faded. I wish I had kept the negatives.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

For the same reason, I don't wear a hardhat anymore. Because that style of hat and boots were tools for me. I do wear a ball cap when walking to keep the sun off my nose since the last big precancer spot was removed. I have a flat big-brimmed straw hat I wear when doing yard work. It was only about 5 years ago I gave away my "cowboy" hats to younger cousins that use them almost daily. I don't care for wearing a hat without a functional reason and just for show. I love scarves also, but only wear them on windy days when they serve a function.

@Faster horses No photos on me, unfortunately. I lost most of my photos from my younger days due to fire and flood. The few photos I have are from relatives' and friends' collections. I have lived by myself for 50 years and so many of the things I wish I had photos of with me in them, I don't. No one to take the photo. Also, I had a cheap camera and used cheap film and even copies I gave to friends are faded. I wish I had kept the negatives.

So, you don't like "showing off" at all? As for myself, I think it's fun! Do people really have to have a "functional reason" for wearing something or whatever?

However, I knew a lady, years ago, that didn't like wearing any kind of hat.........why? She said "hate getting my hair messed up and besides that, my hair is to thick/high for any kind of hat."

Then, there are those ladies that think a cowboy hat or baseball cap is to "manly" looking. What do I say to that........."whatever". Same thing goes for jeans..........to manly looking. Again, I say "whatever".

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

The right jeans on the right lady don't look to manly.

 

[webfoot]

A good and true snake story. The names have been left out to protect the innocent or guilty as the case might be. Years ago at the Lind rodeo. A bull snake was found out behind the chutes. Cowboys being the playful types captured said snake. There was a bull rider there would live in snake country down along the Snake River. Bull riders have a small bag that just fits the tail end of their coiled up bull rope. The captured snake was placed in that bag and it was zipped back shut. The rodeo progressed and it finally got to be the time for the bull riders to start to get ready. Everyone except the guy from Snake River knew the snake was there. But everyone is watching him out of the corner of their eye. The bull rider went to get his gear ready. He picked up the bag and reached it to pull out his rope. This led to a blood curdling scream and I believe that snake is still orbiting the earth. The lead in this gag was out in the arena on his pickup horse. He was cackling loudly. The bull rider shouted xxxxxx you SOB. All of us behind the chutes were rolling on the ground laughing. He was too young to have a heart attack and a Bull snake isn't a rattler. So it was all just good clean cowboy humor.

And I was wearing a cowboy hat that day. I believe it was black felt American hat.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

The right jeans on the right lady don't look to manly.

True, but it can also depend on the age and figure of the lady. And, it can also depend on how/where that lady was raised.

Believe me, during those 22 years of being single/divorced, I seen/talked to, many ladies that really fit into a pair of Wrangler jeans nicely, but, not until my wife, did any of them have an interest at in rodeo or anything else dealing with horses/livestock. Some even wore a nice felt or straw, but they only thing they liked was bull riding, line dancing and 2-step. I'd say, "sorry ladies, I'm a Timed-Event guy, don't line dance, but can do a nice 2-step".

 

[Mountain Cowgirl]

@Big Muddy rancher, I am neither the right lady nor wearing the right jeans, but I dare any cowering coyote to tell me to my face I look manly in jeans. hahaha! Posting a new profile photo of my manly look. Hahaha!

@webfoot I have heard a similar story from a guy I knew that lived by the Snake just up from Oxbow dam headed toward Brownlee.

 

[Mountain Cowgirl]

So, you don't like "showing off" at all?

No, that was never allowed in my upbringing. I know where I came from and who I am today and see no reason to wear anything unfunctional and unpractical just to show off.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

No, that was never allowed in my upbringing. I know where I came from and who I am today and see no reason to wear anything unfunctional and unpractical just to show off.

Well, to a point, that wasn't a part of my upbringing either, but after I left home and entered the Navy, there was different upbringing things that I changed to suit myself.

I know where I came from, farming, horse ownership and pro-rodeo and I know who I am today..........a huge fan of rodeo and so is my wife. We also like cutting and reining competitions. I've never done cutting and reining, but it sure is exciting and fun to watch. On top of that, my wife absolutely loves the enthusiasm I have towards rodeo and the interest we both share in ranching and farming.

Anyway, when promoting rodeo, a person has to dress the "rodeo" look to promote it. A person doesn't promote pro-rodeo wearing shorts, a t-shirt and thongs. Myself, and a saddle bronc rider friend of mine, were sponsored by a nightclub in So California, and, when there wasn't a local rodeo happening, we had to promote the next rodeo at the club. It was very, very fun and we both liked the attention. The nightclub also helped with some of our rodeo expenses. That made things even better.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

[USER=43]@Big Muddy rancher[/USER], I am neither the right lady nor wearing the right jeans, but I dare any cowering coyote to tell me to my face I look manly in jeans. hahaha! Posting a new profile photo of my manly look. Hahaha!

@webfoot I have heard a similar story from a guy I knew that lived by the Snake just up from Oxbow dam headed toward Brownlee.

I can tell your not a man in those jeans.

 

[webfoot]

@webfoot I have heard a similar story from a guy I knew that lived by the Snake just up from Oxbow dam headed toward Brownlee.

The victim in the story would have been from along the Snake up stream from the mouth of the Palouse River. There is a guy who lived by Huntington who might have been there. He was up Durbin creek south of Huntington.

 

[webfoot]

For while my SIL worked with a cattle broker out of Miles City. At one point he was #8 in the world riding saddle broncs. He has a bachelors degree in equine science. Darn sure a cowboy no matter what angle you look at him from. So I was over there visiting with them. He went off to look at the calves at a ranch up around Jordan. He gets home dressed in a pearl snap shirt, Chinch jeans, square toe boots, and a silver belly hat. First thing he says is well I can get out of the uniform. I was there for 3 more days. I never saw him dressed "cowboy" again that trip including when they took me out to a great steak dinner at a steak house in Miles City. He is now the cow boss at a big ranch in Idaho. He dresses functional cowboy on the job.

 

[Faster horses]

For while my SIL worked with a cattle broker out of Miles City. At one point he was #8 in the world riding saddle broncs. He has a bachelors degree in equine science. Darn sure a cowboy no matter what angle you look at him from. So I was over there visiting with them. He went off to look at the calves at a ranch up around Jordan. He gets home dressed in a pearl snap shirt, Chinch jeans, square toe boots, and a silver belly hat. First thing he says is well I can get out of the uniform. I was there for 3 more days. I never saw him dressed "cowboy" again that trip including when they took me out to a great steak dinner at a steak house in Miles City. He is now the cow boss at a big ranch in Idaho. He dresses functional cowboy on the job.

Trying to figure out who that might have been since we were near there for 22 years.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

If we go to CFD this year, we will both be wearing our straw hats.

And, when/if we go to the Dodge City Days/Roundup Rodeo this coming August, we will also be wearing the straws.

If we end up going to the NFR, in Las Vegas in December, which we are planning on doing, we will both be wearing our black felt hats on the jet and in Vegas. We haven't been back to Vegas for the NFR since December of 2005. So, for us it will be quite exciting!

When we watch rodeos on the Cowboy Channel, we see very few female rodeo fans wearing traditional straw or felt hats. My wife is more "traditional" for a hat and loves wearing hers to a rodeo or out to dinner and listening to music at a country-western nightclub. Have a lot of pictures of her wearing her hat.

And, for us, the new generation of "Flat Hats" just don't get it. Younger folks like them, but not for us.

 

[Faster horses]

If we go to CFD this year, we will both be wearing our straw hats.

And, when/if we go to the Dodge City Days/Roundup Rodeo this coming August, we will also be wearing the straws.

If we end up going to the NFR, in Las Vegas in December, which we are planning on doing, we will both be wearing our black felt hats on the jet and in Vegas. We haven't been back to Vegas for the NFR since December of 2005. So, for us it will be quite exciting!

When we watch rodeos on the Cowboy Channel, we see very few female rodeo fans wearing traditional straw or felt hats. My wife is more "traditional" for a hat and loves wearing hers to a rodeo or out to dinner and listening to music at a country-western nightclub. Have a lot of pictures of her wearing her hat.

And, for us, the new generation of "Flat Hats" just don't get it. Younger folks like them, but not for us.

Those 'flat hat's' are a signature of the buckaroo dress code. Texas, for instance, has a type of hat, the northern cowboys have a different hat style. This is not absolute, but generally speaking. Looks kind of funny in the north when someone wears a straw hat into December or January.

There are different X's on felt hats and you sure can tell the higher X hats. They look and feel much different. Friend of ours has a 20X hat and wow, does it feel good. He won it or he wouldn't have been able to afford it. Those really good felt hats are treasured.

 

[Cody-n-Nancy]

Those 'flat hat's' are a signature of the buckaroo dress code. Texas, for instance, has a type of hat, the northern cowboys have a different hat style. This is not absolute, but generally speaking. Looks kind of funny in the north when someone wears a straw hat into December or January.

There are different X's on felt hats and you sure can tell the higher X hats. They look and feel much different. Friend of ours has a 20X hat and wow, does it feel good. He won it or he wouldn't have been able to afford it. Those really good felt hats are treasured.

But, I'm talking about the ladies that I see in the stands at rodeos on the Cowboy Channel, not the men. The men in the stands are either wearing a baseball cap or a cowboy hat (felt or straw) like we wear. All of the rodeo cowboys I see in rough stock and timed events, are wearing the same kind of hat we wear. So are most of the barrel racers, however I do see a few barrel racers wearing a small "flat hat".

Other than the ladies "flat hats" the only difference I see between regions of the U.S., can be between Wyoming, Montana and the rest of the U.S.. The "Montana crease" is found in Montana, with a few wearing it in Wyoming.

Yes, here in the north, like where we live, our straws go into the closet in Sept./Oct. and the felts come out. Last year, we had a fairly big snow in Sept. and we still have a couple of weeks left for more snow in May. So, right around Memorial Day, the felts get put away and the straws come out.