The man with the hat...

Shot of drumline, Mary is cymbal player on far left.

Went to "Meet The Panthers" last night, the band played, kind of a pep rally for the beginning of football season tonight. Reminded me of an encounter a couple of weeks ago.

I was working in our out patient clinic, joking around with a patient about the cruelness of physical therapy. With the Panthers ranked nationally and everyone getting ready to open Christmas presents in the sun baked parking lot of the Alamodome while they wait for the game to begin I mentioned to the patient if I was getting you ready to play for the Panthers this would be much more strenuous.

A lady, the caregiver of one of our patients, was dropping that patient off and over heard my Panthers comment. She was ready for football season to begin. We chatted, I ask if she had kids invoved, she said her daughter graduated and had been in the band. I said, well I have a daughter in band. She mentioned her daughters name and I knew her because she works in a business I frequent. Our conversation ended and the lady left.

Later she came back to pick up the patient. She looked at me and said, "I know you, you are the man with the hat." I assure you, I did not have the hat on in the clinic that day.

Let me explain. Way back when Katherine was in band (long time ago, she is so old) the Lufkin Band Boosters sold these hats for a fund raiser. I was at a meeting when they brought them out and I bought one immediately. There were cases and cases of them. I am the only one you ever see at a game. There used to be another guy who had one years ago, but I have not seen him in a couple of seasons. Everyone asks where I got it, where can they get one and so on. I am surprised more of these are not floating around. It could be possible at the time they did not sell well, the Panthers were not so prominent, people were not so ape shit for purple and gold and there may be cases and cases of the in some past band booster presidents garage. I like it a lot, and judging from that lady's comments it makes me a known figure at Panther games. "The Man with the Hat." Here is the hat.












Also a shot of the versatility of Mary on cymbals and playing bass drum on "Striving." A fight song type thing where the lay down, stand on their heads and do all kinds of stuff.