One of my earliest memories is getting dressed up for church. My older sisters and I would always be decked out in my mother’s handmade and hand-embroidered dresses, and, of course, hats and gloves.

When I was still young enough for my mother to dress me up for church, I wore little sunbonnets. Then there came a long dry spell in which I was too cool for hats, which made me look stupid. At one benighted point, I even tried to avoid wearing a practical hat when going out to play in the snow.

In my early twenties, I adopted the practice of wearing “floppy” hats, i.e. something akin to what Jimi Hendrix wore in the sixties. These hats were constructed of six slice-of-pie shaped sections that could be arranged at a rakish angle. They went nicely with my eighties big hair style, and people said they made me look cool.

Fast forward to MY sixties, and I wear all kinds of hats: warm and fuzzy or rain-proof for most of the year, and a southern-style straw hat for our brief Alaskan summer.

So what is it about hats? Sure, they keep us warm, although that business about losing most of your body heat through your head might just be a myth. There was a time in our relatively recent history where everybody wore a hat: it was an expected part of one’s ensemble.

My sister Laura still wears hats in church, and I say more power to her. I occasionally attend church here in rural Alaska, and I can’t help but notice that nobody dresses up. I would be less conspicuous wearing jeans and a t shirt than wearing a dress. So I like knowing that somebody, somewhere, is dressing up.

I did a little light research and found an article that suggested that ladies’ hats in church are a sign that the lady in question is of modest and respectful demeanor, that she shields her own beauty to show respect to God. Ironically, men show respect in church by removing their hats. Go figure.

Anyway, next time I visit my sister, maybe I’ll join her at church. I can slap some flowers on my big straw hat, put on a dress, and get with the program.