#18 Hats Old and New
Today is a sunny Saturday, at this new beginning of 2015,
and snow is on the ground. This is unusual here in Sedona, and it lasts a short
time, so this gives me the opportunity to take out of my storage box my only hat
left from the large amount of warm hats which I had made myself decades ago when
our children were very small.
When I arrived in the U.S. in 1946 this was a beginning
of a new life. I slowly had to make up
for so many lost years when I was surviving the war. Now I felt maybe I will be lucky to be able
to learn all the things I missed from the age of 19 when the war started, until
the age of 25, when I was liberated from Prisoner of War camp in Germany.
I got married to Fred Fleissig, and had two lovely
children, Alicia and Willy. I found a
whole catalogue of adult education courses available for free in the evenings at
the school nearby in White Plains, N.Y. As soon as my husband Fred came home
from the office and we had supper, I left the house to go to that adult night
school to learn slowly everything that was available. After 1 or 2 years when I
felt I learned enough, I started a new challenge.
At some time I decided to use all the remnants that nice
friends brought to my house and make a few hats for the winter, for skiing and
skating or just for wearing fashionable, colorful warm hats on cold
days.
I liked the project so much that I kept making more and
more, every hat an original, totally made of lovely pieces of varied materials,
and then knitting and crocheting decorative pieces to hold it together. It was so much fun seeing Alicia wearing some
of the hats. There was a kind of creative dare I would make to anyone who came
to visit. I asked “Do you have the courage to wear my hats? Then it is yours!”
Although I did give several away, I ended up with about
40 unusual hats, more than we could wear!
Fred’s secretary went together with my husband to a sport shop in White
Plains, and to my delight they bought the whole batch, selling each one for $40,
which was a lot of money. I don’t remember how much I got, but the point was
that people appreciated these whimsical and unique hats that I had made.
Now on this cold, snowy day over 50 years later, I just
had to wear the only one left from all those hats made so long ago. A nice lady made a photo of me wearing it in
front of our library in Sedona.
I found that Alicia as a teenager modeled that same
hat when I had just made it, so here are both photos, of her then and me
now, and a close up.
I hope many ladies when they grow older could find
something to create out of different materials for their
grandchildren.
Imagine what fun that would be!
By the way I have now accumulated many beautiful hats,
some here in Sedona and others in Wellfleet.
In my Sedona apartment, a friend of ours,Wayne Grossman, made a lovely
wooden stand with pegs to hold my hats for all to admire. I have a whole
collection: western cowboy hats, a woven colorful hat from Poland, a
fun packable hat from a museum, each one stylish in a different way! Lucky
me!!!!!
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