I was brought up with the no hats rule and it's what I've taught my sons. But an experience the other day made me wonder if there's any cultural/geographic element to this at all that creates some exceptions. I had breakfast with a friend at a local diner. He is an extremely well-educated professional man in his 60's whose job puts him in the spotlight at many very public settings/events. He also has extremely short hair, so hat head isn't an issue. He'd just come from the gym and was dressed in shorts and sweatshirt (showered, though!). And not only did he wear his baseball hat through our meal, but I ran into another friend there who falls into the same basic category, and I noticed he kept his on. These are guys who don't wear hats all the time, so it's not like they might've been doing it as part of a personal style thing. Maybe it was simply a day off for both and they both forgot...I don't know. But I was surprised and then intrigued, and it got me to wondering; I didn't ask my friend because he is 20 years my senior and in an indirect way has some authority over me and it might've seemed rude, but I was curious!