When I was sporting one in my forties I used to take it off the shelf around the fifteenth of May, dust it off and parade up Chestnut Street past Independence Hall for a business lunch. There were horses and carriages usually parked there and I had to be careful passing them as they found straw appetizing. Having the nerve to wear such a throwback headpiece came with certain risks. One summer day I made a sales call on The Hershey Company. You could smell that company town five miles away. In the lobby all the leather chairs were chocolate brown with portraits of the founders on the brown walls. The receptionist had a jar of Hershey kisses on her credenza and I parked my straw hat next to it as I was ushered upstairs to consummate business. When I returned to the lobby and put on my hat there was a cascade of kiss wrappers descending over my ears. Someone with a sweet tooth had used it as a trash receptacle. Very embarrassing but a true story - I don't do fiction.
tjs
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