THE HAT TRICK

Now I'm not doing this because I'm trying to urge you to send me birthday greetings but today I hit another big one.

In fact, a BIG big one.

I turned 85 years old today.

But lest you rush to inquire after my health before it's too late, be assured that I'm just fine except for a small pain in my back.

SWMBO would be the first to tell you that I've been a pain a bit lower than that for most of the years we've been together but never mind that.

What I want to talk to you about today is headgear.

It must have begun when I was a wee lad, overcome with my talent at performing tricks from a magic set I'd been given one Christmas or birthday and assisted by my mother's sewing and crafting skills, I soon became The Great Taylor, magician extraordinare.

Or maybe it was that impressive chapeau I donned for one of my first acting experiences as a Prince Charming.

When I became a bespectacled adult(?) my glasses were more likely to find themselves on the top of my head than on my eyes.

Then years later I met Judy.

She overlooked my hippie days . . .

. . . and soon fashioned a costumed hat for a Halloween party.

Once again I was a wizard!

Those early years in Phoenix found me working for Channel 12 in Phoenix and I quickly confiscated a hat.

In the next decade, a trip to Dallas, Texas for a political convention found me in a newly acquired straw Stetson.

Later, in a few years in Mexico, my hat collection expanded.

Even when (before the Diamondbacks existed) I was a Dodger fan!

Back in the States, I posed for my wife's camera in a hoped for career as a movie extra.

Apparently Texas doesn't have much film use for Greek fishermen!

Well, after a decade or two I found myself in retirement and a chance to . . . what else . . . grow my hat collection.

I don't always wear hats.

But it's not due to that Willy Nelson-esque attitude.

Believe it or not, some hats just make me grumpy.