Red Hat Review

For many of the readers that followed the Melrose Mirror for many years, they knew that every January there was a review of annual activities of my local Red Hat group.

I shall try to be a little more consistent in timing our reviews so that the Patch readers can enjoy our activities vicariously more frequently.

This year, 2018 came with deep freezing and bitter cold. With our first monthly meeting on January 10th we started planning our cold weather functions.

January 16th. was to be trip to Arlington, for shopping and lunch, but because of poor road conditions we decided to stay close and we took in a movie in Woburn with lunch at The Restaurant. (Yup that's the name of The Restaurant). This is a Deli style restaurant where you order at the counter and bring, or get brought to the table all the delicious food you ordered. A great warm feeling place for such a cold day.

Feb 9th 2018 We headed out to Lexington to have a buffet lunch at the Minute Man dining room at the Vocational School. The food was hot and very good. The selections were salads, fish, beef, green beans, potatoes and pasta. Dessert for some of us was a lovely lemon tart. A good Red Hat day..

February 16th and today starts the Year of the Dog for the Chinese New Year. Thirteen members enjoyed the buffet at the Mandarin Restaurant in Reading. There was great food, Red Hat companionship and lots of talk for future trips. It was a really nice day for all of us.

With the weather in March producing three North East storms we were set back in our scheduled outings.

We had to miss the maple sugaring in Mason NH and even our March meeting had to be cancelled due to nineteen inches of snow.

But finally on ..

March 17^th six hearty members headed for Billerica and The Emerald Rose to celebrate the “wearing of the green”. Dressed in our usual purple outfits and Red Hats we touched ourselves with a dash of green and enjoyed a wonderful lunch, and a rollicking happy singing clapping time.

One of our members got there early so we were able to rush in when the doors opened. We grabbed a table in the bar where the singing was going on and we had a really wonderful, great green Red Hat Day.

March 18th and the kid’s feeling in our hearts came to life when we went to the United Methodist Church in Wakefield to watch a puppet show. The puppeteer is a member of the Tanglewood marionette traveling group and he was great. Most of the children sat on the floor in front of the stage and they, as we were, entertained to the story of Sleeping Beauty. It was a wonderful experience. After the show, our meal and our meeting took place at Phu Ket a Thai restaurant in Wakefield. Excellent service and great assortment of amazing foods made it a good Red Hat day.

March 29th and off to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit. There were displays of her basic but very serviceable clothing along with sculptures and painting that she had done over her years in New York and New Mexico. There were many black and white paintings and many done in vibrant New Mexico colors. It was a wonderful experience to view her works over the years; and to be able to follow her life in informative wall panels.

Our lunch was at the Hawthorne hotel, only a block away from the museum. As always we celebrated our day with a variety of good food and conversation and with the snow melting we spoke of spring finally arriving to New England.

April 3^rd and we returned to the Plumbing Museum in Watertown. It has been a few years since we came to this location and it was once again a fun tour. Our guide Linda Veikng has been with the museum for many years and her knowledge of the facility and the outstanding exhibit was great.

Last time we were here we saw a new heated toilet seat that came from Japan; now you might think that there was no place else “to go” but this seat has been eliminated from the display and replace by a more modern unit made in America version. Check this out…by using a remote, like your TV remote, the cover of the seat can be lifted for either a male or female’s needs. You can play music while reading the Melrose Mirror or you can use your I phone because you have Y Fy availability. This is perhaps something that most of us might not purchase because of the $6,000 price but it is a fun show to watch.

Our lunch was at John Brewers Pub and the food was very good, the camaraderie or the group is always enjoyable and once again, a great Red Hat Day.

April 15th and the members of the Melrose High School were putting on the play Evita. We had nine members going for the show which cost us $12.00 The students of the drama club are very good. They are serious about their performances and we all enjoyed the show very much. We ate at Stearns & Hills which is a great local “get together” restaurant. We did not travel far but we all had a great day.

April 18th and we had planned to go to Penzy’s herb store in Arlington. We ended up with only 5 members meeting so we decided to put this trip on hold and we chose to go and see a movie. We drove,(in one car) to Danvers to see Chappaquiddick .

The movie was o.k. but lunch at BBC in Danvers was very good. Great atmosphere, excellent service and after all it ended up to be another great Red Hat Day.

May 10^th and it was off to get a tour at Channel 2 in Brighton. The tour guide, Cindy was exceptional. We were able to view shows in progress, we learned about all the ins and outs of GBH (Great Blue Hills), and all the technical things that are going on as we watch or listen to Public Television. It really was a very learning experience done in a very nice way. We were also part of the show as two of the members of the channel asked to take our pictures. Great Fun for us too.

Lunch was at the Stockyard restaurant across the street and we were all happy with that food experience also. Good food, good service and our own good company.

May 20 and the Trinity Episcopal Church in Melrose was having a play called Moon over Buffalo. The show was funny and well done and we were nine members today enjoying a good laugh. We had our dinner this evening at Bobby C's in Malden/Melrose. The food is always good but the service was slow because they do cook to order. The waitress was very good so we waited and talked about the play, future outings and how lucky we are just "to be" Red Hatters. Another outstanding Red Hat day.

This ends the first five months of our trips that have been out and about. We hope that you have enjoyed part of our social lives. We do believe that having fun is keeping us young and smiling; we plan to continue so check out the Melrose Mirror Patch next month.