An Explanation And Information

Something light today

This has been a fairly heavy week here on Emeth. I started the week with a response to ‘official’ complaints about the things I, and others, write here. Then we touched on chastity and Lodges that are passing into history. I did have one light hearted post this week, but the rest were heavy indeed. And, in just a few hours, we’ll be faced with the Presidential Debate, between two of the most wildly disliked Presidents ever.

It’s all just a bit too much seriousness for one week.

So today, I’m going casual. There’s nothing important or controversial in this post, but hopefully you find some fun in it.

Photo by Lyndse Ballew on Unsplash

Consider it a weird follow-up to:

Ordre du Chapeau Rouge

A couple of things prompted me to write that post.

First of all, we have a well known Concordant body making efforts to start its first chapter here in Washington. I think it is a good group that does a lot of good work, and I imagine that its members are glad to be such. I wish them success in their efforts to get established here.

But, I wonder how successful those efforts can be. There is not currently enough Time, Attention, and Money to keep all of our Craft Lodges open, let alone all of our various Appendant and Concordant bodies. I don’t see where this group thinks the Time, Attention, and Money will come from. We Washington Masons surely seem awful busy already.

The second reason I wrote the post though, is because I really do think that some Masons runnin’ around in oddball hats will be fun! I don’t think that we need more groups, but I do think we can use more silliness. Goofy things that we can do together. Inside jokes.

So yeah, I’m a wearin’ my Red Hat, and I hope that you will too!

But the Red Hat is also symbolic. And that is cool! The cap of Liberty. I mean, check that baby out on the Seal of the United States Senate:

And it’s nostalgic. I grew up with the men of my family all wearing these things, just like this fellow did:

Of course since I first wrote about the Ordre du Chapeau Rouge Brother Robert has pointed out to me that we need lapel pins to go with our hats. Luckily Brother Clayton came to the rescue with the idea of red painted bottle caps. Completely free! In keeping with our no dues or organization whatsoever ethos. And it seems that Brother Betto has appointed himself Grand Harlequin of our Mad Hatters group!

So, we are off to the races!

Now of course I posted about Madsen’s, the very best (and I think cheapest) place to buy such a fine Red Hat: 360-736-1336. (No, I don’t get anything from Madsen’s for recommending them, I just know that they maintain a really big stock of them at good prices.)

But, I understand that Madsen’s doesn’t do the online ordering thing, and most everyone wants to do the online ordering thing, so know that you can also buy one of these snazzy hats at:

H.N. Williams

and

Amazon

Now, when you receive your fine hat, know that it’s going to be all rolled up. That’s the point of the thing. But, you can give it nice, sharp, tight lines. You can make it into a nice looking, crisp hat.

And all it takes is a little steam:

I use a clothes steamer to great effect, but a tea kettle will work just as well.

Steam it into the shape you want, then let it cool and dry. It should hold its shape moving forward.

If it doesn’t hold the shape you want, for whatever reason, there is a really super secret fix:

Just spray some on to stiffen it up.

But don’t tell anyone. It’s a super Ordre du Chapeau Rouge secret!

Do remember when ordering your beautiful new Red Hat that it will shrink a touch. It’s made out of wool felt after all. So order it a tad large, and slide some folded up dollar bills under the sweatband as needed to tighten it up before it has a chance to shrink. That’s an old cowboy trick for ya!

Now, please don’t read any further unless you are into Esoterics, because the following touches upon the very esoteric side of our Brand Spankin New, Ancient and Honorable Order…

The Effanem Crusher Hat that one buys today has a cloth sweatband. It’s comfortable and does the job.

But, not so when I was a kid.

When I was a kid the Effanem Crusher Hat had this really weird sweatband made out of only God can know what. It was weird enough that I’ve not forgotten about it.

It looked like leather, but it felt just like cardboard. But it couldn’t have been cardboard because it didn’t degrade when wet. Eventually it would crack or tear. Just about the oddest material one could imagine. You can see it in the Wranglerstar video above, in his Grandfather’s hat. And VW Clayton had the Red Effanem Hat he wore hunting as a kid at Lodge the other day, and it, like the ones I remember has that weird not leather, not cardboard sweatband too.

The cloth is a huge improvement, but who knows, maybe someday I’ll figure out what that old material was.

Anywhoo, that’s it for today. Something light. Hopefully fun.

We’ll be back to the serious side of Masonry very soon. It’s good to take a bit of a break today though.

So…

Have you bought your Red Hat yet?

Do so, and you get to hang out with all the cool kids in the Ordre du Chapeau Rouge!

Ordre du Chapeau Rouge

---

As with the previous post on the subject of this ultimate Masonic Order, I am unable to create an audio file, as there’s no way I can pronounce the French. But, of course, we had to choose the French language for our name, cause you know, it makes everything sophisticated!