I have to admit, trading with the hat was one of the more painful transactions I have ever been involved with. As John and I began to talk, he started laying out the rules of the trade. That hat has more rules than Nat has pins. I had to bring in three lawyers and an accountant to determine what pins fell within the guidelines of the trade. Obviously, if you are going to trade with the hat, you can't just send any old pin. It had to be a special pin. One that would best exemplify John and his unique personality. Well I struggled and struggled to find just the right pin that could sum up John to everyone who would see this pin. After weeks of soul-searching and about 4 days of pin-bag searching, I finally decided on a pin. The first thing I decided was that the pin had to be a character, but what character would epitomize John? Well of course, it had to be Goofy! Now I am not implying that John is a dog but he does have that long and lanky canine look to him not to mention that he seems to always be in some sort of trouble. But of the hundreds of Goofy pins around, which one? I was in a quandary. I knew I wanted something that brought memories of the great outdoors. This narrowed my search considerably since there are not that many pins of Goofy in camping attire. Then as I was flipping through my pin book for about the millionth time, a pin jumped out at me literally. This might have been caused by Trina whacking me and my pin book with an empty milk carton for sitting around rather than making lanyards but I would like to think it was some sort of divine rather than bovine intervention. There lying on the floor next to me was the Goofy Photographer pin (PinPic #4421). This was the perfect pin. Not only was Goofy dressed in the appropriate costume but this pin had the perfect message associated with it when John put it on his hat. Now, when people come up to him and stare at the top of his head, he can merely point to this Goofy pin and say, Why dont you take a picture, it would last longer.
Jeff
