OK, we've been to the fraternal orders where certain serious hats are worn.But those serious days are over. Serious anachronisms have been put aside.
Yet when I don the woodpecker hat people right away assume I am being deadly serious.
NOT SO!
The correction is: I was once startled, not frightened, by a Pileated woodpecker in the WI northwoods. Out jogging on a wooded backroad, I heard a peculiar bird-call at my left in the trees, at the margin of the road. Jogging on, I looked to the side and saw what I thought to be a prehistoric bird, huge wingspan, flying even-stride with me and progressing from tree to tree staying abreast of me as I ran.
This species, the Pileated, I later found out, is very rare and nearing extinction.
This species, the Pileated, I later found out, is very rare and nearing extinction.The large, bright red-crested bird flew alongside of me for about a quarter of a mile. I took it to be mystical omen, another meaningful event of the sort I had in those magical surroundings. (See http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/it-was-getting-dark-in-those-woods.html)
Of course, I found a felt woodpecker mask and began wearing it, but not, NOT in such a serious way as people seem to think.
Ex: I keep a precariously balanced stack of books at my bedside. Indeed, I do sometimes wear the woodpecker mask when I read abed, but believe me, though I consider myself woodpeckerian in my digging for nourishment from the bark of that tree of books, I ONLY WEAR THE GARMENT IN JEST.
At the public library, in semi-frustration, I've given up wearing the woodpecker hat. I'm tired of being taken so stone-cold serious by my fellow Waukeshans. Now, with usual smiles, I slip within in the racks of books, and at the check-out desk I only sometimes wish I had the mask on to keep other library users from tittering into their mittens about my odd given looks.
A Pileated Woodpecker
click to enlarge
