Silly Hat Fridays

If you've lived any time in Montgomery you know full well that this is just not a hoppin' town. This whole place shuts down around 9:00...most people have gone to bed long before then. The club scene...is there a club scene? Well, maybe there is...I'm old now, so maybe it's just knowledge privy only to the younger people. But it seems to me that if you are young and want to have a good time...there's just no place to hang out and meet people in this town...well, even if you are older...you got me where you go. Face it, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million's dating scene is only surpassed by Starbucks. In other words...this place is just not happening.

Oh, I know this place isn't New York City, or Los Angeles or Atlanta...far from it...but they have something we don't have. They have places where you can casually stroll down the street and shuffle in and out of and mingle with people who are doing the same. In fact, the town of Buckhead, a section of Atlanta that I love to visit...has a sign on the street where a bunch of clubs are lined up one after the other, which states you cannot circle the block more than three times as this would then be considered "cruising". Oh, no such signs ever needed in THIS town, ever...so I think we need to do something else to get people talking and having a good time.

My proposal...which I've thought about for years...is "Silly Hat Fridays". Oh, don't laugh now...well, unless it gets you to start talking to someone else you wouldn't ordinarily speak to. Just think about it...if a whole community can get into stacking up a flaming tower of jack o'lanterns during Halloween and beating their past record for it...well, that's something. I think we could start something, too. I think we should.

Who wouldn't like to don a wacky hat and drive around town on a Friday night? Look what conversations it would spark..."Hey, where'd you get THAT hat? I made my own...I'm working at the Shakespeare Theatre helping out with their costumes." Or "I got mine online at this place called Giant Steps." Now, would you ever have known that about anyone, without the Silly Hat day? I don't think so. Then it just snowballs from there...you start talking about other things...and pretty soon your awkwardness has turned to real conversation and you didn't have to buy a $6 Frappamochaccino Latte and sip it outside hoping someone notices you. Someone WILL notice you! And they will talk.

Then it can also be parlayed into various things...clubs can feature a discount if you wear a silly hat, so can restaurants and other establishments. If you were living in Jersey, I'd say instead of selling those "Velvet Elvises" by the roadside, you could set up shop selling silly hats...but we aren't in Jersey...so I guess that guy who sells sunglasses out in front of Catholic High can switch...apparently that's a good place to sell sunglasses...I've seen him there a few times. And on Sundays it can be "buy a paper...and a silly hat...that'll be $20...now get your butt outta here, the light's changed". See? Not only has this idea been instrumental in garnering new relationships and promoting friendships...but it's also opened up a whole new marketing dream. "Buy a Christmas tree...get a free hat." Who could possibly pass that opportunity up? "Why...yes, my tree does rival something out of that Charlie Brown Christmas Special...but LOOK at the free hat I got!"

So, as we've just got done at the polls picking our primary candidates for Governor, I think we should see if one of them wants to throw their silly hat into the ring and start a statewide campaign addressing this. Okay, so it wouldn't be as important a platform to run on...than all those other issues that they never deliver...but someone would probably make a killing on those donkey and elephant hats. At the very least that would certainly get people talking for a while...even if they, too, make a few false promises...but hey...isn't that what dating's all about?