Losing hats

In-depth discussion of the Fedora of Indiana Jones and all other hats appearing in the Indiana Jones movies

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How many times have you ever walked away from your hat and forgotten about it?

Never
71
72%
Once, but I got it back
13
13%
Several times, but I always get it back
9
9%
Once, and I never saw it again
5
5%
Man, I need to stop losing hats!
0
No votes
Several times, but I only get it back sometimes
1
1%
 
Total votes: 99

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Mark Brody
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Losing hats

Post by Mark Brody »

It seems this happens pretty often around here. You take off your hat for a moment, walk away, and forget about it. Sometimes we remember as we step out the door, sometimes we'll get all the way home but still manage to get it back, sometimes we're not so lucky. I do this all the time at my friend's house. I leave the house and shut their front door. When I realize there should be something on my head, I burst back in, shout "Forgot my hat!" and leave just as quickly, shutting the door, just like Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life". Fortunately, I've never been unable to retrieve a hat. I even left my hat in a restaurant one night, and didn't realize it until the next day. They had kept in in the manager's office in case I called.

So how often does this happen to you?
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Post by lingarn »

So far, never.

My fedora is something I think too much about when I wear it out and about; if at all possible, I keep it sitting next to me or on the table so that it doesn't have the chance to be stolen or damaged.

Maybe a couple of years down the line, I'll be more cavalier about the whole thing; I'm pretty forgetful otherwise.
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Post by Nicolas Jones »

I have already post about that, but whatever, I am going to write it again:

I put a label on the sweatband saying something like:
"This hat belongs to Nicolas G..., please contact me REWARD phone number + email"

I take care of my hat, but if one day I lost it, someone will be kind enough to contact me and bring it me back. I don't care if it cost me a 20€ note, since I LOVE that hat....


Regards,

Niolas
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Post by hocfutue »

I use a trick my Dad taught me. When you take off your hat at a restaurant or something, drop your cay keys inside it. Can't drive away without your hat that way.
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Post by Strider »

The once I can remember is when I left my hat in a KFC, and didn't remember it until I got to an slushy cone stand about 10 minutes later. Thank God the employees of the store noticed and saved it for me until I got back, which I promptly called them to save.
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Mark Brody
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Post by Mark Brody »

hocfutue wrote:I use a trick my Dad taught me. When you take off your hat at a restaurant or something, drop your cay keys inside it. Can't drive away without your hat that way.
I'll have to remember that.
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Post by BoilermakerJones »

I lost my first very cheap wool fedora years ago when I forgot about it. The problem was I made several stops and by the time I had retraced my steps, it wasn't there.

I have never done that again, which is pretty good as I do tend toward the absent minded end of the spectrum. I have always remembered in time to retrieve them since I had to replace that first one.

I may need to get one of those little retractable key cords once I get my AB! :-k

Matt
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Post by Indy35 »

Mark Brody wrote:
hocfutue wrote:I use a trick my Dad taught me. When you take off your hat at a restaurant or something, drop your cay keys inside it. Can't drive away without your hat that way.
I'll have to remember that.
Thats funny my pops told me to do the same thing, i put my phone in there too sometimes. Im very careful about putting anything down and leaving it alone nowadays, even for a second.
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Post by whipitgood »

I've only lost a hat once and it wasn't my fedora. The hat belonged to my father and I had placed it on top of my car while pumping gas. Don't ask how I didn't notice it when I got back in my car, but it must have fallen off at some point during the drive. I still kick myself in the pants for that one. Maybe I'll get a chin strap like Stymie from The Little Rascals and never have that problem again :lol:
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Post by MustangLoverMex »

What I do before I leave a room it's to double check my stuff... Keys, watch, wallet and of course my hat haha.
I used to loose lots of pens, that's why now I double check ;-)

-Alfonso :)
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Post by Michaelson »

In the 37+ years I've worn fedoras, I've never walked off and forgotten one. Ever.

Regard! Michaelson
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Post by Weston »

Never! I'd sooner walk away from my own head!

Weston
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Post by Luke Warmwater »

Michaelson wrote:In the 37+ years I've worn fedoras, I've never walked off and forgotten one. Ever.
Regard! Michaelson
Of course not, because you know things.
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Post by BazzanoJones »

Never! All my hats are like sons for me! :lol:
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Post by enigmata_wood »

Once only, it was stolen from the hat rack of a train, before my stop. :x [a Thugee curse upon him].
But I learned a little tip from my grandad about how to never forget a hat:
If you take it off for a lady, put it straight back on again, you have fulfilled protocol.
Only take it off indoors when you are sitting down; rest it over your knee, you can't stand up and not notice it.
If you have to put it on a coat or hat rack, always put it over your coat or some other item you will not forget, or someone else's who will be leaving with you.

I often wear mine cycling so I have a light chinstrap, it's not there to keep the hat on, just to stop it escaping the rare times it comes off in the wind.
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Post by Mark Brody »

You mean, you don't staple it on? That's the SA was to do it. ;-)
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Post by enigmata_wood »

Mark Brody wrote:You mean, you don't staple it on? That's the SA was to do it. ;-)
The problem with that is getting hold of the special painless invisible Hollywood staples
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Post by Belegnole »

I didn't walk away so much as the river took it away from me. Lost my first Indy style hat to a white water trip in.....err 1985 I think I was. I could ride my bike(interceptor) around town and not loose it. But, getting it back from the river only works so many times.....
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Post by Travelsonic »

raveling to Long Beach once, I left a hat of mine that was placed for the flight in the overhead bin (non-indy, given to me by my uncle, I like it) on the aircraft. Went through #### just to get it back before the plane continued to SFO.
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Post by enigmata_wood »

hocfutue wrote:I use a trick my Dad taught me. When you take off your hat at a restaurant or something, drop your cay keys inside it. Can't drive away without your hat that way.
It's a good tip but in my neigbourhood the hat would be left alone as it's not a product endorsed baseball cap - but the keys, and then the car, would go missing while I was eating.
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Post by IndyFalco »

That HAT is with me at ALL TIMES.
If I ever take it off, it's on my lap or placed infront of me.
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Post by indy89 »

Never have I forgotten my hat. I keep it on my head while I eat (that's permitted in Texas ;-) ), on trains, airplanes, cars, etc...
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Post by IndyGeek78 »

I thought you were all Indy fans. Why are you taking your hat anyway. Does Indy ever take it off? Only when desperate measures are needed.
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Post by Indiana MarkVII »

I haven't lost an Indy hat, but I had my first Indy hat, a Todd's HJ, stolen from my vehicle. The scummy thieves smashed a side window and took the hat and my backpack that had my MOTB brown rolled collar cardigan inside, probably thinking they were getting a laptop. I was going for a photo shoot with one of my instruments, but that got put on hold. I have left it at my previous work place overnight, sometimes when I worked late and didn't need a hat for sun protection. But it was always there for me the next morning.
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Post by Don't Call Me Junior! »

IndyGeek78 wrote:I thought you were all Indy fans. Why are you taking your hat anyway. Does Indy ever take it off? Only when desperate measures are needed.
For most it would be an etiquette thing. I usually take mine off when walking indoors unless I'm walking right back out or am maybe just hanging out at home and if I did have it on indoors for any reason I NEVER wear it at the dinner table. I never wear it indoors when I am a guest in someone's house.
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Post by Ken »

The things I will do NOT to lose a hat - run half way across the desert, jump off a speeding landrover, swim across a river... no wait, actually someone else swam across the river to get it that time - ah the executive power of movie producing :P

Seriously though, if I have my hat with me, its pretty impossible to forget.

Ken
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Post by Renderking Fisk »

Here's what you do...

You go to "SpaceAgeStuff-R-Us" [Don't worry, they're everywhere and nowhere all at once, so they're impossibly easy to not find] and you ask for "Schroedinger's Quantum Magnets." The clerk will know exactly what you're not talking about. There are plenty of knock-off, so be to get the name brand, has a picture of a Cat on the box.

The way the quantum magnets work is that when you get to far away from any item that has one half of the magnet, say 5 meters, that object with the one half of the magnet will instantly snap to where the second magnet is. Almost like magic.

Have one put between the liner and the sweat band of your fedora, and the ohter one inside your skull. There are hardly any side-effects.... well, hardly any.
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Post by Belegnole »

IndyGeek78 wrote:I thought you were all Indy fans. Why are you taking your hatoff anyway. Does Indy ever take it off? Only when desperate measures are needed.
Even with what a hat does to my hair I take mine off when etiquette dictates. Of course when I lost mine I didn't take it off the class 2 rapids did...lol
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Post by enigmata_wood »

Often, when I'm in a public building, say a bank or post office, there are notices forbidding the wearing of headgear that hides your face from the CCTV (or is it just in case you are a thief who wants to be identified by a really distinctive hat!).
I just hang the hat down my back on its chinstrap, if you get the strap under the lapels of your shirt or jacket you don't throttle yourself.
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Post by Band Director Jones »

I lost a Borsalino once when I moved. I wasn't wearing it though. It was in it's hat box and I think we just forgot to load it on the truck (along with a few other boxes). But, I've never walked off and forgotten a hat I was wearing at the time.
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Post by wannabe »

When I was in Italy this past summer I had taken a midnight train from Florence to Umbria and I arrived at 2am. I was quite groggy and was eager to get off the train (I had a really bad day with trains that day). I had left the station and was hailing a cab and he said he would be back in 15 min. So I started to wait and I realized "no hat". Panicked I sprinted over the rail lines and hurried to find my cabin and realized I left my Keppler on the overhead storage area.
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Post by BOINKFFD »

hocfutue wrote:I use a trick my Dad taught me. When you take off your hat at a restaurant or something, drop your cay keys inside it. Can't drive away without your hat that way.
I do the same. I used to always forget my ball caps.
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Post by Kim Hoffman »

Hats will eventually become part of the individual. You'll reach a point where you'll feel naked and/or alone without one. In Crystal Skull Indy was introduced first by his hat. The hat said it all. And that's what happens to those individuals who sport and depend upon hats.

And it goes beyond baseball caps or promotional hats or bike helmets. We're talking about real -------ing hats. Tom Mix, William S. Heart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, James Cagney, Indiana Jones, just to name a few well known hat-men, in baseball caps wouldn't be the legends they are today.

Every true man needs at least one period cowboy hat, at least one period fedora, at least one period Panama. Sure some poets or resistance fighters can get away with the beret; some Jungle Jim oriented men can wear the safari hat or pith helmet...

But if you're going outside on a mission, even if it's just to work, and you're wearing your leather jacket, or trenchcoat, and your Aldens, and carrying your weapon of choice, be it a 1911A1 or Webley or Colt Police Special, then you absolutely need a hat big enough to get you past the bouncer...and that's a fact!
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Post by WConly »

I think I have posted this thread a long time back, but here we go again. Back in the 80's, my former wife and I were at a formal (kind of) affair for the company I worked for. I wore my brown Stetson 'Indy' to the event and checked it in with the 'check-in people.' Well, after the new year had rolled in, we got ready to leave and upon getting our coats, etc. -- you got it -- no hat. The lady there said well a young man came by and said it was 'his!' I came un-glued and told the management that they owed me another hat, but they responded that by 'checking it in, it was my own risk!' You all can imagine how I was at this point. I was storming out of the office at this hotel and heard the elevator ring and open and low and behold there were five college age kids with the biggest wearing my hat! I grabed him pushed him against a wall and told him off! He was much bigger then me, but he did not have the adrenilan (sp?) rush I had at the time. The good news is, I got the hat back and I would venture to say that he never attempted to do this again. So, in answer to this post, no I have never forgotten one, but I have had to look for one! Take care and take care of those wonderful hats! W>
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Post by Darth Indiana »

Renderking Fisk wrote:Here's what you do...

You go to "SpaceAgeStuff-R-Us" [Don't worry, they're everywhere and nowhere all at once, so they're impossibly easy to not find] and you ask for "Schroedinger's Quantum Magnets." The clerk will know exactly what you're not talking about. There are plenty of knock-off, so be to get the name brand, has a picture of a Cat on the box.
>>"SpaceAgeStuff-R-Us"

Google has failed me; link please?
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Post by Michaelson »

Anubis'Scales wrote: ... And D. Jones, who is sitting next to me comments:
"That man would forget his daughters before he forgot his hat."
Who? Me? :[

And WHO was it that gave me 'what for' while I was standing in a Vegas casino a couple years ago, holding my hat in hand, patiently waiting for said daughter and wife to come out of the 'powder room', for NOT wearing my hat so she could find me in the crowd? [-( Hummm? :lol:

Regard! Michaelson
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Post by theinterchange »

now, I've forgotten to put on my hat as I'm going out the door before, but never forgot it while out.

Randy
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Post by Wolfwood »

I've never lost my hat that way, but I did leave it at my friend's place just a week ago when I was house sitting. I left it the same way I sometimes leave our own home without a hat. Only noticed some time later and went back to pick it up when my friend got back home. Felt lonely in the meanwhile...
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