Cleaning Files, Tossing and Smiling

     I am  taking an hour lunch break. Well I am still going through my files and boxes of stuff and tossing what I don't need. I can't believe how much paper I have. (groan)  Happy to say that I found my Reginald Lewis book, Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? http://journals.aol.com/vryanes/vw/entries/449  And I found a poem that is a keeper. I first saw and bought this poem when I was Savannah many years ago, simply because it spoke to me.  Whenever I think of Savannah, I have good thoughts about my former boss and still good friend. I noticed a photo on her desk, she told me that it was taken in Savannah and the rest is history. I spent 10 glorious days there, less than a stones throw from the water. I look forward to heading back one day. I am sure that I have posted this info earlier, but this poem returned me to Savannah once more. I kept it hanging in my office. Never really thinking of its meaning.  Now, I have find that it was adopted by the Red Hat Society.  The title is "Warning" and it was written by Jenny Joseph.  It has always reminded me of a lovely woman at UMDNJ.  I wonder if she is a member of the Red Hat Society, I don't why I did not think of that a few years back. MMmmm. I wonder--is it just coincidence that the entry to my journal is red and purple?            

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 goout in myslippers 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 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