“A Warning”

I visited town a couple of Saturdays ago and was startled to find it over run with elegant ladies of a certain age – all togged out in amazing red hats and purple gear. They didn’t appear to be selling anything, promoting anything, or supporting anything.

I eventually cornered a couple and asked what it was all about. She told me to google Red Hatters.

And this is what I found.

“A Warning”

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.
With a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me,
and I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
And say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickles for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
And things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me
Are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!

Jenny Joseph

The pic is from their website – although I should have taken my own.  Didn’t like to intrude – they were having such a good time.   Red Hatter I spoke to suggested I join.   Said I would fit in.

I took it as a compliment :-).