Hilarious!  And I apologize to all for the puzzlement!  The German
man was wearing an old-fashioned hat, a fedora or homburg-style hat
like men used to wear more frequently in the 1950's and 1960's.  His
business card had his photo wearing "the hat".  It was just such a
distinct part of my memory of selling that van in 1995 that I wrote
it down without thinking about it's implications.

On Aug 13, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

> "... to a German gentleman (he wore a hat)..."
>
> [fuddles brow in puzzlement]
>
> What kind of hat? A German hat? A German gentleman's hat? I
> sometimes wear
> a hat. Now I wonder if people think I'm German when I wear a hat.
>
> This little bit of extra information leads to so many questions,
> not one
> of which is Vanagon-oriented, so I apologize for even bringing this
> up ...
> b-but others might want to be on the lookout for men wearing hats
> which
> indicate, either by the cut of their hat, or the simple fact that
> they are
> in fact out and about wearing hats at all, that they are German.
> And take
> action accordingly.
>
>
> On 8/12/2009 8:23 PM Melissa Mourkas wrote:
>
>> I sold my first Westy, an '85, in 1995 to a German gentleman (he wore
>> a hat) who claimed he was going to ship it back to Germany for sale.
>> There may be some truth to this.
>>

Melissa Mourkas
84 Westy