Hat fever shows nostalgia for yesterday’s Sonoma Valley

Nostalgia for Sonoma’s olden days of farmland, agriculture and small, family-owned business has manifested itself in the form of trucker-hat-frenzy.

Matt Wirick, a Sonoma Planning Commissioner and lifelong local, recently resurrected the logo of his family’s landmark business, Stornetta’s Dairy Farm, and added them to trucker hats made by Sonoma Embroidery. It began as a fun way to mark a family reunion, but rampant demand from outside the familial lineage was so great, he’s now selling them at cost on Facebook. Last week’s drop of 50 hats sold out in less than 24 hours.

His post’s comment section is flooded with people trying to get their orders in, as well as fond memories about the iconic family business that was first started by Wirick’s great-great grandparents, Charles and Mary Stornetta.

Wirick placed his first order for a batch of hats about five years ago, a fun keepsake he planned to pass out at a family reunion. They sported the old Stornetta’s Dairy Farm logo, which hasn’t been in use since 1977, when the company merged with Clover Sonoma, a larger dairy production and distribution company.

“It was emotional for some, my grandma being one of them,” Wirick said of presenting the hats.

After he and other family members were seen wearing the specialty caps around town, public interest started to peak, and people asked how they, too, could nab a new piece of old history.

Wirick had a few extras from the reunion, which he quickly gave out. “People just love that old Sonoma throwback imagery,” he said.

As more requests rolled in, he made a fresh batch, which he sells at cost for $25. It’s not about profit, it’s about legacy, for Wirick. And the demand keeps growing.

For his fourth batch of hats, which should be available sometime next week, he upped his order to 150. Sticking with the theme of small business, he uses Sonoma Embroidery for the hats’ production.

“I’m not making money, I never intended to, it’s just something that warms my heart and I know that I warms other people’s hearts to see that imagery around still, especially in light of the fact that our old dairy plant was lost in the 2017 fires,” Wirick said.

He remembered the neon clock that adorned the old Stornetta’s barn on Carneros Highway for decades after the merger, adding that many considered it a regional landmark. To him, seeing that clock meant he was almost home.

After the Clover merger, it wasn’t long before operation were relocated to the company’s Petaluma dairy. The property went through a few iterations before it was sold by the family just before the 2017 fires, which burned everything that remained on site, including the neon clock.

Wirick thinks the hats are so popular because people in Sonoma, especially those who have been here for a long time, have a deep and nostalgic appreciation for the way the Valley used to be.

“It started out as a very agriculture-centric, small, very small town where everyone knew one another — there weren’t a lot of big corporate interests. And, I think that this whole experience has reminded me that there is a thread of that still left. These descendants of these multi-generational agriculture families that are still around,” Wirick said.

He’s not the only multi-generational Sonoman who had the idea to produce caps that pay homage to their family histories in this Valley.

Patrick Hellen, whose part of Sonoma’s rodeo-riding Millerick family, recently resurrected the branding from “Go Broke Cattle Co.” with his own hat, a nod to the family’s old Schellville ranch.

Maci Bettencourt of the Church family did the same thing, with a throwback hat featuring branding from Church’s Milk Transportation.

Last year, after lifelong resident John McNeilly was hospitalized with major injuries following a car accident, Dan Morgan used the famed McNeilly’s Tavern logo on a cap to raise money for his friend’s medical bills.

Each time hats were released, Sonomans jumped at the chance to get their hands on a new piece of history.

“I think that there are other places that are like Sonoma that still exist, but it’s pretty unique to our town that people, I think, still have interest int things that were there so long ago and just elements of people’s childhood that they fondly remember,” Wirick said.

He considers himself a “Sonoma nerd,” and is deeply invested in the history of his family and the town they’ve called home for generation.

As a member of Sonoma’s Planning Commission, he said he tries to bring that passion and knowledge into making wise decisions about the city’s future growth, but he still enjoys the rose-colored glasses of the past, which he gets when he sees people wearing Stornetta’s logo around town.

“It’s neat for me for me and my family to see that because it keeps that legacy alive in one regard, and now I run into people I don’t even know who are wearing these hats,” he said.

Wirick will post the next drop of his hats on his Facebook page when they come in, likely some time next week. With prompt timing and $25, anyone can order one - he puts them up for grabs on his personal Facebook page.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com.