Nic Narrates

When I was a little girl, I remember watching Masterpiece Theatre with my dad. I can still hear the music that it started with and see that old guy with gray hair and sunken eyes, and an accent I think, and how he’d lead into the night’s cartoon. And he had this ginormous book that was supposed to be the “masterpiece” or something.

So anyway, there was this one cartoon in particular, I can’t remember the name, but I can see it in my head…

It was this montage with only music and it was about these two hats. One was a boy hat and one was a girl hat. And I think it started with a man and a woman passing each other on the sidewalk and the girl hat and the boy hat first see each other. But then the man’s hat gets blown off in the city by the wind and ends up laying in the gutter. I think the same thing happens to the woman who also loses her girl hat. And the cartoon goes on to show how different people in city find the hats and see different things, different uses, in them. But I guess the boy hat is sad because he can’t see the girl hat anymore, even though he occasionally catches a glimpse of her. They are left to whatever the wind brings them, wherever it carries them–literally.

And then at one point, a man takes the boy hat out of the top of a trash bin on the sidewalk and cuts out holes on either side and makes it a hat for his horse. And you think that’s where the story ends, but then the shot pans out and you see that on the other horse next to him, the girl hat is there on the man’s other horse. And they’re surprised and happy and they clop down the street, pulling the man’s carriage and that’s it.

Kind of silly, but I loved that damn cartoon. It was so simple and sweet. It didn’t make me feel uncomfortable at the age of five like Snow White did–I’d always get embarassed when the prince came and kissed Snow White at the end to wake her up. This cartoon didn’t beat you over the head with its demonstrations of love and attachment. Somehow, even as a kindergartener, it felt more real to me. And I guess as an adult I still remember this cartoon in particular and can appreciate it because of that, because of what it showed me about fate and optimisim and connection.

Too bad people don’t wear hats anymore.

Filed under: childhood, whimsy by Nic