My Panama Hat Guy....

My flight to Medford went off like a charm.  This young kid chatted me up as we awaited our boarding time.  I was flying coach so I didn’t board until next to last.
I got off my flight when past baggage claim and waited outside to see how I was going to ID Brent.  Sure enough this gray hair 70 year old guy in a Panama hat came up to me and handed me his card and we smiled shook hands and away we went.
The Holiday Inn he took me to was unfortunately the wrong one so we had to get back in the card and go to a different Inn closed to the airport.  I check in as Brent waited for me in the lobby. I needed a shower so I took a quick one and off I went to get in his car and over to his house. We started with two enormous rum drinks that both has us feeling good.
Brent’s house was amazing not in the way it looked but in the hundreds of Panama Hats in various stages of being finished. This is why I wanted to come in person! I got to see the difference in a $1000 had as oppose to the $500 dollar one I had on. He showed me hats the were being made to clients up to 10k.  Trust me as soon as I felt the straw, look and weight on the 1k hat I knew I had to have one.
He tried his best to work on the hat he originally made for me but he even admitted it didn’t look right.  So while I was looking around He showed me a cocoa color Mombasa Panama. He showed me a small defect in the straw and said he couldn’t sell it like the way in came out.  Luckily it was in my size, I tried it on and LOVED the wide brim that made me look like a rich plantation owner. He said I can have it for $200 which normally it would be about at least $500.  Now what to do with the hat I ordered but wasn’t fitting right.  I
As I wander around the house, I saw a wonderful looking hat and ask if I could try it on. It happened to be my size 22 1/8 and was a Montecristi  Classic fedora with a black ribbon just like the one I had ordered. However, this was a $1000 hat.  The minute I looked at myself in the mirror I fell in love with it and had the have it and he offered to exchange the hats if I was willing to pay the extra $500. I said, YES.  Brent told me he would mail back the other 2 hats at the end of the month. I wanted to pay him right then but he said don’t worry about it I trust you. I put the new hat on and off we went to dinner.
I wanted to take him to dinner so we had a fine meal at this tapas restaurant.  Brent then drove me to my hotel, we shook hands and agreed to meet up again as we both had a good friend connection.