Happy Halloween!

An uneventful year in this household -- with grown kids and a granddaughter who lives in another town -- well, its just not the same as when there are young ones in the home. It is, however, a good time for the old ones to feel like young ones... if only for a few hours!

Today was the first time Halloween fell on a working day for me

at my BigBox store. And in good faith, and traditions from my

other stores in the past, I decided to go all out and dress up.
I was a cowgirl - Boots, jeans, belt, navy polo, vest,
lots of silver jewelry, and of course, The Hat. *grins*
Several joked with me: "You can take the gal outta the country,
but you can't take the country outta the gal."
Which is oddly true enough, and as life would have it, it sure didn't
feel much like a "costume" used to make you feel as a kid.
By the way, do you recall your favorite costume as a kid?
I loved wearing a navy uniform back then!

YEE HAW!

But the oddest part for me was that no one else - NO ONE - dressed up for Halloween in my store today. And we had a visit from higher ups touring our store today, as well. And I wondered to myself if they just assumed that I dressed this way every day, since no one else was dressed up??? *chuckles softly* I never mind being the strange one, but today for some reason I noticed it more.

Cowgirl HUGS to everyone!!

The Hat

Memories are a funny thing; so are the things we hold on to because of memories. Today, I took down and cleaned my cowgirl hat. I have a thing for hats, and have many hanging on my wall, but tomorrow, I will be a cowgirl for work, so I needed to dust the ol' cowboy hat off.

And I got to thinking about the day I got that hat. It was the early 80s, a time of Urban Cowboys and such. I worked for a forklift dealership, in the service department, and many of the men were my friends. We'd stop at 4th Street Bowl for drinks after work at least once a week. I was in my very early 20s, and the men seemed to look out for me as if I were a younger sister. One of my favorites was Ed. He was so very handsome, looking a lot like a blonde Kenny Rogers. He was very personable, and fun to be around. After work, he took me to a local western wear store, and we tried on hats. I ended up getting a black hat, that fits my head perfectly. I wore it proudly for years, especially to the bar with "my boys". A few weeks after I got the hat, Ed gave me a band of blue and yellow feathers to put on it. Those disintegrated since then. I added the bandana today. It's been sat on, stomped on, had a beer bath, walks in the rain, the sun, the wind. And it still looks great :)

Ahhh the memories!!
To Ed Cameron, Roger Tauscher, Bill Huckell, Jim Hackler,
you were my special buddies back then,
and I miss our times together!
I hope all of you are doing well, wherever you are!