Forest City Courier, Oct. 9, 1941

That fall hat is here again. It ought to rate as much importance as the spring hat, since the job of making the round of the shops to select one is just as exhausting. When the first slightly cool day in August comes along, the longing for a new fall hat begins. Somehow, accessories do not count, even a new dress. We will be satisfied if we just get the hat. After trying on about seventeen different styles, we finally find the one of our dreams. After taking it home, we spend more than just a few minutes before the mirror, trying to decide if we should have bought the one with the green feather, instead of this one of fantastic shape and color. Quickly we put it away before doubt assails us. Comes the day when we wear it for the first time. Taking it out of the tissue paper wrappings, we put it on at what we consider a becoming angle. Stepping back from the mirror to get a long distance view, we are not sure that the turned up part goes more to the side or more to the front. Moved over an inch or so puts it almost squarely in the back. Sliding it over a little more and taking another look doesn’t satisfy us or help the looks of the thing either. Pretty soon we have made a complete revolution, and are right back where we started from. It doesn’t look at all like it did in the shop. Maybe we have it on upside down. These new hats can play tricks on you. Carefully we turn it over, feeling that we are trying to work out the problem alone. Suggestions from anyone else would only complicate matters. The reverse position looks as well as the original one. Leaving us hopelessly at sea as to the correct way to wear that hat, and if a hat can have a duel personality as this head piece is showing as symptoms of having one.

Without further ado we put on our last year’s standby without even looking in the mirror. It gives that feeling of comfort and confidence, without that paralyzing sensation of self-consciousness that accompanies the first wearing of a new hat. So here the curtain is rung down on this drama, we decide that by no chances are we going to be beaten by anything as little as a new fall hat, so, some day when we have more time and in the right mood, we look this little hat in the face again, an decide once and for all the whys and wherefores of all millinery, including fall hats.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier.