Uncle Ben Buys a Hat in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
A hat is a very useful thing to have. Especially when you have very little hair. I like hats. I have hats for winter and hats for summer. A winter hat has to be able to stand snow and rain. Mine is made from heavy felt and I bought it in Germany a number of years ago. In the summer one needs a Panama-type hat that is light and gives shade. I have some of those, also. Better ones to go to town, and older ones to wear in the garden. Most men in Canada do not wear hats, preferring caps like baseball caps instead, or nothing on their heads. For me, my hats are my pride and I am referred to in our town as "the man with the hat." I have been on TV a number of times for street interviews, always with my hat. In fact, that I wear hats is so well known that a stranger from an unknown theatre group called here one evening a few weeks ago. He was searching for a hat for a detective in a play they were going to perform. They had done some detective work of their own and found that I was a man who wore hats, so they asked if they could borrow one for their play.
For the cruise on the ship I did not bring a hat because I was afraid it would be blown overboard, as I actually saw happen later in Los Cabos on the little boat returning from the town. That is why I took a cap, more like a marine cap, to the ship. For the time in sunny Mexico I needed a hat. I figured I could buy a good quality, handsome one there, cheaply enough. So the time had come, on landing in Cabo, to look for that hat.
At the stands near the dock I saw various hats, but all for a cost of at least$10.00 US, or more. I had budgeted for about six Canadian dollars, or I would go without. A Canadian dollar today was worth .64 cents to the US dollar.
When a fellow traveller saw me looking at hats he whispered to me: "In town, not here. Much cheaper. Half the price." I knew that, from previous travel in Mexico. So I kept going. I will describe my walk through Cabo in a following article, so I will now just say that I found a store back in the town that looked promising.
I was the only one in the store. It was still relatively early and I guess no sale had been made yet. I should mention that in Mexico it is customary to bargain. If you don't bargain they think you are a fool. I looked at a hat I did not want, and asked the proprietor, a middle aged man, the price in Spanish. It was too much. I really had my eye on a hat that was from a sturdy type of plant material, water repellent, and not too heavy. It had a string to fasten the hat under the chin like a cowboy hat. This was just what I needed, so it could not blow away. It was very windy outside that day, the result of the tail of the hurricane. This hat had a colourful band around the crown, with a tail hanging down, across the brim, which had written on it "Cabo San Lucas." It was tied over a smaller band that had come from the maker.
I did not like the coloured banner with the tail, but the hat was alright. So I asked the price. "Ten pesos, Senor!" ($US 10) "Oh" was my reply, "A nice hat and probably worth it, but for me too expensive." He countered with "Eight pesos". I had my budget and was sorry, and turned to go. There were other shops and other hats. "How much can you give me?" he asked. I said, I can only afford five. He countered at six pesos. I quickly thought "Six pesos is $US 6 and in Canadian dollars almost ten, but the guy has to eat, and I do not want to spend all day hunting for a hat." We agreed. I took the hat and put it on, putting my cap into a bag, and he blessed the money by holding the money to his chest and crossing himself as Roman Catholics do, and saying "First sale of the day." (They look forward to the first sale of the day, and often will make concessions, just to start the day off well, and it helped that we bargained in Spanish.) I replied: "May prosperity come to you", and left.
Lining up at the landing to return to the ship an American lady said "Where did you get that band around your hat?" "It came with the hat", I replied. "Oh, I wish I had such a band" she said. "What do you want to give me for it?" I said. "How much do you want?" from her. All the while the line was getting shorter. "Ah, give me a couple of bucks." (Dollars are called "bucks" in slang.) "Gladly!" and she handed me two American dollars. I took off the band and handed it to her. Now the hat looked right. Not like a tourist hat, and at $US 4 or Canadian $6.40, it was right within my budget now. We were both happy. When I showed it to Mary she especially admired the manufacturer's handsome narrow black and white band that had been hidden by the Cabo tourist bandolier.
Uncle Ben
