Jerk Hat

The other day I was listening to Matt Galloway on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning (Metro Morning). Matt and Jill Dempsey were talking about what they were going to do in the hot weather that day.  Matt said he was going to do some gardening while wearing his ‘jerk hat’.  He went on to explain that one day while walking down the street wearing a hat he had purchased for $1 while on vacation somewhere, a guy drove by and yelled out his car window at Matt,  “nice hat, jerk”.  From that day onwards Matt referred to it as his ‘jerk hat’ and proudly continues to wear it because he likes it. 

I loved the sense of self confidence apparent in that reaction.  How many of us would have been personally offended?   How many of us would have been angry at the stranger feeling the need to comment on our attire?  How many of us would have never worn that hat again?  Many, I’d venture to say.  But Matt simply laughed and turned the story around to his advantage.  A great personal anecdote.

I was at my grand-daughters' birthday party recently and one of the girls tried on a new dress she’d received. She loved it and she looked nice in it but one of the little boys at the party told her it was ugly.  Tarnished her view of that dress; I wonder if she’ll ever look at it the same again.   And it’s certainly not just kids who are affected by the comments of other.  Several years ago my husband bought himself a pair of slacks with a multi-coloured plaid type pattern.  They looked really good on him but after his best friend said “hey, nice clown pants” they never got worn again.  As we age some of us gather more confidence and are less concerned about other people’s open.  Sometimes a bit too much !  My dad, at age 95, would occasionally put his track pants on inside out.  I’d go to visit and there he’d be with the pockets of his pants flapping around looking like little wings.  ‘Dad’, I’d say, ‘you’ve got your pants on inside out’.  He’d look down and then look at me and say ‘it isn’t the first time doll and it likely won’t be the last’ and then we’d both laugh.  I work with a woman who has a suit that is really quite dated.  Once when she wore it someone told her it was an ugly suit and she looked like Hillary Clinton (from Bill's first term!).  She laughed and continues to wear it to this day.  She likes it and that’s all that matters. 

Recently someone was showing me the new sandals she’d purchased.  Nice I told her.  Yes, she agreed and went on to say that she’d bought two pairs because she liked them so much.  She bought one pair in the colour she had on – red.  And another pair that was white.  They had them in black as well she told me but “who on earth wears black sandals in summer?”.  Of course as we were looking down at her new shoes my feet, shod in their black sandals, were right beside her!  I just laughed. 

So Matt has his ”jerk hat” and I’ve got my “who on earth sandals”.   I hope that my grand-daughter has her “ugly dress”.