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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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this hat on, I'm not recognized,” which is really true. That's still true. All I have to do is to put another hat on and I'm not recognized. I can travel around and not be noticed. If I have the tricorn hat on, I will always be noticed. The combination of the familiar features and the tricorn hat makes them sure. That was just natural. I never thought of a tricorn hat as a badge or a trademark. It was just the kind of hat that was becoming to me. Newspaper people jumped at that. I think they jumped at it to make me look ridiculous originally. They had such funny things to say about it. They said it was regarded as so frightfully old-fashioned and that I had it made in the Bureau of Standards, and that every hat looked just like every other hat. They don't. I used to say, “I buy a new hat every spring and every fall. What's the idea? I don't wear my hats until they're filthy. When they're worn out, I throw them away.” Then I would go and get another one just like it, of course.

So I don't think I had a new hat to go to the inauguration. I think Margaret Poole agreed that my hat supply was suitable, proper and right.





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