Never touch another mans hat!

[GunClick Rick]

Why and was there a reason why that was started,yep been watchin Wild Bill with Jeff Bridges~

[Paladin Gun For Hire]

Rick,
I kind of think that's where it started.

[Cliff Fendley]

That is not where it started, at least in my family that is a thing that has been around for generations.

My grandfather taught me very young that you never touch another mans hat and I'm certain he never watched any tv movie or show to start that. That was a matter of respect handed down from his elders. He always said that's just something you don't do is mess with another persons hat. He hated when someone touched his hat and personally I do too.

[Advertising]

[Don Nix]

You never touch another mans hat..period. I have been wearing  hats all my life  and thats considerable time. It heard that as a child and learned quickly that if you touch another mans hat you better get ready to fight.
I put on a hat in the morning and then rarely touch it throughout the day. it is a part of my head and  if someone touches it it disturbs the fit of the hat. the same as if some one would ruffle your hair. it pisses me off.
I am a lot more mellow now than in my younger days  when I have back handed a few idiots that walked up  and touched my hat.
I was sitting at a family gathering once when some neighbor kids came up behind me and tried to grab my hat my kids screamed ,"dont touch daddys hat!".
its personal, I would no more walk up and touch the front of a woman than to touch another mans hat. If you have to ask then you werent raised wearing them.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

Don't know how true it was ,but there was a law I was told about while in Albuquerque NM ... it seems it was illegal to dance with one's hat on ...

The law supposedly came into being because there had been so many fights break out when two Cowboys would be dancing and their hats collided and the hats were bent out of shape.

Hence no dancing with hats on .....

Don't know again if the story (or law) was true, but at $400 on up for a good hat, it made a lotta sense at the time ...

Is there anyone from NM online? Yea or Nay?

[Don Nix]

I have been in many a honky tonk where hats were verboten for just that reason. In on in particular  we would take off our hats when we sat down and stack then up one inside the other. Whos ever hat was on bottom had to buy the beer. That hat was then taken from the bottom and placed on top(The hats were sat upside down as they should be) and so on.
 As one of the guys got up to leave with his wife ,he picked up his hat and as he said goodbye he turned and put his hat on as he started to walk out. before he could walk three steps the idiot yankee manager garbbed him and demanded he remove his hat. bob told not a problem i'm leaving.where on the idiot got in his face and told him "I said take your hat off now" Thats when i tried to be the peace make and tried to explain that no one was breaking his rules the man was just leaving and where we come from it was just a habit to stand up and put your hat on as you left. This is when the Idiot manager make a remark about where we came from and said Ill take  the damn hat off myself.Now you have to remember there were about a half dozen cowboys standing around watching this by now and we all had been drinking for a while. when the Idiot reached for Bobs hat , he slipped and hit his nose on Bobs fist once or twice,having decided that he would change the subject the Idiot turned around quickly  and stumbled towards me ,I, thinking I could keep him from hurting himself further stopped his stumbling  by catching the side of his head with my fist. Then Everyone standing around tried to stop the Idiot from reeling around  but he kept running into someones fist. This happened pretty quickly and he sat down and finally apologized.You dont touch another mans hat and it dont pay to do it while cussing cowboys and Texans. True story.

[Major 2]

Chris Ledoux RIP 

[Delmonico]

Upside down is not always the best, you place it to do the least amount of damage to the hat, my BOP my Big 4 and my open crown Rand should never be placed on the crowns.  But they all have flat brims so on the brim is the way.

Love having my Big 4 on at work and having someone buying their first hat and their friend tells them to always place it on the crown, I don't say a word, but take mine off and put it on the crown and watch it flop over, the look on their face is priceless.   


BTW I touch other folks hats all day long, but they want me too.

[Don Nix]

Long before Chris Ledoux, Porter Wagoner did it.

[Major 2]

May be     Singer-songwriter and former rodeo champion Chris LeDoux wrote it though

[Delmonico]

BTW, reread  the long with out paragraphs post, who would stack their hats one inside the other?   Not me, my hat has been fittted to my head and I don't want the opening changed.  I spend about a week with a new one on my work bench before I wear it home.

[Cliff Fendley]

Jake Brooks wrote the song "This Cowboys Hat"

Chris Ledoux has it on the Western Underground album which was released in 91. I don't recall it being on any of his previous recordings.

EDIT: I was wrong, it's on the Used to want to be a Cowboy album. It was released early eighties when I was in high school but not sure of the year. Probably 81-82.

The later version is better IMO.

[Grenadier]

Don't mind the touching of my hats as much as I hate someone putting my hat on their head.

 I find that kind of disgusting and repulsive.

[Cliff Fendley]

Long before Chris Ledoux, Porter Wagoner did it.

It's on Chris Ledoux Used to want to be a Cowboy album from around 81-82. This recording of Porter is 83.

[Major 2]

Jake Brooks wrote the song "This Cowboys Hat"

Chris Ledoux has it on the Western Underground album which was released in 91. I don't recall it being on any of his previous recordings.

EDIT: I was wrong, it's on the Used to want to be a Cowboy album. It was released early eighties when I was in high school but not sure of the year. Probably 81-82.

The later version is better IMO.

I stand corrected  ...but He wrote the song for Chris Ladoux

[Delmonico]

The song is on more than one of his albums.  Some have been made after he died.

[Cliff Fendley]

I haven't seen anything released since he died. Horsepower is the last album he did. This Cowboys hat is on his 20 greatest hits album, probably the most played CD's in my shop.

[Don Nix]

 Well excuse me Delmonico, I typed that reply on my Blackberry and posted it before I had the chance to edit it.
I will insure in the future to use paragraph form on all my posts.
 Now to the point of who stacks their hats one inside the other. They answer is ,obviously. we did. It was a necessity brought about by the fact that hats could not be worn in the clubs or honky-tonks of the time. These places didn't have hat racks mostly and if they did you stood the chance of some one stealing your hat. So you were left with two options. One was to sit your hat on the floor beneath the table or the other was to set it on the table. If you did it that way  the hats took up all the table space so the easiest way was to stack your hats ,that way you could take care of it (and by the way they weren't squashed down inside one another) and the habit of rotating the hats to keep up with who bought last just evolved.
 I am proud that you know how to take care of your hat. I own a couple of custom made hats myself,I even sold and shaped hats for a few years when I owned my Saddlery and Feed and Mercantile. That has nothing to do with the point I was making about touching a mans hat.
 Oh ,and I'm sorry if the post is too long, if it is ,just feel free to quit reading anytime you wish.

[Delmonico]

Well excuse me Delmonico, I typed that reply on my Blackberry and posted it before I had the chance to edit it.
I will insure in the future to use paragraph form on all my posts.
 Now to the point of who stacks their hats one inside the other. They answer is ,obviously. we did. It was a necessity brought about by the fact that hats could not be worn in the clubs or honky-tonks of the time. These places didn't have hat racks mostly and if they did you stood the chance of some one stealing your hat. So you were left with two options. One was to sit your hat on the floor beneath the table or the other was to set it on the table. If you did it that way  the hats took up all the table space so the easiest way was to stack your hats ,that way you could take care of it (and by the way they weren't squashed down inside one another) and the habit of rotating the hats to keep up with who bought last just evolved.
 I am proud that you know how to take care of your hat. I own a couple of custom made hats myself,I even sold and shaped hats for a few years when I owned my Saddlery and Feed and Mercantile. That has nothing to do with the point I was making about touching a mans hat.
 Oh ,and I'm sorry if the post is too long, if it is ,just feel free to quit reading anytime you wish.

Jeez, a little funnin' and you get upset, if there is no proper place for my hat, then it is not a place I patronize.   And yes, long posts with these fancy phones are hard to read and I don't bother with most of them, at least this subject was interesting enough to bother with. 

And no, don't put your hat inside mine, no how, no matter what the reason, I spend days fitting it to my head so it fits right, I don't want that ruined by doing such a thing to it.  I guess having a hat that fits right is important to me, not so much to others.  I go beyond, you don't touch my hat and you don't mess my fit up with putting your hat in it. 

[Mean Bob Mean]

Rick,
I kind of think that's where it started.

Nope.  I have seen people knocked on their cans going on 40 years ago for messing with hats.  I think it was simply a pride thing.  Guy strutted around town with his hat, some guy touched it or knocked it off his head, that was a slight and had to be answerd or admit you were a wimp.  No doubt touching a man's hat was a no no going way back.