Marching Through Threadgill's March meeting minutes

Austin-tatious Red Hat Society held their third meeting on March 10th at Threadgill's World Headquarters on Riverside Dr. in Austin, TX. My hat is off to Threadgill's. They treated us like Royalty, rolling out the red carpet, making their complete menu available to us, and billing each table. What a pleasure it was to be sooooo catered to! We love Threadgill's so much that we decided to make them our Home Restaurant.

We started our disorder of the day with a Happy Hour in Threadgill's bar. OH were we Happy!!! It was truly a royal opportunity to mix and mingle for a full hour before being seated for lunch.

Anti-Parliamentarian Joanne Olsen greeted everyone as they entered and distributed name tags. The wonderful article in the Austin American Statesman was the answer to so many ladies' dreams. Dreams that came true for them when they joined us at Threadgill's! I believe there were 97 lovely Red and Pink hat ladies gathered together at Threadgill's on Riverside Dr. Across Town at Threadgill's on Lamar Blvd., a group of 10 ladies gathered. Opps… there are two Threadgill's in Austin!

120 ladies RSVPed, GRAND TOTAL of the TWO MEETINGS 107 Austin-tatious Red Hat Ladies out on the town in their Red Hats and Purple Attire!!! Is this a record for the largest meeting?

Oh and we had gentlemen admires!!! I spoke with several of them who stood in the entrance just in awe at the sight of all of "the most beautiful women in Austin gathered together in one place". Really, this is what they said! They thanked me for bringing all these lovely ladies together! I invited them to join us at our Happy Hour…. They looked to be of that certain age. Ohhhhh, but they were shy and declined the invitation.

Lady D handled the raffle tickets for the Hat Raffle. The winner of the hat raffle was allowed to choose either the red hat or the pink hat.

The Red Hat is a handmade felt hat which was embellished with black trim, sassy feathers, and beautiful black applique. The lady who embellished the hat sells them on ebay. She is 49 and disabled. She started embellishing Red Hats in the manner she thinks suits the persona of a Red Hat Lady after reading about the Red Hat Society. She told me she has sold over 50 hats through ebay to ladies who need hats to attend their Red Hat Society meetings. It remains to be claimed in the raffle at our April meeting.

The other hat was a Vintage (1950's era) Pink Chapeau covered in pink fabric flowers. This hat was purchased via ebay. The seller was helping her Dear Aunt Helen clean out her closet. Aunt Helen is 79 years young, who works to this day as a hairstylist. Aunt Helen was never fond of hats but needed them for church and special occasions. Aunt Helen prizes her family and her friends above all else. Truly a Red Hatter who never found a hat that suited her. It was chosen by Ruth Sandifer, our March Hat Raffle winner who was so tickled. Tickled Pink I'd say! She chose the pink hat, removed her lovely red hat and put her new pink hat on right there and then! Dear Aunt Helen's Pink Hat has some magical properties!. I do believe we will have to throw her a second 50th birthday party when she comes of age to wear the Red Hat once again.

The winner of the RSVP Red Hat box drawing was Cheryl Johnson. Cheryl had to phone in her RSVP due to my problem with the email server crash. The criterion to get into the Red Hat Box prize drawing was to send your RSVP by Midnight March 5th. Cheryl's prize was a coveted Red Feather Boa and a Hat Head one of my own royal creations. The Hat Head will look lovely upon Cheryl's dresser or in her foyer adorned with her Red Hat and Red Feather Boa when she isn't wearing them.

The other door prize drawings were 2 Purple Velvet Lipstick Cases. I believe, those went to Bobbie Mabry our email female, and Abby Demel-Brown. A box of Millionaires (candy) went to a Anne Huber. Penny Finuf won the Maxine Mouse Pad. Penny gifted her twin sister, who was in town to celebrate their 52nd birthday together, with the mouse pad! Shirley Martin won a Foot Bath donated by our new member, Barbara Irwin. But we don't have the name of the lady who won the lovely white and gold Button Bracelet, donated by Queen Joyce Ackerman of Sibley, Iowa.

I regret that the disorder of the day did not allow us to celebrate all the birthdays in a royal fashion. We will celebrate all of them next month is a very big way.

25 Red Hat ladies will be attending the Zilker Garden Festival on Saturday, March 31st. We will gather at the entrance to the Festival at 10 am in our Red Hats and Purple comfortable purple attire. Plans are being made to be in the Poppy Festival Parade in Georgetown, TX on March 7th. We have been asked to assist in registration for the Susan G. Komen Foundation Austin Race for the Cure in November. Penny Finuf, aka Nurse Cap is coordinating this Special Interest effort to assist in this community fundraiser for Breast Cancer research. We did not get the opportunity to discuss the invitation to attend and participate in the opening ceremonies for the Regional Capital Area Games at the Dell Jewish Community Center on May 3rd. These games are part of the Senior Olympics qualifying games to go to the State competition. If your interested please contact me.

Duchess Tulips arrived fashionably late bestowing red tulips upon members of the royal court and myself.

When it was time to be seated for our luncheon we paraded through Threadgill's main dining room to our private room. Dinners stopped eating to watch us pass. Several of us were stopped by the patrons to ask "who we were". One wit asked if we weren't being a bit "ostentatious". Funny man!

The only problem we had at Threadgill's is my little voice. It is so hard for me to speak loudly and be heard by all in such a large room. Abby suggested we pass a hat to buy a portable microphone to make it easier on all of us and a Hat was passed!

Our Webmistress, Pat in the Hat presented me with a gorgeous Scepter. It is handcrafted with a rainbow shaft wrapped in thick copper wire. The copper secures a crystal ball at the lower end, spirals up the rainbow shaft and forms a huge open work copper ball at the top which functions as a Bubble Wand.

The Crystal Ball showed great and wonderful things to come for Austin-tatious Red Hat Society when I gazed upon it. When I dipped the wand head into the Royal Bubbles those visions traveled down the copper spiraling wire over the rainbow shaft into the bubbles. I then blew those those Bubble visions out to all of you! May those Bubbles of well wishes, reach each and everyone of you.

Val, FQM
Austin-tatious Red Hat Society