There’s something to be said for a person who just worries about their own business, as opposed to the people who wildly overstep the bounds of propriety, taste, consideration and even the law.
Like the time in 1922 when people in New York City started riots over straw hats.
The story of the Straw Hat Riot is rooted in a whole bunch of social rules about fashion that people today might find completely bizarre.
In those days, when a gentleman went out, he wore a hat; he just did.
In cooler months, this was practical as well as stylish, but in summer, a fellow could keep cool by swapping out his fancy, formal hat for one made of straw.
But society insisted that men put the straw hats away by September 15 (they had a specific date!) and anyone who wore a straw hat after then did so at the risk of having a rando grab the straw hat off his head and smash it to bits in the street.
Newspapers warned people about this when the deadline drew near!
But in 1922, the strict headgear more turned into a Roaring Twenties version of the Purge.
Wild gangs of youths decided that they didn’t want to wait until September 15th to start smashing people’s hats.
The straw hat-wearing faithful decided to fight back, which prompted the gangs to start using weapons to just start clobbering people.
Newspapers claimed there were entire city blocks overrun by rioters, looking to pummel people with straw hats.
When the cops showed up, the troublemakers went elsewhere to do more crimes.
Finally after several days of this order was restored, which was great news to everyone except… hat stores, who had made extra money replacing all those smashed chapeaus.
In October 2024, a guy in Oklahoma was facing a criminal charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.
He needed to get to a hearing, but didn’t have a ride… at least until he saw that an ambulance crew had left its vehicle running while they stopped into a gas station.
The good news was that he did make it to the courthouse, although by then he was facing another charge about taking a vehicle without permission.
The 1922 Straw Hat Riot Was One of the Weirdest Crime Sprees in American History (Slate)
Oklahoma man accused of stealing emergency truck to make it to court hearing on car theft charges (New York Post)