OK, maybe I need to get out of pokey old Spokane and move someplace more open minded.
“mother”? 
To each her own though. Just not for me 
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Just as you thought you were getting too old for there to be cliques . . .
Well, I’m glad to hear that some of the groups maybe aren’t so sorority-ish.
I’ve seen them out and about around here, all in red hats and something purple, and it does seem (to me anyway) that the determination to be oneself regardless of societal expectations, which is the sentiment at the heart of the poem, is a little lost when you form a club and require everyone to dress as exactly the same rebel.
OTOH, I think some women find great support and comfort in clubs and groups, so it may be that the same sort of lady who loved her sorority would, later in life, love her red hat group. So, I don’t mean to be reverse-snobbish about it just because I’ve never done girl-groups very well.
When some one told me to wear all purple but the hat should be red, what I wore came no way close to what everyone else wore. There are a lot of different shades of purple and a lot of different fashions that come in those colors.
RHS is a marketing strategy.
A bunch of ladies show up anywhere wearing all purple with red hats and businesses bend over backwards trying to make them feel welcome. Businesses want word to go out to the RHs grapevine that what they sell is what RHS ladies want.
This works two ways.
Women past a certain age tend to be treated less than say a group of young well dressed 20-30 somethings.
If the boss has instructed the waite-staff and cooks that any group that comes in wearing purple with red hats is to be treated like visiting dignitaries, hey it works.
Ya show up and its all smiles.
Besides, its kind of fun seeing how each woman interprets the color rule (I’ve considered putting a purple tint on my grey hair for the day. Our “Queen Mother”, the sweet dear, dyes her hair to more match her hat.) and those hats can be rather outlandish.
How did this subject shift from my catching a person stealing my landscaping on Easter?
It’s your bad luck 
! I think there are probably people who tend to do group things and others who don’t. I dropped out of the Brownies myself. I do think that older people are sort of put in the background a lot of the time, so from that point of view if groups wearing red hats get first class treatment, I must say that does sound like a good thing Shoot, I might just go get a red hat—I guess there probably has to be more than one person in the group though, eh?
Blame Lamby - she posted the poem! 
Maybe you need one of these:
It’s supposed to scare deer and other animals away, but it works on a motion sensor so it would work on people too.
Details at http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html but you can probably find it at any local garden center and save the postage.
That looks like a very neat thing if it really works. I know a lot of people have terrible problems with deer and build fences and scatter lion poop and all sorts of things. This looks simple and no one gets hurt.
Once I was setting up a sprinkler to water my front lawn and after I let go of bending the hose to stop the water (while I placed the sprinkler) the water over shot my lawn and sprinkled on a car that was parking in front of my house.
The guy got out with a gun in his hand.
He was so angry about his car getting sprinkled that he didn’t realise he stepped ankle deep into the mud of my newly reseeded front parkway.
I’ve tried putting a low rope fence around the parkway to keep people from stepping on the baby grass. They step over the fence and walk right along the walkway lengthwise.
They also ride their bicycles over the brick rims that surround my flower beds so they can trash them as well.
“Lion Poop” you say. I spend quite a bit of time cleaning away the dog poop that gets left in my yard. Perhaps I should just leave it out there. The flies it attracks might be a deterrant.
Now if I could only find a way to keep the drunks from sleeping on my front porch, besides my sitting out there at night playing my fiddle.
Ah, urban life!
Boy, it sounds like you live in a pretty tough place. I can sort of see how you might have had it with people messing up your yard. But, you know, if people have guns and the like you’d better not shout at them. If a man got out of a car with a gun in his hand, I would just…well, I don’t even know what. Around here people carry plastic bags for dog poop when they walk their dogs. I think maybe you need a big electric fence or something—maybe that would just keep you in, I don’t know if they keep others out. Of course, if the people aren’t too nice you wouldn’t want to make them mad. Maybe you could move to a less densely populated area? Life is not as interesting often, but also not as irritating. But most of us can’t really choose where we live, too many other circumstances.
Except that it has taken on fad status now, and thereby actually contradicts the idividuality it originally meant. I am saddened that it has become such a product … it was a marvelous bit of ‘I’m not going to conform’ that has now become conformity. … sigh
This is a difficult situation, for sure. I would want to keep Gun-Man happy!
There’s another possible solution. Why don’t you plant your entire front yard as an inviting and restorative urban place? Instead of putting up fencing, plant something that’s durable and sturdy. Put some porous pavers down in a little walkway and put a nice bench alongside it so folks can come by and rest a bit next to your lovely garden.
Sometimes, people just have to do what we don’t want them to do. Fussing at them just makes them want to do it even more. If you do the exact opposite and invite them in, you might find that they leave you and your yard alone.
I was the first person on my block to plant anything besides trimmed evergreens in the front yard.
As I mentioned, I’ve found drunks sleeping on my front porch (dial 911 to remedy that) and dog poop on what small bit of lawn I have left.
Since I work out of my house I spend a bit of time standing in my front room gazing out my front window playing my fiddle between clients. I see a lot happen that I just let pass.
Folks park their car and before taking their groceries out they dump what ever trash they’ve accumulated anyplace but inside their car.
I go out at least daily to clean up the litter; lots of paper, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, paper coffee cups, beer bottles and cans. I couldn’t believe finding condom wrappers out there. A throw away hypodemic needle was a bit of a shock.
Curiously, all the cars are recent models. Lots of SUVs and mini vans.
I have been making plans to move out to a rural area but I keep hearing stories about cyrstal methamphetamine addicts. Its a real concern for my farmer friends.
Rural crystal meth addicts? Feared by farmers? Explain?
Lamby, this has been all over the US networks. Even A&E sat up and took notice, airing an hour long special on how crystal meth labs are sweeping rural America, with the attendant dissociation, crime, and family hijinks that go on with serious chemical dependency (when you aren’t blowing your home and loved ones up).
djm
Well, I know that in Iowa I’ve read some about the labs and they are regulating the starting materials for it. I think it is something people are concerned about but I live in a town of about 10,000 and I can honestly say I never hear anything about it or come across scary people. I haven’t heard of people living in the country being scared. This town has a good small college so there are some good music groups that come once in a while, the students show good movies,—there’s a bit to do. It would be too boring for some people I think. But you can go to Des Moines or Iowa City for a change of pace— . I think people don’t feel quite so anonymous here and so they mostly behave pretty well. At least in my neighborhood, which is nice enough but not the fancy part of town, we don’t have trouble. Certainly horrendous crimes have been committed in the state in both towns and the country, but there is not fear and vandalism and the like on anything like a daily basis. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable living all alone out in the country. I wouldn’t like a really small town, even though it sounds nice, because the lack of anonymity would bother me just because of how I was raised. A largish small town is about right for me I guess. But there isn’t any Irish music here, that’s for sure!
Oh. I don’t watch TV. Except for Dr. Who.