What does it mean when a guy tips his hat?

About two days ago me and my mom went for a walk at the park. Usually there aren’t many people there at the time we go but this time there were a few people. There was this one guy in particular who was walking behind a little boy who I’m guessing was his nephew or something. The weird part was, he was in long pants and was wearing a hat even though it was real hot outside. I didn’t get a good look at his face or anything but my mom said supposedly he looked to be in his 20’s maybe. We walked by him like twice but the second time we walked by him, out of the corner of my eye I saw that he tipped his hat while looking at me. I thought maybe it was my imagination because I wasn’t really paying attention all that much but my mom pointed it out and said she saw it too. I was thinking that’s a really random thing for a guy to do if you’re just walking lol. So my question is what does it mean when a guy tips his hat? Is that like something a guy does to be a gentleman? I’m just curious