Jenny Joseph wrote a marvellous poem in 1961 called Warning - When I'm 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 got no money for butter...You can enjoy the complete poem here.
It's a perennial favourite and has been voted Britain's best loved poem.
Its declaration of defiance against convention appeals to all those with a secret desire to throw off the strictures of propriety and set out to deliberately shock and be outrageous.
To do something different before they die.
All that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I have a passion for the colour.
And The Flying Tortoise now has Purple featuring in the bedroom...
And where is your red hat?
ReplyDeleteHaha GS, I'll show you sometime...
ReplyDeleteSadly, I am not old enough to wear purple
ReplyDeleteI understand the concept of the Red Hat Society. However, whenever I've seen a group of them meeting in a restaurant or other public place, they seem to act so bawdy, loud, and unruly. It's almost embarrassing. Certainly they are not acting like ladies, or in consideration of the others around them. With that said, purple is my favorite color too.
ReplyDeleteMy last surviving Aunt, who is in her nineties, loves the color purple, too.
ReplyDeleteLove this poem and also love being just a bit unconventional. And I'm not waiting until I'm old either!
ReplyDeleteI suggest that this is EXACTLY their intent. They are/were ladies for most of their lives. Now they want to be women. Bawdy as desired, unruly and hopefully unrepentant and certainly embarrassing for all those women who are still being ladies. :)
ReplyDeleteI imagine that at the point of life when I let go of the concept of aging gracefully and start tracking mud through my own own kitchen that I'll be happy to step outside the boundry of embarrasement.
I've heard of the purple dress and red hat society, I was invited to join it in NZ, but didn't get round to it... Alough I really like the declaration of defiance against convention that it is associated with. I didn't know there is a poem... I love it.
ReplyDeleteI love the purple bed linen... Is it eye dazzling first thing in the morning?