It's funny the things they remember.

This weekend my husband was wearing his Tilley hat. In case you are unaware of what exactly a Tilley is you might want to check out this link. In a nutshell, it's a hat. But a special hat. So, Ian is wearing his Tilley and somehow he and Griffin were talking about it. Eventually Griffin asked his daddy if this was the hat that we saved during a sailing race.

This elicited a huge roaring laugh from me. Why? Because the legend of the saved hat is not one I would have expected my five year old to remember. He is a lot like me, he can't remember where his shoes are, or his backpack, or his hard earned pocket money, but he remembers a story that happened well before he was born.

Once upon a time my husband and I used to race a sailboat together. We spent many a fun Sunday with friends, racing a dinghy. We didn't usually win, but we almost always had lots of fun. Before we were even married I bought us these matching North Face hats. They were perfect for racing: lightweight and floatable. (I would like to point out that as we embark on our second decade of marriage I am no longer likely to be seen wearing anything matching my husband.)

Fast forward to a race one summer day. It was an extra windy day as I remember. In fact, I am pretty sure we dumped the boat. Not to be deterred, we righted her and went on our way without a prayer to win or even come in anything but dead last. As you can imagine, we lost our matching hats in the experience. But in a dinghy race you run around some points several times. In this case, we came back around and right by one of the hats so as we sailed by I hiked out and grabbed the hat. The other one was in view but just out of reach. I figured (and commented) that we could get it the next time around.

Here we are, dead last, coming up on the mark, floating hat in sight. But, oh no. The hat is slightly, and I do mean slightly, off course. Did I mention we were dead last? Since we probably weren't likely to regain any position I casually suggest that we alter the course just a bit and get the other hat. After all, we needed our matching hats! But, OH NO!!! That was not happening. Captain Ian would not alter the course and save my hat. It's probably out there somewhere to this day!

Somewhere along the lines we've told our kids that story. I'm sure my version is different from Ian's. Mine ends with a sarcastic eye rollling about the time that Daddy wouldn't save my hat. His ends with some tall tale about how you never alter your course. He's forgotten about the time he fell off the boat and I altered the course to turn around and pick him up!

The moral of the story is: you never know what your kids are going to remember, so choose your words and stories wisely.

The other moral of the story is: never wear matching hats with your husband. Nothing good ever comes of it.