Project Cubbins: Hat 210 - Knights of the Round Table Edition

Day 210 / Hat 210: Forest green trucker-style hat with mesh back and foam front. White embroidery on front reads (in all caps): "Knights of the Round Table, Wayside Country Store, Arlington, VT," with knight mascot in the center.

Yes, this is the second Wayside-related hat in a row, but hey, the road to 500 is a long one and a cat's gotta hat where he can.

Who are the aforementioned knights? Despite the look of the mascot (which to me screams -- make that chants -- Midwest college football)  they aren't a sports team. The Knights of the Round Table are the group of (mostly) men who congregate at the large, round plywood-top table between the deli area and my dad's S-curve rolltop desk at the Wayside starting at 4:30 a.m. on any given morning.

A rolling, loose-knit fraternity of crotchety armchair politicos, the one thing you can count on about the knights is that to the one they've got opinions and those opinions will be shared, vented and batted about around that table.

Even if the tablecloth that covers it were stripped away the table wouldn't be much to look at, but it has backstory as deep (if not deeper) than those who cluster around it, having come from the Sandgate hunting camp of a famed hunter/fisherman by the name of Lee Wulff.

Over the years, the knights and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on things (usually politics) and I remember one morning years ago when I was opening the store one fellow (Ray Smith, I think) got me so agitated I accidentally poured two pots of water into the one-pot coffee maker.

Still, the knights have character and if there's one thing I like as much as fantastical headgear it's character, so today's sincere hat tip goes to the Knights of the Round Table at the Wayside Country Store.

Related:
PC 209: Eight Oh Moose
PC 208: Jingle Belle
PC 207: 6X Silverbelly

Q: OK, nice hat -- but what exactly is Project Cubbins, anyway?

A: One man's homage to Dr. Seuss and his second book, "The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins," which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its publication in 2013, Project Cubbins is an attempt to document the wearing of a different hat or piece of headgear every day for 500 consecutive days. No do-aheads, no banking of hats, no retroactive entries. PC started on May 27, 2013 with Hat 1. 
Got hats? If you loan 'em, you'll get e'm back safe and sound!