Tall hats, short hats, fur and feather; hats with fruits and hats with flowers —

Silk hats, straw hats, lace and leather, the Emblem Club saw hats for hours.

That is, hats were the summer tea theme for Oak Harbor Emblem Club 450.

Be it a bonnet, a pillbox hat, a day cap, a turban-style wrap or a derby, whatever women’s fashion dictated for hat styles in decades past were present at the club’s tea.

Event co-chair and club member Shirley Broadbent said the Emblem Club’s summer tea, which took place Saturday, is one of the club’s annual events and fundraisers.

She said every year the club picks a different theme for the tea, and this year members chose “Hats from then and now” as the theme because they wanted to book the locally renowned “Hat Lady.”

The hat lady, otherwise known as Anne Louise Petersen of Oak Harbor, has done her hat show for the past 25 years. After having fallen into the role by accident years ago, Petersen found she had a gift for not only donning hats and looking good in them, but also taking on the persona and history wrapped up in each of the different hats. Then, she shares these aspects of hats with a mix of humor and information.

One minute Petersen can look like great Aunt Mildred and the next like Deborah Kerr in “An Affair To Remember” — a cherry-hatted matron from a Norman Rockwell painting, or Hedda Hooper, the 1930s queen of outlandish hats.

“Hats are fun,” Petersen said, putting on one of the hundreds of hats she had brought to the tea and giving another charade of fashion.

Petersen made jokes about the frivolity and humor of some hats, the extravagance of others, and the prudishness, primness or sheer ridiculousness of others.

“There is something about wearing hats,” Petersen said. “You can wear a hat in all different ways.”

Petersen’s hat presentation brought a air of gaiety and laughter to the tea. After, club members and guests thanked Petersen for the memories of family members her antics had brought to mind along with the many snippets of history she had given.

“My grandmother wouldn’t go to the store without a hat,” club member Joan Blately said.

Petersen wasn’t the only tea-time guest showing off her hats. Guests and club members alike brought their own hats to show and model.

“I’ve been doing this for the past 25 years, and this is probably the most decorated and hat centered event I’ve seen,” Petersen said. “I can really say I’ve never seen it done more lovely.”

Emblem Club members had not only arrived personally decorated, they had also decorated tables with antique jewelry, hat pins, gloves, black and white photos and lace.

Broadbent said the club members’ efforts were rewarded with the amount of funds the event raised. Budgeted in the beginning of the year as a $300 fundraiser, the tea brought in over three times that amount.

Broadbent said funds raised at club events go to a variety of local organizations and efforts, such as high school scholarships, hearing and sight aid, children’s programs and and the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

She said she and the club would like to thank all those who helped and attended the event, because she said the group would not have had a successful event without this community participation.

“Oh, it was very nice and very well done,” said Oak Harbor resident Hellen Olney, a guest at the tea. “I enjoyed the whole thing. They do a lot of work to get it together.”

“Hats off to the Emblem Club” seemed to be the general consensus as guests left the summer tea.