I was on three months holiday with my wife travelling round Europe. Obviously on such a holiday, I wanted to collect a few mementos, souvenirs and so on. But what could I collect that wouldn’t take up too much room in our suitcases and not be too heavy? Things such as Brochures, Spoons, Fridge Magnets, Post cards, Drink Coasters. Badges. Yes Badges, attached to a hat. Problem solved.
I purchased a hat, in Austria, then pinned badges to it as I acquired them. Some badges I bought at gift shops. Some were given to me by people that liked my hat.
We were at a place called “Dunrovin” Castle, in Scotland. It also had a museum where they had a large area of stuffed wild animals. Every animal from the African jungles that you could think of. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos of these specimens. I think probably because they should not have had most of them. Anyway, a staff member approached me, and she said, “I love your hat, would you like another badge to go on it?”. I said, “that would be nice, I would like to see it”. She showed me a very different sort of badge; no-one seems to know what it is or where it came from exactly. It looked like it might have been a Hammer and Sickle type badge.
Whilst we were at a Slate mine in Wales, a guy was making badges and ornamental stuff from off cuts of slate. We looked at his badges but couldn’t find one that was suitable for my hat. He told me to come back in an hour and he would have something for me. When we got back, he had placed a small Welsh Guard onto a piece of slate with a pin underneath it. It sat perfectly on the ridge on the front of my hat. Finished the hat off nicely.
One of my uncles gave me a Warwickshire Army Regiment Badge and Plume for my hat. It looked quite impressive. (He also gave me a walking stick that had been covered with badges).
I never thought I would gather so many badges, they came from everywhere we went. All shapes and sizes.
I only wore the hat when I had to, which was normally between places where we had to take our luggage. So on public transport and airport terminals whilst boarding mainly. The hat had so many badges it had become quite heavy.
When we arrived back at Tullamarine, we were met by our family. As soon as they saw us, they turned away in embarrassment. They didn’t want to know this bloke in the strangest hat (and with a walking stick) they had ever seen. Talk about embarrassing.
August 2023