The story behind the tam

Dear sir:
Hi, this is the old guy with the plaid tam again. You know, “Rapid Robert.”
Recently I’ve been asked the story about my tam, or “barrett.” To satisfy those inquisitive people, I’ll try to make it short and simple.
When I was in the army in World War II, I was issued a black barrett as that was part of the Field Artillery uniform. Then when I was discharged, I didn’t feel comfortable with the civvy headware of the day, so I continued to wear the black barrett.
Finally after many years, I wore out the army issue and went to the plaid tam because they could be purchased anywhere (remember how nearly all curlers had plaid tams). I used to get mine from Forsberg and Lindberg, or McTaggarts.
But all at once, the plaid tams left the market and couldn’t be purchased anywhere. So my wife, Eve, said to me one day, “I’ll make you some tams.” And she did.
We operated the Red Deer Lodge at Nestor Falls and our American guests wanted the kind or colour of tam that I wore. Eve would make about 36 tams, of all plaids, and then she’d put them for sale in our store.
Well, it was funny, guests wanted the colour I was wearing. So, when we would run out of a certain colour from the three dozen lot, I would put on a different colour. One we had lots of, etc. etc. (business smarts, eh?)
Long after we sold Red Deer, Eve would get orders for tams from individuals—usually wives who wanted something different for their husband’s birthday or anniversary. We obliged.
One odd note on this is that most people think I probably wear the same tam and some of my tams may all look like it. However, I have a stack of old decapitated tams—numbering in the dozens.
I have worn the tam, or barrett, for 61 years, and I have enough new ones that Eve made for me in “better” days to last a while. I just took stock and find that I have enough to keep me going until I’m 100 years old, which is 20 years from now.
At that time, I’ll take stock again and I’m sure I will come up with an answer.
Many people come up to me and ask, “Are you Scottish?” My answer is always the same and that is, “First I’m a Canadian.”
Yes, I am from Scotland decent. But as stated before, “I am a very proud Canadian,” and I love my country.
Respectfully,
Bob Cottam
Emo, Ont.