Straw Hat Season

--Wear your straw hat at the wrong time of the year and a man took the risk of having his "Panama" knocked off his head and the hat stomped on! ...Such was the quirky custom about the country during the 1920s regarding the strict rule of just when a man could don his straw hat. The official opening date of straw hat season was May 15th, and it extended through the summer to September 15th [the season had been "Decoration" (Memorial) Day to Labor Day, but in 1923 the hat manufacturing association had the season elongated by two weeks--earlier and longer.

The "Beacon Journal" newspaper reported in early May of 1926 that some straw hats "were conspicuous on the streets, but most of them were worn by autoists, for there is a fear that the hat will be smashed if worn in the street." According to the book, "Hatless Jack," in New York City in 1922, thousands of straw hats worn before the customary opening date were knocked off and stamped on by roving gangs.

The wearing of straw hats, and the manufacturing of same, was a most important topic come every spring in Beacon. In the 1920s, straw hat-making was our city's leading industry, with six separate hat firms producing straw hats. In May of 1926, Beacon's newest hat manufacturer, the Genuine Panama Hat Works, opened its factory on Jones Street (now Verplanck Avenue), and quickly began making Panamas to make up for lost time in the short four-month season. And the local newspaper warning still applied: "Woe unto the man who attempts to advance the season, for his friends are sure to take no mercy on the lid."