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You might’ve seen them here and there at the Croaker Festival. They were there along the sidelines watching the parade. At the judge’s table for the cheesecake baking contest.

We’re talking, Croaker Hats.

Some of this haberdashery was made of plain brown paper…

One of several folks in a cluster, watching the parade from the curb near the Duck Pond..

The hat wearers here say it didn’t take long to put a Croaker hat together.

A chance to show your school colors.

Some of the hats were made of fabric….

Eddie Grills, of Tennessee, says he’s worn this hat to Croakerfests for about 2 decades. It was firmly in place while he judged the baking contest.

Chief Croakerfest Organizer Candy Bohmert poses here with her Croaker hat. (She’d brought it to a recent meeting of the Town Board, on which she is a commissioner, but did not wear it during the meeting.)

A few years ago, one local artisan had a booth at Croakerfest where you could buy and decorate your own Croaker hat. That spawned some great looking fish head wear. Here’s hoping to see more…

And as the photos show, they needn’t be cloth. Paper makes a statement too.
If Oriental is a Recycling Community as the signs say, maybe we can “re-purpose” those paper bags from Miss Ruth’s Town and Country before next year’s Croakerfest… so that a new generation of croaker hats can join the stream…

Posted Wednesday July 9, 2008 by Melinda Penkava

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