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SPOTLIGHT ON A SECURITY OFFICER www.privateofficer.com
October 31, 2008
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SPOTLIGHT ON A SECURITY OFFICER http://www.privateofficer.com
Rochester NY OCT 31 2008
South Dakota was easy. A store right across the street from Bob McGinty’s hotel had a variety of souvenirs including a baseball cap with “SOUTH DAKOTA” across the front, accompanied by an outline of Mount Rushmore.
North Dakota was another matter. After being directed to a Fargo sporting goods store, McGinty was unable to find a cap that would fit in with his collection.
He headed for the store’s embroidery section so he could custom-order a hat to his liking, but an employee told him she didn’t know if they could embroider on a hat.
But she took his name, address, and order just in case, and after McGinty returned home to Rochester a few weeks later, a North Dakota cap arrived in the mail.
For every cap, there’s a story. Since 2004, McGinty has been collecting hats from every state in the union with the help of family, friends, and co-workers. He recently completed his 51-hat collection — there’s one from Washington D.C., too — after a cross-country, 18-state trip with his wife.
His caps are now on display in a closet in his house in Rochester, his hometown for all of his 66 years, save for a stint in the U.S. Air Force.But they don’t just gather dust. McGinty, who works as a security guard at the Rochester School of the Deaf, wears a different hat to work every day.
“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by when I’m at school where somebody asks me ‘What state you got on today?’ ” says McGinty.The project, which has spanned five years, was sometimes made difficult by the rules McGinty laid out for himself. City names weren’t allowed; neither were sports teams or college logos.
This meant some work for McGinty’s wife Chun, who used her sewing kit to remove “Badgers” from McGinty’s Wisconsin hat and “Razorbacks” from his Arkansas hat.
Most important of all, however, is that each cap had to come from the state that bears its name.”Illinois was one of the hardest hats to find,” said McGinty. “The people who go through the Chicago airport, all they find are hats that say Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears. Nothing that just says Illinois.”
As for color, he prefers blues, greens, beiges, and blacks — nothing too flashy — which McGinty’s friends say fits his personality. Among the caps he purchased for himself, McGinty’s favorite is New Hampshire, because it features the state’s logo “Live Free or Die” across the back. He also likes Washington, D.C., and Connecticut.
“The Connecticut one is a beauty, and I never realized it’s called The Nutmeg State,” said McGinty. “So you learn things, too.”Bill Wegman, a fellow security guard at RSD, has watched McGinty’s collection grow over the past few years.
“Just the sheer difficulty in trying to complete such an endeavor … I never thought he’d actually see it through,” said Wegman.Though McGinty has visited all but a handful of states in his life, more than half of the hats in his collection came from friends and co-workers. When Wegman’s sister came to visit from Virginia, Wegman asked her to bring along a hat, making sure that it fit all of McGinty’s specifications.
“It shows he has a lot of friends,” said Wegman. “Some people, when they go on vacation, they want to do their own thing, but we all say ‘I’m going to get Bob this hat he really wants.’ “
South Dakota was easy. A store right across the street from Bob McGinty’s hotel had a variety of souvenirs including a baseball cap with “SOUTH DAKOTA” across the front, accompanied by an outline of Mount Rushmore.
North Dakota was another matter. After being directed to a Fargo sporting goods store, McGinty was unable to find a cap that would fit in with his collection.
He headed for the store’s embroidery section so he could custom-order a hat to his liking, but an employee told him she didn’t know if they could embroider on a hat.
But she took his name, address, and order just in case, and after McGinty returned home to Rochester a few weeks later, a North Dakota cap arrived in the mail.
For every cap, there’s a story. Since 2004, McGinty has been collecting hats from every state in the union with the help of family, friends, and co-workers. He recently completed his 51-hat collection — there’s one from Washington D.C., too — after a cross-country, 18-state trip with his wife.
His caps are now on display in a closet in his house in Rochester, his hometown for all of his 66 years, save for a stint in the U.S. Air Force.But they don’t just gather dust. McGinty, who works as a security guard at the Rochester School of the Deaf, wears a different hat to work every day.
“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by when I’m at school where somebody asks me ‘What state you got on today?’ ” says McGinty.The project, which has spanned five years, was sometimes made difficult by the rules McGinty laid out for himself. City names weren’t allowed; neither were sports teams or college logos.
This meant some work for McGinty’s wife Chun, who used her sewing kit to remove “Badgers” from McGinty’s Wisconsin hat and “Razorbacks” from his Arkansas hat.
Most important of all, however, is that each cap had to come from the state that bears its name.”Illinois was one of the hardest hats to find,” said McGinty. “The people who go through the Chicago airport, all they find are hats that say Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears. Nothing that just says Illinois.”
As for color, he prefers blues, greens, beiges, and blacks — nothing too flashy — which McGinty’s friends say fits his personality. Among the caps he purchased for himself, McGinty’s favorite is New Hampshire, because it features the state’s logo “Live Free or Die” across the back. He also likes Washington, D.C., and Connecticut.
“The Connecticut one is a beauty, and I never realized it’s called The Nutmeg State,” said McGinty. “So you learn things, too.”Bill Wegman, a fellow security guard at RSD, has watched McGinty’s collection grow over the past few years.
“Just the sheer difficulty in trying to complete such an endeavor … I never thought he’d actually see it through,” said Wegman.Though McGinty has visited all but a handful of states in his life, more than half of the hats in his collection came from friends and co-workers. When Wegman’s sister came to visit from Virginia, Wegman asked her to bring along a hat, making sure that it fit all of McGinty’s specifications.
“It shows he has a lot of friends,” said Wegman. “Some people, when they go on vacation, they want to do their own thing, but we all say ‘I’m going to get Bob this hat he really wants.’ “
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