Tar Heels on Tour By Wally Avett

Tar Heels on Tour

By Wally Avett

Hat Tricks……Palm hat has distinctive ‘Gus crease’ but is surprisingly heavy. NC cap attracts Tar Heels far from home.

             

How to Buy a Western Hat in Colorado

There we were -- on the main drag in a little town in western Colorado -- looking for a new summer-weight cowboy hat. Didn’t want any more wool felt -- got enough of them -- too hot for warm weather. I was set on a straw hat made of palm leaf fibers, lots of them on the Internet. Most appear to be reasonable in price, too, which was important. I had wandered into a custom hat shop in another town and staggered out in shock after I saw $400 price tags.

The trip had nothing to do with hats. We have relatives living in California and I had read a book about Kit Carson titled Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides, great modern-day historian.

So naturally we had to go to Taos, New Mexico on the way to California. Visited Carson’s house, visited the local Indian pueblo, drove on into Arizona and went to Canyon de Chelly.

Also met and talked with a few Navajos along the way; bought their jewelry. Had lunch at Window Rock and wandered into Southern California where you can buy fresh macadamia nuts at roadside farmers markets.

Big Trees & Flying Money

Had a nice visit with relatives in Sacramento, then off to redwood country to see the big trees. Then on north into Oregon, where the wind blows hard all the time, like it does at a lot of places in the West.

On a lonesome backwoods two-lane blacktop we saw almost no car traffic. Where a rough trail joined our road, we saw a white man on a four-wheeler, waiting for us to pass. His face was raw, burned red from the wind, like leather.

In a low gap in the sagebrush hills, we stopped the rental car, nobody in sight. Deanie got out on her side to get something from a suitcase and I got out on mine, reaching into my shrinking stash for another $100 bill.

As I transferred the money to my open billfold, suddenly the wind snatched it away and blew it across the roof of the car. I was horrified.

“Get that money,” I shouted. “Before it gets away.”

She ran a few steps and stomped on the fluttering bill. Boy, I was happy. Saved me from calling out the local rescue squad.

North Carolina Home Boy

When we travel I always wear a Carolina blue baseball cap with a big NC on the front. It identifies me and it draws other NC folks, who often come up and talk. Example:

Deadwood, South Dakota -- On a Western trip we saw Mt. Rushmore and then went to Deadwood to visit the grave of gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok. The cemetery has a box office, $1 per visitor. Lady said, “Where are you from?” I told her and she started laughing. She is from Sylva, married to a local.

So in Colorado one fine May morning, we walked into what appeared to be a men’s clothing store. Manager spied the cap quickly -- Carolina had fallen recently in the March Madness. “Your team didn’t do too good, did they?” he said. I admitted the Heels had fallen. We talked and I told him what I wanted. Surprisingly, he referred me to an old family clothing store up the street.

So we walked into Davis Clothing in Delta, Colorado, for a great experience. Old store, cowboy clothing, boots and hats. Floors creaked, been there a long time.

In Business Since 1907　

Yes, he had palm cowboy hats, lots of them. I picked one out but it didn’t have the shape I wanted. No problem.

“I want the crease in front, like the Robert Duvall character in Lonesome Dove,” I told him.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “They call it the ‘Gus crease.’ I can do it. You and your wife walk down the street and come back and I’ll have it.”

He was reaching for some sort of a steam-iron rig like you see in a dry-cleaning place when we left. I guessed the steam would help in re-forming the crown of the hat.

It was perfect, just what I wanted. $25 for the hat, no charge for the crease and $3 for a special Stetson box to get it home safely.

His grandfather had started the store in 1907, he said, and he was still using the same cash register. We wanted to examine it. Remember no electricity, no digital, no chip. It was all metal, glass and polished wood. Pure mechanical, spring-loaded, hidden triggers and hammers struck hidden bells and opened the drawers. It sat on top of its own special oak cabinet, with five cash drawers below. Each drawer had its own special bell-sound, he said, so the old man could stand quietly in the rear of his emporium and know immediately which one of his clerks had done a transaction in the clerk’s own assigned drawer. The owner could then judge which clerk was doing the most business, which the least and which to keep. Clever.

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com

Published by BelleBooks www.bellebooks.com

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