Bonnets on or off?

[Woot22]

. One additional point to make with regards to restaurants, however, is that when you remove your hat/vbonnet, under no circumstances should it go on the table where food will be served---drink maybe, but not food.
j

When I was in the Army they used to warn us that if we put our head gear on the bar while at the on post club, it was a signal to everyone in the club we were buying rounds for everyone there. I made sure never to make that mistake.

[Tobus]

I agree with Jim on this one, although on rare occasions I have been known to breech it myself (golf course lunch rooms, the occasional really bad hair day, after a long bike ride when I am extremely sweaty and have helmet hair, etc..).

Same here. In fact, the only time I really wear a hat is when I've been working outdoors, getting sweaty, or in extreme cold. So if I go indoors and take off my hat, my hair is going to look extremely mussed, sweaty, greasy, or (in the wintertime) standing up on end from the static electricity that abounds from the dry cold weather. Nobody wants to see that. It's gross.

So there are certain instances where I think it's more decent to leave one's hat on. Rules of etiquette sometimes have to take a back seat to common courtesy.

[JSFMACLJR]

So there are certain instances where I think it's more decent to leave one's hat on. Rules of etiquette sometimes have to take a back seat to common courtesy.

That's gross. If you wash your hair, it will be clean. If you remove your hat and your hair is messed up, well comb or brush it! Duh.

If you come inside your house and your hair is so foul that you have to wear a hat, then go take a shower, immediately.

"Common courtesy" here is a cop-out to good personal hygene

.

This whole business is silly, guys.

[Chas]

May I say this in a totally non-judgemental way, because I know that on occasion I too have been guilty.

If we make exceptions to a rule for good reasons, it does not take much for us to make exceptions for poor reasons. Before you know it, we are making exceptions for bad reasons and then Lo and Behold, the exception becomes the rule.

Some times we all have to draw a personal line in the sand and say 'thus far and no farther'.

Regards

Chas

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I find it interesting that a number of responses have made excuses for having bad manners (my hair is messy, etc.) and no one has found it necessary to make excuses for having good manners.

Guys, unless there is an over-riding religious consideration, a gentleman always removes his hat indoors, even if dining at the local Cracker Barrel.

Leaving one's hat on-- regardless of the excuse-- marks one out as a rube, an oaf, and one who is ignorant of even the most basic social courtesies.

So put that in your hat, and wear it.

[McFarkus]

I agree that gentlemen should not wear their hats indoors, particularly in church. There was a time when they did NOT uncover at meals, but that was because lice might drop on the plate.

When I was a child, men NEVER wore hats in church, but in the narthex at the back of the church was a pile of lace doilies that ladies who had forgotten their hats were asked to put on. Ladies ALWAYS covered their heads in church.

[Tobus]

That's gross. If you wash your hair, it will be clean. If you remove your hat and your hair is messed up, well comb or brush it! Duh.

If you come inside your house and your hair is so foul that you have to wear a hat, then go take a shower, immediately.

"Common courtesy" here is a cop-out to good personal hygene

.

This whole business is silly, guys.

If I'm out working on fences in my horse pastures (like I was this past weekend), and I need to go to the hardware store for supplies before they close for the day, am I supposed to shower before doing so? Especially if my purpose is to just get what I need and head back out to the pasture? I live quite a ways from town, and if I'm there, I might also stop by the post office to check my mail, and maybe stop at the feed store before heading back out to the homestead to keep working. Should I have showered and fixed my hair like a proper gentleman for this ridiculously common task, just so I can take my hat off indoors like a proper gentleman?

That would be a trifle absurd.

Maybe some of you live the kind of lifestyle where you never get dirty or sweaty, or you never have occasion to be anywhere that you're not dressed like perfect gentlemen, freshly groomed. If so, I envy you. But out here in the real world, for those of us who don't have the luxury of living such carefree lifestyles, there are going to be occasions where one finds himself indoors but doesn't think it's best to remove his hat. Because, quite frankly, it's not that important. Heck, the people who work at the hardware store wear hats themselves... indoors! Rubes and oafs, all of them!

Church, or a sit-down restaurant, or any other place where one would expect to be clean and well-groomed and 'proper', one would of course want to remove his hat. But to state that all indoor places without exception (MoR even underlined it to drive home the point!) must be places where a hat is removed, just doesn't jibe with real life.

Surely there's a reasonable middle ground here. Either that, or it's impossible to be a "gentleman" without having servants do everything for you, where you're free to remain pristine all the time.

But according to MoR, I'm a rube and an oaf, so I guess my opinion doesn't matter.

[piperdbh]

So we've gone to asking about taking off a hat while in a church building to worrying about wearing a ball cap at the feed store. And I get accused of changing the subject.

[EagleJCS]

I would think that, since the feed store, hardware store and post office, etc., are public buildings - with large common areas - it would be perfectly acceptable to leave one's lid in place while running errands in those places. It's if/when you go into the manager's office (or a similar less-common or non-public area) in one of those places that one would remove one's headgear. Similarly, as has been mentioned before, it's acceptable to keep one's headgear on in other building's (think downtown high-rises, bus/train stations, etc.) common areas (large open places). It's when one enters the elevator or a particular place of business within the building that one would remove one's hat.

For the OP, unless I'm playing my pipes while walking into the church (hasn't happened yet, but it could), I would remove my headgear. If I am playing, I would remove my headgear as soon as I could.

[Bugbear]

For some reason, I look at all this from a different point of view.

How should I treat someone who is wearing a hat indoors?

Should I be rude to that person?
Should I verbally her *** that person for wearing the hat?
Should I snatch the persons hat off of his head?
Should I request to a manager or owner that the person wearing the hat be thrown out of the establishment?
Should I just ignore it?