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March
Origins Of The Hard Hat Brotherhood
Sometimes it just takes a good THWACK to the back
of the head.
My name is Andrew Smith a.k.a. Andy, the Head
Hard Hat and I would just love to tell you that the
origins of the HHBrotherhood came to me as an
inspiration out of the blue. The truth is it was
more like a two-by-four to the back of the head
– THWACK!
You see, I’m a guy and before the Hard Hat
Brotherhood existed I exhibited typical guy
behavior. For fun let’s name that behavior
“Husband-Couch-Potatoitis” and I will
give you a few of the symptoms. See if these sound
familiar. I spent hours on end in front of some
sort of luminary device like a large screen TV,
computer monitor, gaming console… you get the
idea. So captivated by these seemingly harmless
appliances that the only communication I was able
to convey to my wife, Char, came in the form of
nods and grunts. Selective hearing soon set in.
That is when your wife gets no response to requests
like “take out the garbage” or “the
lawn needs to be mowed”, but does get an
immediate response to “honey, would you like a
cold one?”. Any of this ring any bells?
Unknown to me at that time I was sinking into a
solitary stagnant existence much like a hermit,
only with cable and broadband connections. Needless
to say, my wife was not too pleased with my
behavior and soon she started shopping around for a
two-by-four.
Char became involved with the Red Hat Society in
February 2004. When I say involved I mean like to
exist you need air, water, food and the RHS. The
kicker is I didn’t even realize at first that
she had started her own Chapter, named it the
“Flaming Red Divine Divas” and she was
now The Queen. I was too busy watching ESPN. Even
as the family room started to fill up with a wild
assortment of newly designed hats, feather boas and
rhinestones I was still oblivious. All I cared
about was that the three hat stands, complete with
large hats, on top of our projection TV did not
impede the current game of the week. My first real
recollection that something was up was when I had
to physically start moving the hatboxes out of my
computer chair. You see, I sort of had a
‘slight’ obsession with computer games
when I wasn’t watching television. As you can
no doubt imagine I was a bit slow on the uptake
back then. My constant self-isolation was building
stress in our marriage and the THWACK of all
thwacks was a comin’ but I still didn’t
have a clue. That was when fate stepped in.
My Queen was about to hold her first RHS Chapter
Event. An event is when a bunch of Red Hat Society
ladies get together and do things. I was in my
usual male mood of wondering why I had been taken
out of my busy schedule of watching television to
be dragged along to unload and help setup all of my
wife’s RHS stuff. Okay so I was a bit of a
jerk back then – remember this is in the past.
We finished the setup for her and the Red Hats
ladies started coming in. My wife looks at me,
smiles and waves and I realize that is my cue to
leave. Here I am, literally on the outside of a
restaurant looking in and waiting. As I am about to
start exploring my new outside environment, I
notice some of the other RHS husbands standing near
by. I knew one of them so I went over and we
started talking. Joking at first about our ladies,
the conversations then turned to more in-depth
topics. I suggested we find someplace to continue
talking and maybe get something to eat. Everyone
agreed and we ended up having a great time, just us
guys – go figure. After a few more RHS events
it became the normal thing to do. Drop off the
ladies, set-up the event and then go out with the
guys. We actually looked forward to meeting up just
as much as the ladies did.
After three or four months of doing this my wife
suggested that since I liked doing this so much,
why not start up my own guys club? My response was
typical male-like behavior; I rolled my eyes and
whined that “nobody is going to want to join a
guy’s club!”. “How do you know if
you don’t try?” she said, smiling that
sly smile that always means I already lost the
debate. THWACK! Well you know, maybe that
wouldn’t be such a bad thing to try.
She suggested that maybe we should have hard
hats and that way we could even decorate them. My
response was less than enthusiastic; I am thinking,
“you have got to be kidding me. No male in his
right mind is going to decorate something like a
hard hat and wear it out in public – No
Way”. THWACK! Hey, you know we would be a club
and we do want to draw some attention to ourselves
otherwise no one knows we are a club, right? Why
not. The guys thought it was a great idea and we
all started creating our own hard hats.
The Hard Hat Brotherhood was born and with it I
found a new outlet. Through this outlet I have been
able to maintain great friendships with guys all
around the country. I absolutely love being able to
not only go out with just the guys a few times a
month but also have combined events with our Red
Hat wives so we can share fun times together. As
men it is easy for some of us to just let ourselves
fall into an isolated way of existing. I have found
through the HHBrotherhood that it is also just as
easy to go out and make friends and actually enjoy
life instead of just passing through it. It took my
wonderful wife Char and several THWACKs to the back
of my head to figure this out. It is now my joy and
goal in life to help other men figure this out as
well. As young boys and men many of us were part of
“a gang” of some sort, be it sports,
band, science club, cars, poker night, etc. and
treasured those friendships. We now provide that
same type of friendship and interaction for adult
men. The guys know they have “Brothers”
all across the country and we are spreading around
the world.
The Hard Hat Brotherhood is now an international
organization made just for men and is currently
sweeping the United States and now all over the
world. Based on the simple premise that men
sometimes just want to go out and be one of the
guys. While participating in HHBrotherhood events
there are no rules, regulations or honey-do lists.
Any guy from age of 18 and up may join in the
pursuit of having fun doing “guy stuff”.
Please visit our website at
www.hardhatbrotherhood.com and be sure to sign
yourself up. General membership is free. You can
also email Andy, the Head Hard Hat at
headhardhat@hardhatbrotherhood.com and always
remember the Hard Hat Brotherhood motto:
Testosterone: Our Guys Are Full Of It!
©2007, Andy Smith
* * *
Source:
Andy Smith, HHBrotherhood Central, 8449 Parkridge
Drive, Dexter, MI 48130, or 734.846.2283 or
www.hardhatbrotherhood.com
or headhardhat@hardhatbrotherhood.com
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