The Toughest Decision of His Life

            The toughest decision he had to face came on his first day of camp as a 7-year-old. If the wrong decision was made, a disaster could be in store. How could he possibly get his sunscreen on when the balance of the world was sitting idly on his bed? Red Phillies hat, or blue Phillies hat? He still couldn’t decide when his mom told him to grab his lunchbox and get in the car. He grabbed both. He asked his cousin Joey which hat he thought was the choice for the day and Joey responded by choosing the same red Phillies hat awkwardly hovering around his ears. The kid put it on, the blue hat sitting longingly in his hands. Wasn’t there a way to make this horrible, no-good, rotten, awful problem go away? Ah-ha! The light bulb flashed above the kid’s head with the most brilliant idea. “Wear both hats,” he said to himself. He placed his Red Phillies hat backwards on his bushel of frighteningly blonde hair. Unstrapping the blue hat and adjusting it to be a size bigger, he placed it frontward on top of his other hat. He had the ultimate tandem – the double hat. How much cooler could he look than with two hats on in opposite directions, a lime green striped tank top, a bright blue bathing suit, and the not-so-timeless water-shoes that everyone seemed to rock back in the 90’s. The camp season of 1996 had officially kicked off and so too had his style. The two hats would never be worn individually for the rest of the summer.