Attack of the Red Hats!

I had a bit of a surreal experience when meeting a friend for lunch today.

We were meeting at a local Mom'n'Pop Italian place, one of my favorite restaurants in town. Very small place - the husband cooks and the wife waits tables.
When I arrived, there were 10 older ladies there, all wearing purple, and wearing bright red hats, often with some sort of overdone ornamentation...
Dear Lord, I've run into the Red Hat Society...

I'd heard about Redhatters, primarily from seeing an increasing amount of "Red hat society" items appearing in needlework catalogs. Apparently the whole phenomenon started out by someone writing a poem about wearing purple when she gets old, and a red hat that doesn't match. So now there seem to be a bunch of little old ladies running around with purple clothes and red hats.

And now they've invaded the Space Coast.

By the time my friend arrived, there were 20 Redhatters in attendance. In a restaurant that seats maybe 30. I felt a bit disconcerted by the whole Red Hat Invasion. And I was glad I wasn't wearing purple!

When I am old, I may still wear purple (since I do now). But if I start wearing a red hat, I hereby give my DH permission to have me committed.