Maggotfest 1994
I walked up to This crazed individual near the beer wagon and asked where I could get a fantastic hat like the one on his head. "Can't Do it Mate. These are the team Hats for the Red Deer Titans Rugby Club. TITS--Titans International Touring Side."The individual, whering a blue hat, candy necklace, shaved bald, carrying a bucket and a hammer stood in front of me with a grin ear to ear. I do know someone that will trade you though, I will be right back. What do I have to trade? Wait my foam Green Top Hat from ST Patricks Day. It was a Baily's Irish Creme Top hat with a big Shamrock on the front. Two Blue hatted men returned. The first guy had brought back a shorter man, with a strong Irish accent. "I want your futtin hat," he says to me. "well I want your futtin hat." We agreed that we would trade at the Saturday night social party that night and we would look for each other then. That night, the bald individual that set up the trade walked me over to my Irish barder mate and we traded hats. I ran off screaming and yelling like a 10 year old at Christmas, my Irish Mate, walked off being scolded by his Canadian mates, and as for the bald guy, I never saw him again....until Ottawa....read the Tours link below.I wore that Blue hat on every Rugby expedition I went on. I took it to each Seven's Tournament that summer, as Rob, Mike and I, with the help from 4 Russians and a Japanese Scrum half, bankrupted our club. The hat, as seen below on Fred Flintstone, was the standard garb of the Fraternal Order of Waterbuffalo. Blue fur with a crescent mood and sun with white horns, the hat showed style, and the lodge mentality.I arrived in Washington, DC the following Autumn to attend Graduate School. I decided to play rugby the following Spring and the hat came out of the boxes it was packed in. My club, Western Suburbs loved the hat so much, that they decided to call Hannah Barbara and get 2 dozen for their old boys tour to New Zealand. As a gift, they gave me one to replace the original that suffered extreme damage at the Dewey Beach tourney. The New hat, the one ordered from Hannah Barbara, was a little more classy, yet different. Instead of Royal Blue, it was baby blue and instead of white horns, it had yellow horns. The hat was thick and warm though and looked like a blue Russian KGB hat (um with yellow horns).That hat was worn in style for about 4 months, and then, at Maggotfest 1996, in a sneak move, two girls distracted me, while the 3rd took my hat without my knowledge. I was quite miffed, but decided it may be time for a new look, the hat had been with me for 2 years.
"It is a reassuring sign when you see that hat in a bar. You always knew Montana was close enough to help." John Atkinson referring to the Poobah Hat.
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For the Winnebago Trip to New Mexico, I made 10 poobah hats for the riders of the vehicle. Each wore their hat with pride.The hats went down like wounded soldiers on Omaha beach that weekend. One hat being traded to a chick for a kiss, another being crushed on a dance floor. Six survived the trip back home. Kevin McHugh took one home with him, Mike Bruce ended up with one, one damaged one was taken by Mark Fernald, and I found mine and 2 others when I cleaned out the Winne. I sent one of my 3 to Brian Donnelly of Albany. An original Idiot Brother, he was happy to receive it.I took the other two to Maggotfest. Big mistake. The hats were more similiar to the original hat I got from the Titans RFC. Royal Blue, with white horns. The horns were spray painted Cornacopias (spelling?) and were a lot more sturdy than the originals. By Friday night, Kevin had already lost my extra hat (he did not bring his), and by Saturday, I had traded it to a player from Canada for a Cardiff Rugby jersey. Good trade on my behalf. But that would be the last poobah hat I would ever have.
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