When Everyone Wore Hats

Here's to the long-lost world of

Chain-smoking dreamers

War and baseball heroes

Ticker tape and streamers,

Cocktail drinkers, Bible believers

When light was still filling up a

New York river

They knew the grace of tradition

Possessed a love of decorum

Shook the hand of conviction

No one complained then of boredom

When everyone wore hats

They dreamed of ocean voyages

Believed in true romance

Found their hearts and voices

Here's to the long lost hopes of

Those mothers and fathers

Of rags to riches

Of style and manners

To the American dream in a

Pledge to honor

Promises made to their

Sons and daughters

Threw off the chains of depression

Built up the arms of aggression

Left us a mixed impression

Some died before they learned their lesson

When everyone wore hats

In the land of immigrants and pilgrims

The world came rolling off their backs

And landed on their children's

They knew the grace of tradition

Possessed a love of decorum

Shook the hand of conviction

No one complained then of boredom

When everyone wore hats

And innocence found simple pleasures

They built the cities, drew the maps

With clues to find their buried treasures

When everyone wore hats

And handed down their pride and prejudice

They dropped good fortune in our laps

We traded it for vice and avarice

When everyone wore hats

Would-be kings with ragged crowns

They say the style is coming back

What's out-of-fashion comes around

Uncertain where the road was leading

But trusting God was on their side

They traced the moral chain of being

And filmed it all in black and white

And everyone wore hats...