I used to wear baseball caps on occasion. And then I went through a long phase where I thought, "I'm a grownass man! I can't be wearing baseball caps around like some kid!" During this phase, my cheeks got sunburned a lot. (even with the spf 2 million glop that I slathered on my face!) And then my friend had some precancerous stuff on his nose and cheeks burned off with some nasty chemical and it was apparently quite painful and it looked rather alarming for a few weeks. So now I'm wearing baseball hats in the sun a lot.
But my old Sox hat shrunk so badly that wearing it is like putting my head in a vise. So I bought a new Sox hat. In line to buy my Sox hat, I was behind four guys, each of whom were buying several hats in several colors, presumably to match different outfits. (There's really a shocking variety of hats available. You're no longer constrained by team colors. You can get a hat with your team logo on it in any color and a number of other designs. When I was at the store, they were pushing the hats with a plaid panel.)
When I wore my hat to walk the dog, one of the other people I walk dogs with said, "that hat looks too new! You need to take it off and stomp on it in the dirt or something!" She kindly offered to perform this service for me, but I declined.
I know that the city is a crossroads of culture and stuff, which is one of the reasons I like living here. But I was really struck by how the same object can have such different meanings, sometimes to people who live next door to each other. (Or, for that matter, in the same house). For the people in the park, who are mostly white, the Sox hat needs to be weatherbeaten and possibly a little frayed to show that you've been with the team through their ups and downs. The older and more beaten up your hat is, the cooler it is. (This is why they now sell pre-frayed hats. No, seriously.) Also, you wear the team colors no matter what the rest of your outfit looks like.
Whereas for many other people who use the park and live near the park, most of whom are not white (but some are--my son is definitely in this category), you simply would not wear a hat that gets dirty or frayed. Once the hat stops looking just-purchased, you stop wearing it. The brim needs to stay perfectly flat and should preferably have the New Era sticker on the bottom, and the color needs to match the rest of your outfit.
As for me, I'm just trying to keep the sun off my cheeks.
