Memories

June 22

I am thankful for memories. It's funny how something so insignificant as a hat display will bring you into a series of fond memories that make you laugh.

We were on a day trip to Pontchatoula, Louisiana, a couple of weeks ago and were browsing in the old Pontchatoula train station, which had been converted into an arts, crafts, and antiques store, and came upon this red hat display, symbolic for the Red Hat Society. It brought back fond memories of my mother, when she told me the story about the Red Hat Society when I was asking about her assortment of red hats decorated with purple. The Red Hat Society was founded in 1997, probably unintentionally, by an artist named Sue Ellen Cooper, from Fullerton, California, who gave a friend an antique red hat for her 55th birthday, and attached the words to a Jenny Joseph poem which included the lines "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple; With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me." As they say in this internet age, it went 'viral' and the rest is history. According to Wikipedia, as of 2011, there were more than 40,000 chapters in the world. I like that the women in this social group embrace silliness and poke light hearted fun at their advancing age. Whenever I see a red hat I will forever more think of my mother and smile.

red hat

red hat, purple hat

all those fine and fancy hats

wish i could see a hundred

hat wearing aristocrats

sipping coffee

and downing chamomile tea

smiling and laughing

comfortable as can be.

© rt tulley