Rhode Island Hats

Rhode Island wears its smallness as a badge. Coffee milk has been the official state drink since 1993, and a coffee cabinet is the milkshake version: coffee ice cream, coffee syrup and milk. The pizza strip is cheeseless tomato sauce on a thick focaccia-like crust, sold at Italian bakeries at room temperature, a style said to come from avoiding waste and a Health Department objection to cheese left out. Hot wieners come on a steamed bun with meat sauce, mustard, onion and celery salt, sold as New York System wieners. Del's is the frozen lemonade, and the whole state fits inside Texas 221 times, which is why a locally made T-shirt claims Rhode Island is 3% bigger at low tide. These Rhode Island hats start with the badges RHODE ISLAND and LITTLE RHODY, then go through THE OCEAN STATE, COFFEE MILK, DEL'S LEMONADE SEASON, QUAHOG and HOT WIENERS. The longer lines carry the jokes locals make about their own size: the lunch packed for a 20 minute drive, the state that is neither a road nor an island, room temperature pizza as a delicacy, and the 3% at low tide. COFFEE MILK and 3% BIGGER AT LOW TIDE get a second colorway. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to the beach, the bakery counter, or anywhere the state is smaller than the story.