Grandad’s Gimmie Caps

Grandad’s Gimmie Caps is a catalogue of hats that span the entirety of Doyce Middlebrook’s farming carrier in West Texas - from roughly the early 1960’s to the early 2000’s. They are accompanied by a transcription, taken from a recording, of Middlebrook speaking about each cap. Some of the stories are long, while others are sort. Occasionally the stories wander off and become about something more than the cap, while some stories are forgotten entirely. The stories are humble and matter-of-fact. They speak of a place- Lubbock county, a time- middle to late 20th century, and of a person- Doyce Middlebrook. Yet, in their matter-of-factness, in their, “I did business with so-and-so, and they gave me a cap, the end”, they are a portrait of a West Texas Farmer. As a whole, they are the culmination of choices, acquaintances, business deals, and products he found himself involved with while farming. They speak to an era of farming that is slowly being lost to time – lost to changing technologies, to the depletion of vital resources, to the daily requirements of a West Texas farmer.