Easter Bonnets Anyone?

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it

You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade



Women had a hat hair back when my brother was a baby.

Perhaps women would have an Easter permanent wave. Perhaps they would go to Ruth’s Beauty Shop. Ruth had a special: you could have your hair specially treated with oil for dry hair, for those of you who had extremely fine hair you could have a tight, lasting curl. And then there was another one for oily hair. Any type solution to suit your own special needs the ad read, for the sum of $3.00. You could have just the end of your hair permed for $2.00. Phone 105, or write to Ruth’s Beauty Shop for an appointment. What do you think is ad meant when it’s said the shop was always open at any time?

What is your take on Easter bonnets? Do you remember your mother wearing hats? How about your grandmother's? Sift through your mental pictures and watch how the styles changed or, in the case of the sixties, disappeared.

We know that men didn't buy an Easter bonnet but they certainly wore hats. Old Trunks is sitting here with her hands in her lap, thinking about the hats my grandfather and my dad wore and how right both of them looked in a chapeau, a Stetson, a fedora, or a straw hat. They wore all of them over the years.

The mystery hat story began in the early fifties. Mother had gone to see her birth mother in the town of Downer, MN. I was my grand daughter's age and didn't know where Downer was; when I was there, it was just a long drive for an energetic, "HOW FAR IS IT, ARE WE THERE YET, I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM" sort of kid. But I didn't go this time.

When mother came home from her trip, she had several hats with her, one was a coral tam with a royal blue tassel and the other looked like a Robin Hood hat with a pheasant feather. There were six, these are the only two I remember. She told me she bought them in Downer.

Nearly fifty years had passed before I figured out where those hats really came from. One Sunday afternoon, Tom and I went for a ride. He wanted to show me where he had hunted water fowl. We drove through Downer; it is a dot in the road! But Downer is just 20+ miles from Fargo! She had bought the hats in Fargo during an era of time when the downtown area had upscale shops.

Just in out of the memories of my mind: It was the late fifties. Anita and I LOVED to go to S&L after confirmation class and try on hats! We had so much fun and when the clerk approached us, we would leave! Any one else try on hats at S&L?

Another hat story was in the early 60's. Mother insisted I wear a hat for my wedding. INSISTED. It would crush my hair which had 16 cans of hair spray on it, 49 bobby pins, and a new perm. No way I was going to wear a hat. BUT!!! Mother didn't loose. When the pictures were tinted, she had the photographer paint in a hat!

And it came to pass that the 'hat renegade' moved to Fargo and promised to love, honor, and wear a life jacket and a hat in the boat. A promise is a promise. You know from reading this blog that I am superstitious about some things. One of them is what I wear to fish, including the head covering. When my baseball cap with the bass on it was beyond wear, I switched to a broad brim and put good luck charms all over it! It is like I need a lady bug, a shamrock, a loon, and a hummingbird to catch that flippin' bass--OH YEAH!

Grandma can have her hat with the veil; mother can have her tassel and feathers but I get my lucky charms. That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Happy First Day of Spring!

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