"The Guilty Hat and a Traveler's Mistake" by Mary Alice Dixon
– at a loss for words
A young American abroad not entirely attired for the occasion is nevertheless recognized—more or less.
Mary Alice Dixon lives in Charlotte, NC, where she is hospice volunteer, retired professor, former attorney and happy member of Charlotte Writers Club and Charlotte Lit. Her recent work is in That Southern Thing, Belmont Story Review, Broad River Review, County Lines, Kakalak, Fourth River, Main Street Rag, moonShine Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Passager’s Pandemic Diaries, Pinesong: Awards 2021, and elsewhere. You can sometimes find her daydreaming with an old copy of Fodor’s French for Travelers in her lap and a black hat on her head.
Mary Alice Dixon
Author’s Talk
When Randell Jones proposed the theme of Trouble, I was initially scared to share an experience of trouble I remember all too well. The embarrassing kind, the kind my West Virginia Grandma called “eating humble pie.” But she was wise in her way. “Big slice of humble pie’s good for the soul,” she used to say. And with an unfortunate trouble-making name like Delilah, which she hated, I guess Grandma knew of what she spoke.
Somewhat reluctantly, but in the interest of improving my soul, or, at least, following Grandma’s advice, I decided to put pen to paper (that’s how I always start writing). To tell of my mortification when I was a young, silly woman, a bit of a clothes horse, and a tourist in France, though a very poor student of French.
As I began to write I thought not just about my public humiliation of being mistaken for someone I was not, but also about my crazy collection of hats. I confess, I collect hats the way some people collect art – always looking to fall in love.
Sometimes my hats become part of my writing rituals. I will study my hats, then randomly pick one to wear while I write. I know, I know, ridiculous and juvenile, though I like to pretend that wearing different hats helps me see things from different points of view. The hat I wore writing my story for Trouble was not the black velvet beret in my closet, poor old thing, but a big floppy-brimmed sunhat.
Writing my first draft I felt sure the French had wronged me. That I was an “innocent abroad,” to quote Mark Twain. But by the time I finished the second draft I realized the fault was mine. Whether that big floppy-brimmed sunhat I wore while writing had a hand in my changed perspective I cannot say, though I suspect it did.
I’m grateful to Randell Jones for his creativity and hard work in building the PSPP. Thank you, Randell. Sharing my story was good for my soul. I hope you, Randell’s readers and listeners, will relish the tale of a Carolina girl eating a big slice of humble pie and that you will find laughter, like humility, is also good for the soul. Just one word of advice, folks, be careful of what hat you wear when. - Mary Alice Dixon
