What a Character

I drove home from the book club thinking about how we arrive at decisions.  Why do we do the things we do?  I'm not talking about big, life-changing decisions.  I'm talking about the little decisions, like why do some people wear socks that don't match and how does that fit into the overall scope of their persona.  Mostly, I was trying to figure out this man I saw while I was writing. 

What would possibly inspire a man to wear a coon-skinned cap to a coffee shop?  Otherwise, this man was somewhat normal.  He wore faded jeans with an elastic band, white tennis shoes, and a stable coat.  Not what I would call fashionable, but certainly not weird.  Underneath the carcass on his head, he wore a Bluetooth headset.  Although slightly out of place, the Bluetooth completed the look. 

I started thinking about character development.  How could such a small, albeit furry, gesture speak to the type of man beneath the hat?  I ruled out potential reasons for choosing the hat.  This was not a random act, as in "oh I just grabbed the first thing I saw".  He did not stand before his hat rack choosing between a baseball cap, stocking cap, and a coon-skinned cap.  He did not look like a collector of rare hats.  The decision to wear a coon-skinned cap must be purposeful. 

I searched further for an answer.  Perhaps he went small game hunting and caught his first coon.  The taxidermist was too costly, so he made a hat out of the hide.  Maybe his great-great grandfather bequeathed the dead varmint to him, and in honor of his relative he dons the hat on the last Saturday of the month. 

I guess I will never know the real reason he wore the cap.  I regret the decision not to ask him, but the fashion statement left me speechless.  I later asked a friend of mine who hunts about this situation.  His answer left me unsatisfied, yet maybe it was just that simple.  My friend said, "It's warm."