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Still some honest folks
A couple of years ago, at the Region 9 Rally, I bought a Tilley hat. Kind of expensive at $65, but most of my unit bought them as well. There is a guarantee that if you ever lose the hat or it is stolen, Tilley will replace it for 1/2 price with a promise that if you ever regain the hat, you will pony up the other half of the replacement hat price.
Each year, I trailer to Eureka Springs to play banjo over Labor Day. Sunday is my wife's shopping day and we leave Monday morning for home. We ate a late lunch on Sunday at a tiny cafe run by a bunch of hippie-looking folks. The whole place was about the size of my living room and the kitchen was not much bigger than my hall closet, separated from the tables only by a low divider. I stuffed my hat down between my leg and the wall and promptly forgot it. The restaurant was closing for the holiday as we left without my hat. When we returned an hour later, it was closed tight. Not even a phone number to call since they used a cell phone.
What I didn't realize was that I had mis-written my phone number in the hat. When I heard nothing for a couple of months, I paid Tilley 1/2 price for a replacement hat.
This Sunday before Labor Day, we asked a shopkeeper where was a good place to eat. When we approached up some narrow wooden stairs between buildings, I realized it was the same place. When we went in, there was my hat, hanging on the fire extinguisher in the kitchen. A bit dusty and a bit greasy from a year of cooking, but otherwise just fine. They were as pleased to find the owner as I was to find the hat but said that they will miss seeing it on the fire extinguisher.
Now, I have a Tilley hat for the trailer and a Tilley hat for home. I wrote Tilley an email yesterday to find out how much I owe them. I told them the story since they like to put such tales in their catalog.
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John W. Irwin
2018 Interstate GT, "Sabre-Dog V"
WBCCI #9632
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