From Hooters Girls to Red Hat Ladies

I am officially in love with the Red Hat Ladies.  If you are unfamiliar with this, it is basically a social and philanthropic society for ladies over 50.  Perhaps you've seen them, they wear fabulous red hats and purple dresses.  Actually, I'll just describe them as fabulous in general.  Yes, I love the Red Hat Ladies and the Red Hat Ladies adore Hooters Girls.

This mutual adoration began over a year ago when a group of Red Hat Ladies chanced into Hooters because the IHOP next door was busy.  Rather than move the whole little group across town, the ladies decided Hooters was a good second choice.  A long lunch, extreme hula-hoop session and several dance lessons later the Red Hat Ladies were officially Hooters biggest fans.

Now here we are a year later and the Red Hat Ladies of the great state of Montana find themselves gathering for their yearly convention.  The convention that is the Red Hat Ladies' biggest gathering is held at a different location around the state annually; this year the convention is right across the street from Hooters.  Naturally, this means that we have been inundated with Red Hat Ladies.  I can only describe this as amazing.  Never before have I met a group of women who are more in love with life.  They will try anything.  They will sing and dance and make fools of themselves.  They will laugh out loud and yell and not care who's listening.  Basically they fit in with us just fine.

In addition to our restaurant being overrun with loudly dressed women, we were invited to act as entertainment for their keynote banquet.  Imagine a room filled with hundreds of older women in loud shades of red and purple being entertained by five Hooters Girls.  Of course we came out hula-hooping and yelling and smiling.  The ladies loved this.  No sooner had I introduced the girls and proclaimed us "future Red Hatters", the ladies were on their feet cheering and applauding.  They enthusiastically learned the Cotton-Eyed Joe and loved the YMCA.  Then we began to bunny hop.  As we hopped around the room I looked back to see what was the longest, loudest, most totally awesome bunny hop line I have ever been a part of.  Awesome.  Then on completion, a most adorable woman gave us each our own envelope inscribed "Hooter" that held a ten dollar bill.  Not necessary, but adorable.

So why are the Red Hat Ladies so drawn to Hooters?  Well as I was told by many a Red Hatter, they see themselves in us.  They say they would have been Hooters Girls had it been around way back when.  Red Hat Ladies are Hooters Girls and Hooters Girls are Red Hat Ladies.  Their own website states, "in the Red Hat Society, we throw most "rules" to the wind, but we still remember our manners. When we gather in public, we believe in being courteous to each other and to those around us. After all, we are ladies and members of a group like no other."  Yup, that sounds like Hooters Girls to me.

So yeah, I'm a Hooters Girl and I love it.  I also think I'm a future Red Hat Lady and I might just love that even more.