Tools of My Father: by Nick Zdon
Here are some photos of my father’s father’s hat, a Champ Fedora. I hesitate to call it my grandfather’s even though it was his originally. He died before I was born and I have no memory of him. However, I do remember my father wearing it on fishing and camping trips. He used to dip it in the lake or the river to keep his head cool. The hat band still bears the address of the house my father grew up in in Columbia Heights, presumably so that if it were lost it could be returned. The last time I talked to my father about the hat he was quick to point out that the ventilation holes cut in the crown were done by his father, not by him. Apparently my grandfather had few qualms about ‘modifying’ certain items. It was common for him to wrap things in tape to make them last longer. On the same trip I collected the hat I also left with my grandfather’s cribbage board and his old bamboo fly rod. Both the box for the cribbage board and the protective tube for the fly rod had been completely and painstakingly wrapped in tape. They’re both still functional 50 years later, so maybe there’s something to it.
Nick Zdon was born and raised in Minnesota. As a youth he spent a good deal of time camping and tramping around the great outdoors as a Boy Scout. Since graduating from The College of Visual Arts in 2004 he can be found working as a graphic designer in Minneapolis during the day, and wandering the streets of St Paul by night. He makes regular trips to Minnesota’s deep north for fishing, canoeing, and all night cribbage benders. He is a regular contributor to all that is Best Made.
Photo by Nick Zdon
