# Hat on inside

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hat-on-inside/712349>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 11, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hat-on-inside/712349 "2015-02-11T00:12:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hat-on-inside/712349/21 "2015-02-11T21:47:05Z")

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I’ve been in a lot of bars where there is a “timber bell”. If somebody walks in with his hat on, the bartender rings the bell and the offender buys the bar a round. At the other extreme, I saw brawls break out in Navy clubs over somebody refusing to take off his hat. The worst was on Adak Island, when a couple of groups off the seagoing tugs came into the club. Our resident Samoan took exception to it, and the place erupted into a melee that required the Shore Patrol to come and break it up. Our Samoan mate cleaned house on five or six of them and had one earlobe bitten off in the process. Fun times.

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**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hat-on-inside/712349/22 "2015-02-12T01:33:57Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Do you have any citations to back this up? I’m not in a position to dispute this, but also have never heard of it.
> 
> Old West cowboys wearing their hats 100% of the time while outdoors, which they were about 98% of their working lifetimes? Sure. Leaving their hat on when indoors? Color me skeptical.

The information comes from a book titled _Cow Country Cavalcade_, which tells about cowboying in Wyoming in the 1880’s. The author tells a story about a cowboy who made a trip back East. For some reason he didn’t want people to know he was a cowboy, so he bought another type of hat to wear.

The first morning on the train, somebody asked him, “Where do you punch cattle?” The cowboy, somewhat astonished, asked, “How did you know I’m a cattlepuncher?”

The reply – “Because when you got up this morning, the first thing you did was put on your hat.”

[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001508942](http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001508942)

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