Could You Be Forced To Wear A Cowboy Hat In Texas?

The further you get away from Texas, the less people understand it.

We've all heard that people outside of the state think we all wear cowboy hats and ride horses to school. Okay, so some of the first part is correct, but little of the second part is correct.

When it comes to actual Texans, I do believe the actual "official" hat of Texas is one featuring the name of your favorite tractor company, feed store, or cotton gin. I really think Texans just want something to keep that brutal sun out of their eyes and the conversation begins and ends with that.

When you get right down to it, cowboy hats seem like they'd be a bit awkward to deal with. It doesn't seem like you could really lean back on your truck seat, or even get in and out of it with out your hat bumping things here and there. It also seems to me that most cowboy hats are expensive so you really want to save them for special occasions.

None of this has kept people from speculating about the relationship of Texans to their cowboy hats. In a wild parody piece, the Babylon Bee published a "news story" about a "Texas Cowboy Hat Mandate". I have to admit that considering the times and tomfoolery of the politicians out there, the headline seemed a bit real.  The first sentence kind of gave it away though:

AUSTIN, TX - Texas Governor Greg Abbott was heard yelling, "Yee-haw!" while firing two revolvers in the air -- the traditional way to announce a new Texas law.

Okay, so they got me. The story is actually pretty amusing because it does mine a few nuggets of truth. I also love the part about the mask mandate.

I tried my luck with a nice straw cowboy hat, and found that as a person, I just couldn't "sell it". You have to own that look and I couldn't do it. Also, I'm already 6'4" so with a cowboy hat I was banging into all kinds of stuff. Good luck to you if you've gone the cowboy way, but if you haven't, it's not mandatory yet.