I went to an orchestra concert this past weekend, this time sitting in the audience because that stupid Beethoven and that idiot Haydn only wrote some things for two horns. Oh well. Once in a while, it's good to hear the entire orchestra as the audience hears it instead of just how the horn section in the back row hears it.
I found myself sitting behind a local icon, Jerry Marlowe. He's known as the Man with the Hats because he does not show up at a public function without one. He doesn't wear Stetsons or Fedoras or ski hats. He wears odd things, like Uncle Sam hats on patriotic occasions, or hats shaped like a chicken, or a joker's hat. Once Husband sat by him on a plane, and Jerry was wearing a beanie with a spinning propeller, just because. At the concert, he brought a hat shaped like a big purple fish with black stripes covered in sequins. He was only holding the hat, so I suppose he has a sense of decency when it comes to wearing them in doors. A dying gesture.
Jerry Marlowe is an alumnus of Ohio State University, having graduated in 1961 from the college of pharmacy. OSU football games are massive events, especially when the team played is from Michigan, and Jerry has adopted the personal challenge of getting into these rival games every year without the benefit of a ticket. He crashes them by dressing in some odd garb that allows him to bypass security. Over the years, he has dressed as a band director, hot dog vendor, team doctor, referee, scout master, pizza delivery man, television crew member, and a nun. He was quoted as saying, "I loved that one. It's the only time I went in drag."
Here he is dressed as a team official, hoping to arrange to be caught in the midst of his final attempt at crashing the game, a way of retiring from years of foolery.
Jerry Marlowe is a local icon because he knows better than to take life too seriously. He knows better than to be too inhibited to show up at an orchestra concert with a purple fish hat. And he brings character to and is a character in our Small Town. You have to love him for that.
Picture courtesy of Small Town newspaper.
I found myself sitting behind a local icon, Jerry Marlowe. He's known as the Man with the Hats because he does not show up at a public function without one. He doesn't wear Stetsons or Fedoras or ski hats. He wears odd things, like Uncle Sam hats on patriotic occasions, or hats shaped like a chicken, or a joker's hat. Once Husband sat by him on a plane, and Jerry was wearing a beanie with a spinning propeller, just because. At the concert, he brought a hat shaped like a big purple fish with black stripes covered in sequins. He was only holding the hat, so I suppose he has a sense of decency when it comes to wearing them in doors. A dying gesture.
Jerry Marlowe is an alumnus of Ohio State University, having graduated in 1961 from the college of pharmacy. OSU football games are massive events, especially when the team played is from Michigan, and Jerry has adopted the personal challenge of getting into these rival games every year without the benefit of a ticket. He crashes them by dressing in some odd garb that allows him to bypass security. Over the years, he has dressed as a band director, hot dog vendor, team doctor, referee, scout master, pizza delivery man, television crew member, and a nun. He was quoted as saying, "I loved that one. It's the only time I went in drag."
Here he is dressed as a team official, hoping to arrange to be caught in the midst of his final attempt at crashing the game, a way of retiring from years of foolery.Jerry Marlowe is a local icon because he knows better than to take life too seriously. He knows better than to be too inhibited to show up at an orchestra concert with a purple fish hat. And he brings character to and is a character in our Small Town. You have to love him for that.
Picture courtesy of Small Town newspaper.
Comments
I knew from your Presidents that you Americans did "stupid", but I didn't know you had any genuine "eccentrics".
What an admirable gentleman.
Perhaps there's hope for you all yet.
Sassy, the beanie incident was pre-9/11.