This weekend L and I took her mother out to celebrate her 80th birthday at the steakhouse. One of the topics of discussion that came up was “When did it become acceptable for people to wear hats indoors?” There is nothing that says “lack of respect” like the idiots that wear their hat indoors at restaurants, sporting events, even funerals. It has reached the point that one often has to request that people remove their hats for any event.

As we looked around the restaurant, it seemed that at least half the males were wearing their dirty, sweat stained, baseball hats. (Although this being a rural area, many of the hats had farm and seed company logos rather than a baseball team.) And it struck me that sometime in the last 30 years it has become socially acceptable to for people to wear their hats in all manner of inappropriate places. I have been to funerals where those same people have had to be reminded to remove their hats in the church. Likewise for the national anthem, religious services, oaths of office, etc.

Even when the hat idiots are reminded to remove their hats, the result is often a blank stare of complete incomprehension. Somewhere through the years, the idea that wearing a hat indoors was disrespectful to the others present and to ones self has disappeared from our culture. So when did it go and why?