I've started noticing recently many cars, normally expensive upmarket saloons, with gent's hats on the rear parcel shelf. Not baseball caps but more the type of hat worn when strolling around the polo field or for a day out at Lords or Henley.
It set me thinking is this just a good place to keep it, or is it some kind of strange Masonic signal to others in the society ?
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Where else do you put it to keep it the appropriate shape ? ITs the only place I can throw a hat to keep it out from under people's feet or bottoms - actually in the Galaxy it would be seen on the front shelf.
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I often wonder where would Isombard Kingdom Brunel would have kept his hat.
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on Ilkley Moor ?
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I have a panama hat on the shelf of my car. I put it there in August and haven't remembered to take it out!
I am NOT a mason and do not belong to any other secret society!
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To be traditional you should drive an Austin Allegro at 20 mph with a trilby on the back shelf.
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No- to be realy traditional you need to wear it!
I wear a hat in my car at times but just until the heating kicks in. A baseball type nowadays , as I tend to lose my traditional tweed types.A Connemara is good ,as it folds.
Must dig one out as I am motoring up to Irvine on business tomorrow and snow is forecast.Better put the snow shovel and thermos in as well...............
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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No hats on my parcel shelf because my Panama can be rolled up and is stored in its own carrying bag.
I'm not saying whether my trouser leg is rolled up though ......
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And IKB would have owned what ? - A Bristol methinks.
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Folks put those white hats on the back shelf purely because they see others doing it. I guess they are trying to aspire or buy into a 'lifestyle'. It's utter b******s in fairness.
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The perfect hat for the parcel shelf is one of those flat topped police hats. When plod or traffic warden see it in your parked car they are much less likely to give you a ticket!
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"where would Isambard Kingdom Brunel have kept his hat"
He, being a very practical man, would have had a Berlingo, and would therefore have been able to wear his hat. I find it a very useful feature of the Berlingo, and always wear a top hat when driving it. If i didn't have the modutop I could (and would) wear two, one on top of the other.
Phil
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So that's what sunroofs are for... :-)
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I remember about 10-15 years ago it was fashionable to keep a hard hat on the parcel shelf (it was about the time they became compulsory). I imagine after a few emergency stops, word got round why that was not a good idea!
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best place to keep my aussie leather drovers hat.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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My dad has one of those often in the back of his '88 Granada.
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Depends on what sort of hat really. If it is of the twill type with a small feather in it (the sort you would buy in Dunns Gentlemans Outfitters), you need to steer well clear of it as the driver will normally be totally unpredicatble in his driving habits! Never had an accident, but been the cause of thousands.
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My hat is there to keep the sun off my sandwiches! Perhaps most other people that have a hat on the parcel shelf also only use it to cover something other than their head.
--
L\'escargot.
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Depends on what sort of hat really. If it is of the twill type with a small feather in it (the sort you would buy in Dunns Gentlemans Outfitters .....
It could just be that the owner is someone who appreciates understated good taste, and is prepared to spend the sort of money necessary to buy that sort of headgear rather than something tawdry.
--
L\'escargot.
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Last year I saw an immaculately restored Trabant with German number plates. On the rear shelf was a wide-brimmed Russian-style cap marked East German border guard. The whole shelf was displayed as a mini-museum. There was a model Trabant, and a sheet about the Trabant Owners Club.
Its owner was not in uniform however - just an ordinary bloke in jeans.
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"Its owner was not in uniform however - just an ordinary bloke in jeans" Those Secret Service guards were almost impossible to detect
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Add this to the mystery of keeping a box of tissues on the parcel shelf. Understandable for families with kids in the back etc but how practical for Darby & Joan?
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Was just going to post regarding tissues - particularly, I've noticed in Mercedes saloons, often driven by businessmen or older couples.
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Rather a hat than a nodding frog or hip swinging Elvis!
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Add this to the mystery of keeping a box of tissues on the parcel shelf. Understandable for families with kids in the back etc but how practical for Darby & Joan?
They could be there ready for back seat shenanigans when the car is parked in a lonely country lane.
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L\'escargot.
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"...back seat shenanigans when the car is parked in a lonely country lane".
Arghhhhhhhh!
I can't get that picture out of my head!!! ;¬o
Regards,
John R @ Home
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I look at you in a new light my slimey french friend.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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RF,
I wanted to say "picnic" but at the time I couldn't remember how to spell it, and according to my dictionary (admittedly compiled in Taiwan) "shenanigans" means "picnic" anyway.
--
L\'escargot.
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Years ago in West Germany it was common to see knitted toilet roll holders on the back shelf of Mercedes. Good to have some bumwad handy,in case one needed a spreadaxle in a Parkplatz.
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My boss wanted to look upper class so he took to wearing a cheese cutter hat and yellow gloves when he was driving. I don't know whether he used the parcel shelf to park them though.
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