Greetings loyal airmen.  I'm jotting this down early Thursday evening, as by the time you read this entry, I'll be winging my way to Chicago to attend the Windy City Pulp Con.  This is the first time I attend this particular show and I'm really excited.  It will be the first time I meet artist Rob Davis, though we've been correspondence pals for almost twenty-five years.  I'll also get to meet Moonstone Publisher, Joe Gentile, another wonderful industry professional I've talked with over the phone on many occassions.   Moonstone is the publisher of the excellent new SPIDER CHRONICLES anthology that is currently on sale and features one of my stories.  Joe and I hope to get together and discuss a very special pulp project we are doing together.  More on all that as it develops.  I also hope to meet other Pulp Factory members like writer Van Plexico, editor Howard Jones and artist Doug Klauba.  It really looks to be a fun weekend.  And knock on wood, Mother Nature seems to want to cooperate at long last.

Aside from the excitement of this trip, things have been rather routine around the old Hangar 27.  The one major event was my finally buying a new suit after almost twenty-four years.   The old green one is still in pretty decent shape but Valerie wouldn't take no for answer this time.  I've a niece getting married in Cambridge in July and Val put her foot down that it was time to wear something else.   Obviously the reason the old suit lasted so well is that I rarely wore it, save for the special family occassions ala weddings or funerals.  I do lector in church on a regular basis, but often can get away with dress slacks, a shirt and tie and my comfortable cardigan sweater.  On special church services I'd pull out the green suit.

Try to understand, I went to a Catholic High School where I had to wear and tie and suit coat five days a week for four years.  Now my normal attire is jeans and a sweatshirt, in the winter, a tee-shirt in the summer.  And of course sneakers.  Anyway, I now on a brand new, really nice, dark suit which is at the present being tailored for me.   While shopping for the suit, I started thinking about how very little men's attire has changed since the days of the 1930s and 40s.  Look at the above illustration from an old Sears catalogue and you'll see what I mean.  I'd guess you could dress anyone in those outfits today and they could easily get away with looking modern.  Simply because the basic suit, tie, coat and pants, have not really changed all that much.  In fact looking at this picture you can easily point the only true fashion evolution of the last 75 years, the extinction of the headwear.   Men, and most women, just do not wear hats any more.  Growing up in the 50s, I never ever saw my father or uncles go out socially without wearing a hat, mostly fedoras.  But then somewhere in the 60s, our generation decided long hair needed air to breathe and we stopped buying hats.  Habadashers went out of business across the land.   By the time I was an adult, you rarely ever saw a chapeau of style on a man's head.   Of course when Harrison Ford arrived on the big screen in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART wearing a battered brown, wide brimmed fedora, I wondered if this might reverse the trend and bring back hats.  Alas, it wasn' to be.

Oddly enough, after several decades of not wearing anything, it seemed like overnight I had once again changed my habits and was donning a baseball cap daily.   For whatever reason, these long billed, comfortable pieces of clothing found a life outside the sports arena and today they come in every shape, color and price…most having absolutely nothing to do with any particular ball club.  Interesting.  What it signifies socially, I haven't a clue, but then again, this is a just an essay on what happened, not why.   And if on the subject of baseball caps, you have to know my favorite, of the many I own, is my Boston Red Sox cap with the big red B.  The Sox are doing great this year and I'm very encouraged, barring any serious injuries to key players, they have a real shot at making it to the play-offs.   Hope does spring eternal, and to that I'll tip my hat.

Have a great week, Ron, over and out.