When I am an Old Women I Shall Wear Purple!!

As I was working on these two Flowers for a swap this evening ~

I couldn't help but think about the poem, "Warning!" by Jenny Joseph.

I remember when this poem was so popular back in the late 1990s and when the Red Hat Society was so big - and as I have researched it, still is!! 

Warning!!

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which 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'm 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 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 pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats 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 must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

By Jenny Joseph (1932 - )

Do you remember this poem??  And are you a Red Hat Society member??  :-))