The Decline of the Hat as an Indicator of Adulthood

I have a hat that I wear. Constantly. It's a Greek Fisherman's cap. And, because it's not black, it's very distinctively mine.

Yes, I do have a black one.  I also have a blue one, a brown one, and the grey one that gets the most use.

To me, we have really lost something over the last few decades as hats have declined.

If you can find it, take a look at street scenes or candid photos from the 1950's and earlier. You'll find that most adults - men and women alike - wore hats of some sort while outside. Children (especially boys) wore caps. It's as if, once you hit eighteen, you set aside the cap and got a grownup hat. Very few caps (such as mine) qualify as grownup hats.

If you looked at people on the street, you saw fedoras and porkpies and bowlers and cowboy hats and  homburgs and ...

Wikipedia has an excellent list.

To a small child, roles are still tied up in hats - if you wear a fireman's helmet, it doesn't matter what else you're wearing: You're a Fireman.  If you are wearing a hard hat, you're a construction worker (or a builder).

Somewhere along the way, however, we've misplaced the grown-up hats. People my age wear baseball caps. Constantly. It's like they're holding on to their childhood.

When did this all change? And why?

I'm not the only person who feels like this, by the way.

Poking around the internet, it appears as though the rise of the automobile is responsible for the decline of the hat - we're walking less, and are thus spending less time outside. With less time spent outside, protection from the elements becomes less important.

There is a line of thought that the new pedestrian-friendly community development concepts may bring hats back from the dead - I sure hope so.

Because I dislike the current state of things.