Remembering a hatband

What a treat to read “From Princeton’s Vault” (Campus Notebook, June 1) and spot the hatband of my grandfather (Raymond H.A. Carter 1899) from the Class of 1899, complete with sacred bird. Here is a photo of him at his 50th reunion holding a straw hat with this hatband, alongside my father (Raymond H. Carter ’33) and me as a boy of 5, wearing the same 1899 hatband as a sash. In fact, I still have the hatband itself, as well as my grandfather’s reunion jacket and even drawings of the actual sacred bird — a weird mechanical device, I am told. I never realized the purpose of the hatband before, however. Thanks!

I also had two Class of 1933 reunion jackets and happily donated one to the Alumni Council’s Princetoniana collection, but I think I had best keep the Class of 1899 items and my father’s senior beer jacket for my son, John H. Carter ’96.