Red Hatters May 2019

After our regular meeting on the morning of May 8th a few of our members went to meet Amelia Earhart in the evening.

Sheryl Faye was the guest speaker at the AAUW (American Association University Women)meeting held at the United Methodist Church in Melrose.

Sheryl is, in herself a compelling one-woman show depicting historical women.

She portrays the women ,tonight Amelia Earhart,in such a real way the audience was spellbound. You could feel her excitement as she took of on her first 10 minute flight; and later when she flew across the Atlantic Ocean. Quick costume changes as she performed were hardly noticed. She spoke and moved with the assurance of an accomplished pilot and the hero of the whole world.

It was an inspiring presentation and we shall check her website for her future appearances. www.sherylfaye.com.

May 10th and we took a ride to the Movie Theater in Danvers to see the new movie POMS.

It was a delightful movie of women of "our age" that were celebrating life. No shooting , no beating up,no bad language..just a wonderful light fun movie.

After the show we drove a few minutes to have lunch at the Sylvan Street Grill which is always good. There were leftovers and laughter and a great day to be a Red Hatter.

On May 16th a small group of our membership went to Arlington to see the one man, funny rendition of the play My Mother is Italian, My Father is Jewish and I'm in Therapy.

It was a wonderful two hours of laughter and memories of our own families as we were going into adulthood. We passed on lunch today because of other commitments but it was a great laugh out loud, fun filled Red Hat afternoon.

ON May 19th. we had planned to go to a play at a local Church in Melrose but.. only three members were available so we changed our course. We are Red Hatters and we can change our mind, you know. We thought a new restaurant,or old to some of us, was deserving of our patronage.

The Good Thyme's restaurant is located in Lowell, so off we went to check out their current menu. We had a fifteen minute wait so I headed for the ladies room to find two men had lost their way and were occupying the room. What a Shock! As it was no one was in the men's room, so I used it. So much for excitement even before the meal.

The meals were great! We had seafood casseroles that were moist and tasty and served by a waitress that was funny and efficient. It was a good idea that we had to change our original plans for the day

But the day was not over yet; just about a mile up the road on the way home we almost past Gary's ice cream stand. Well almost was not good enough so we stopped for our final fun food for the day. The sun was out so we sat at a table and enjoyed the taste and the pleasure of an ice cream cone with Red Hat friends. It was a GOOD day.

May 23rd a car full of Red Hatters (five members)drove to Portsmouth New Hampshire to visit the Dumb Guys Museum. Yup; the name is correct.

Clay Emery and Rod Hildebrand are those two guys. Clay and his wife live in a very lovely house just up the street from the ocean; and Rod lives a bit up the road.

The museum is in the basement of Clay's house. It is a small room, or room and a half that display a whole lot of fun "stuff".

Both men have been playing with miniature figures and train sets for many years. I should not use the term playing because they are both very serious at making their museum true to life figures, cities and saloons.

Clay's wife Susan made coffee and some great cookies for us to enjoy as
Clay and Rod gave us an update on how they started and why they continue
to arrange and re-arrange the basement with miniature scenes that bring
smiles to any visitors.

There is a two track train set that run around and through a city of homes, trees, cars and people. There are miniature figures set in a variety of scenes from the wild west to the army complete with cannon and jeep.

There is the saloon with all the members of the community standing around on the porch.

There are scenes of current action figures including Wonder Woman; and a fireman in full uniform. You can see The Lone Ranger and Tonto in action; and those miniatures

dressed in fancy clothes and cowboy boots. There is a boat and dock with buoys made out of tooth picks.

The work area is where most of the completed figures come to life under a high strength magnifying glass. Bits and pieces come together to create scenes of reality that go on display in this unique museum.

There is no cost for the visit, and the hours of operation are whenever the Guys are around.

We walked about a block beside the water and had lobster rolls and chowder at Geno's restaurant.

The sun was out, the tide was coming in, and we all agreed that it was worth

the hour long trip to make this part of our Red Hat outings.