Chapter 25: A Hat Makes the Man

My dad belted out these lyrics whenever he was happy or wanted to be happy: “I had a hat when I came in / and I’ll have a hat when I go out.” He didn’t remember the song’s origins, but that didn’t stop him from repeating those two lines.

Actually, the lyrics derive from a traditional Irish folk melody that describes a dubious character named Casey who loses his hat to a thief in a pub he frequents. Casey ends up causing a brawl trying to retrieve his cap while singing those lines. The chorus lingers over Casey’s refusal to leave the establishment without his hat.

Dan Dailey and the Andrew Sisters popularized the song in a vinyl recording—the exact year is in dispute—but that’s the recording my dad first heard. My dad always wore hats and, the older he became, the more eccentric, donning caps with distinctive labels. I bought him several. One time, I even got him to wear one of my Weber caps.

He came to prefer the driver style cap, with the stiff brim and flat top. Like him, I love hats, though I don’t sing about them. Unlike my dad’s full head of hair expressed in a crew cut, I suffer from what advertisers used to call “men’s patterned baldness.” Embracing patchy hair that’s turned snowy, I sport a good hat, choosing Weber branded hats that keep my association with grilling.

Weber-branded hats are scarce, though. They were even rarer when I began collecting them after purchasing my first Weber grill in the late 1990s. For several years, I only had two hats in my collection: a blue and a black cap with the same Weber lettered logo, absent the outlined rectangle. Yet, I knew other Weber hats existed, because I saw them in photographs, particularly those taken in European countries. Just as there are slight regional differences in grills and accessories across countries, fan hats differ and even proliferate outside the US. Even though most countries have their own online Weber store, they sell only to domestic customers.

Collecting hats isn’t so unusual. I know collectors who gather logo baseball caps from their favored MLB teams. Americans are just collectors of miscellany. My wife’s friend has an extensive doll collection that occupies all the corners and shelves in her home. When asked how she accumulated so many, she says doesn’t really know, only that her collection started unintentionally before suddenly multiplying. I found the same pattern in collecting Weber hats. In the early 2000s, Weber offered white T-shirts on their online store at $1 per shirt, which quickly exhausted the supply, and which was followed by an Antigua polo shirt and one black baseball cap with red piping around the rim. When that stock extinguished several years later, Weber never replenished them, nor offered anything new. Clearly, Weber fangear didn’t sell in the US. Yet, a small market existed among avid collectors. Fans could find a crop of unlicensed apparel in the US eBay market with the Weber logo screen printed on t-shirts. Yep, those were lean times for collectors.

After a few years, Weber merch slowly began appearing online. Some discontinued employee items from the internal “Parts Store” dribbled into the eBay and Poshmark marketplace too. The Weber site for German, which always had the most extensive set of apparel, expanded what it offered to a sweater, a baseball jacket, a polo, two hats, and baby onesies!

The hats I've picked up came through a few single sales on eBay or internationally through friends in those countries or as special gifts. A few of my hats have some stories behind them. I’m pointing out a few of the unusual ones.

This first cap features the rectangular Weber kettle logo spread across the two front panels of the crown. It’s an unstructured cap, meaning no backing behind the panels, and it fits along the circumference of the head. A subtle cap with a black-on-black logo, the hat has visor stitches, again in black. This hat was produced in the late 20th century, and I’ve never seen another one. It was gifted to me from a Weber sales representative.

There are winter hats too, like a recent Weber beanie that boasts a thin Weber label at its front. This knit cap, composed of different shades of reflective material, is extremely warm and was sold exclusively in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands at the independently owned Weber Original Stores, some of whom have online stores. For some items, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands have their own set.

This Weber “hunting cap” came from the US. Buried inside the brim are two small flashlights powered by AA cells that create floodlights in dark environments. I have been unable to discover its origin and have never seen another. The merchandise tag shows it was manufactured for Weber by Realtree, a hunting and fishing retailer.

Gifted to me from then Weber chef Jamie Purviance, this Weber baseball cap was a promotional item available in the western US for Memorial Day, but only for one year, although I don’t know which year. An unstructured cap, the strap is fully adjustable and lightweight. The American flag takes on the shape of the kettle.

This balaclava is from the outdoor outfitter Carhartt of Dearborn, MI. Known as a workwear brand, Carhartt always has its logo at the most prominent positions , even on apparel branded with other logos.

Commemorating the introduction of Weber’s new pellet grill, this hat originates from 2020. I know of no other hats ushering in new product lines for the Q, Pulse, or Slate.

This discontinued design was a favorite in Germany and Austria, a Snapback cap with a pre-curved bill, and was retired after stock was depleted in 2018. The embroidered red kettle in front is striking. It was followed in 2019 with a lighter fabric version. The crown is all fabric and thicker. Also distinctive to this hat is a rubberized Weber label on back, just below the eyelets. The former Weber jackets from Germany and Austria also feature that logo patch.

Some winter Weber knit hats from America never made it to the general public, but they would occasionally show up on eBay and other sites. They were a favorite among crew members shooting Weber television commercials in the wintertime. I first saw them in behind-the scenes shots. I also received two as gifts.

This Weber unisex knit cap with its distinctive black cabling and red pom-pom, now discontinued, is a tight fit but extremely warm. It’s a German design and knitted there; it sold in Austria too, and features a thin Weber branded cloth label in front. The knit cabling on the cap is very thick.

This baseball cap from Germany and Austria has distinctive red stitching in the crown and red in the top button. The embroidery is intricate.

Some regional innovations include this Weber snapback hat with a flat bill that was released in Australia and New Zealand in 2017 when Weber was a sponsor of Meatstock, a grilling and music festival there. Two other caps in the “Since 1952” style accompanied it.

“I Had A Hat When I Came In” buys into the larger “clothes makes the man,” which, of course, is attributed to Mark Twain. (Almost all clever quotations are attributable to Twain, but try to find them in his writing!) But the sentiment is in earlier places. In Hamlet, Polonius declares “[t]he apparel oft proclaims the man” (1.3) and before him, Erasmus, Quintilian, and Homer parallel dress and authority. In short, the hatless have nothing to sing about; a person’s appearance can even create a character.   

I remember taking a photograph of my dad with a beautiful female actor, who played a nurse during an elaborate WWII reenactment. My father had served in the Pacific during that war. In the photograph, the nurse smiles broadly, her face partially obscured by sunglasses and the long shadow on her face aided by the tall bonnet. The brim of dad’s Weber blue cap cast a shadow across his face from the scorching sun of that early June day.

After snapping the picture, I thought, are they both playing roles? I expected the nurse to be in character, but who was he? When my mom was alive, he lived in her shadow. I think I got a glimpse of my dad, just in that moment, when he was not acting.

Ever since his death a few years ago, I hold a sadness that never goes away. When I prepare the next fire for cooking, I realize my dad never knew the thrill of the smoke drifting slowly across food. He never experienced that fire-and-thou feeling, those intense moments stoking the fire for family and friends. He was always sitting back, letting others take control.

That photograph now sits on an end table within our living room. He wore that Weber cap for just one day. For some odd reason, he didn’t take a hat to the event and then was sorry when the temperatures soared. I had loaned him mine.

Dad attached a different meaning to the line “a hat when I go out.” He thought it meant that the singer would be wearing a hat when he passed away. When my dad “went out,” my wife and I were there by his bedside. Casey wasn’t there. The Andrew Sisters were not singing the chorus. Instead, I heard his last gasp. It wasn’t labored nor strained. In his final moments, I felt the sensation of a flame flickering down and out. It was as effortless as inevitable. He was not wearing a hat.