Where Sombreros Are Born

Ever wonder how it is that every full-service Mexican restaurant has ample sombreros to place upon each birthday patron’s head? Now you know.

Mexico City 1911, Underwood & Underwood
Mexico City 1911, Underwood & Underwood

These milliners are ankle deep in straw hats of different weaves. Do you own one, tucked into the back of your closet? No? Have you ever been the lucky sap beneath the hat at a Mexican restaurant? I have. At the place we patronize each Sunday after church, they chant a generic name to the birthday boy or girl. “Happy BIRTH-day, Panchito, Happy Birthday to you!” And then Panchito gets complimentary fried ice cream.

 

12 thoughts on “Where Sombreros Are Born”

  2. As you know I am a hat guy,but sombreros don’t do anything for me. I would be curious as to how many Mexican hats are made in China. Oh I could use some fried ice cream. I wonder if Mexican joints make it the same way as Japanese joints.

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  5. YES!!!!! I love being called Panchito on my birthday at a Mexican restaurant.

    The best one was when I turned 18 and the Mariachi band sang to the wrong table so they had to redo it and looked super embarrassed while singing Happy BIRRRRthday Panchito to me after having done it for some random 40-something fella. It’s always interesting which memories stick with ya, innit?

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  6. And to answer your question… No!!!! I don’t have a somberor tucked away in the back of my closet. Given that we’re pals in all, I’ll tell you what I hide in the closet….

    **scurries over and does some inventory**
    Top shelf of my closet contains…
    4 towels, 2 “perfect pushup” things that I don’t use as much anymore now that I’m jumping rope, 2 Scotch-Bright lint rollers, 3 BOXES of Snyder’s of Hanover Jalapeno-flavored pretzel bites. An Everlast speed bag that I haven’t used for a while…. an alarm that I use often because I like doing acrobatics to make sure I wake up for the alarm… another lint roller. Two binders. A few bags of tea that I haven’t used for a while. Magnesium, zinc, and multivitamin supplements….some Dayquil. A cigar cutter I got as a gift from a cigar aficionado friend two Christmases ago, and still haven’t had the occasion to use bc he moved to Pennsylvania to get his PhD studying insect phylogeny especially parasitoid wasps (crazy little things that plant their eggs in the bodies of other insects so they burst out like the aliens in Alien(s)), some dust, and an MCAT prep book that I def don’t need anymore, but hold on to for posterity…. or something…

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    1. I am wondering why the pretzels and tea are not in the pantry, and the Dayquil not in the medicine closet, which is not even a closet usually. Except ours is. And why can’t you smoke a cigar with a buddy and use the cigar cutter? You don’t have to wait on Bug Guy.

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      1. Bc grad student housing doesn’t have a pantry, you silly! But as for the Dayquil… I have no idea… that’s where it ended up…

        As for the cigar smoking… it’s pretty much something I only did with that fellow. Maybe I need more cigar smokers in my life?

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