putting the j in jjosh

When we moved a couple of weeks ago, we really tried to streamline our stuff so that we weren’t moving things we were just going to get rid of. So I had to make a lot of tough calls as far as stuff that I’d had in my closet for years — why was I holding on to this stuff? Could I get rid of it? I got rid of a lot of it.

What gave me most pause though, was saying to good-bye to my most favoritest of hats. It was really coming apart, with a hole in the front that was starting to fray and deteriorate even more. It was time to say goodbye.

I got that hat years ago, I can’t even remember where now. I remember I got it, and it wasn’t until I was showing it to someone else (Joey D?) that they pointed out that inside it there was a tag with the hat’s make printed on it in great olde-germany script: The Country Gentleman. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN! So perfect. Here’s the last picture of my hat…

And the Country Gentlemen went all around the world….the UK, France, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Prague, the forests of Bohemia…it went to every Burning Man and PDF and camping trip…

Here’s at PDF, in a wading pool full of rose petals, and making the scene with a giant scimitar…

The Country Gentleman was also indispensible on camping trips…here’s one where I went with JW and a bunch of his pals and I had to participate in this crazy initiation-style blindfold test…

I was blindfolded, then led deep into the forest and brought up to a tree. I was told to get to know the tree, learn it, hand out with it, blindfolded all the time. I was then led back through the twisty trail to our camp. They then took the blindfold off and told me I had to find my tree. What they didn’t know was that I had a feeling that this would happen so I put a branch down by the trunk of the tree so I could find it. After I found it relatively easily (they still had to give me clues), and I told them how I did it, people were complaining that I had "cheated"! Cheated? How to you cheat in a blindfolded camping initiation?!

Also a notable camping trip because it was the first time I fired a gun…

The hat also journeyed with me to Spain…here we are in the hills of La Mancha, hanging out with the windmills that made Don Quixote tilt…

One time Maxine and I were staying with LoriB in Chelsea. She lived on a 5th-floor walkup, and the stairs were a major pain in the ass. One night I was heading out to meet Maxine somewhere. I went down all the stairs, wearing my hat, only to find that it was pouring rain outside. Rather than go all the way back up, I just reached up and stuck the hat up on top of a maintenance ladder, sort of out of the way. I figured no-one would see it, you know, and I could just pick it up when we came home that night.

But when we came back that night it was gone! No way!! Who would take the Country Gentleman?!

So we drafted a "lost hat" flyer and posted them in the building. Maxine drew the hat, and made it think "Vincent Van Gogh" to give an idea of the style…

I also love the "no questions asked". I pretty much figured that hat was gone, and that would be that. But a couple of days later, it was returned to Lori! Her building super had come across it and thought someone was getting rid of it (fair enough). A month or so after that, the Country Gentleman and I were reunited.

Now, years later, it is time to say goodbye.

It is a teary farewell, but like George Harrison always said, "All Things Must Pass."

I will miss thee, Country Gentleman, fare thee well in the great adventure-ground where all great hats must go when they die…