Twinkie's Chapeau

The Red Hat Society has the right idea: brighten the world with an abundance of fabulous knock-em-out hats. Personally, I'm not the RHS type. Oh, I love red hats (as you can see from the old Clearwater photo) but a large gathering of women dressed to the teeth is not me. It's too many stories at once. When Mrs. Greene gave me all her hats before she died, she told me about her husband having been a hatter and her father, when he was head of the public library in New York City, had often invited Willa Cather to lunch. Somehow her hat collection with its charming, original designs had the aura of handmade finery and literature. I stopped in McDonald's on Sunday for a mango pineapple smoothie and was delighted to see a hat with an enormous flower. The woman wearing it was in a small wheelchair in the back of which was a musical instrument case and a pale cream recorder. She was sitting with a man who in the old days my mother would have called, "Dapper." Naturally, I had to compliment the hat. When I did, the man said, "That's Twinkie." I said to her, "Hi, Twinkie. Are you a violin player?" He answered, "No, that's me and it's a ukulele." I asked, "Oh, do you play mountain music?" That's when I discovered he and Twinkie are local celebrities. Out came a folio of hand written sheet music, demo cd's, photos, a brief history of gigs, and a YouTube address. Over the years, I have given away all of Mrs. Greene's hats with their message of beauty and optimism. How she would have enjoyed meeting Twinkie and would have added a teasing note about my McDonald's/Wendy's/Taco Bell addiction. She exclaimed once, "You and your fast food cosmic convergences! You have the best chance encounters there!" I replied, "What can I say, Mrs. Greene; there are no more Automats." 

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...may blessings find you wherever you stop by...