Partying with the Blue Hairs

Last night I went to the neighborhood Garden Club meeting. Let me give you a little background, we live in a neighborhood that was "established" in the late 60s, our house was built in 1968, and only has 150 homes in it. It is tucked away in the trees and is a fabulous sleepy little neighborhood. Most of the people have lived there since they built their house, it seems that in order to get into the neighborhood, someone has to die! Anyway, my neighbor has been inviting me to the Garden Club meetings since we moved there last May, and I have not been able to make a meeting until last night. And it was a blast!

I know, you are thinking that I am crazy, especially since the average age of the group is around 65 or 70. I have been wanting to go because I like knowing my neighbors. We had a plant exchange last night, similar to a White Elephant Gift Exchange. I got number one and my first two plants got stolen, but I ended up with gorgeous pink hydrangea. Anyway, back to the blue hairs...like I said the average age was late 60s, one lady was even in an Electric Wheel Chair. They were the absolute sweetest ladies. They were so nice and polite. We even had refreshments, yummy deserts, stuffed strawberries, some cake that had to be made with 8 sticks of butter, and of course punch! The hostess had china and silver out and her crystal punch bowl. I met a lot of fabulous ladies who were all nice and polite and interesting. The cutest was the lady in the wheel chair, our next function is a dinner at a restaurant (last meeting until fall) and was talking about how good the margaritas were at the restaurant we were going to, then she was talking on her cell phone, it was funny! Oh, and they were so glad to see the "next generation" moving into the neighborhood. You see, they all raised their kids together, go to the same churches and were on PTA together. The great thing is that there was a lady there who was within 5 years or so of my age and she has a little girl who is a little younger than SD. We exchanged info and are going to try and get the girls together to play. Evidently, there are also two other ladies with younger kids in the neighborhood (one who has 5 kids and is pregnant with her 6th, and home schools them all!). Hopefully this next generation will be able to carry on the tradition and keep our neighborhood the way it was intended to be!

One of the nicest things about it was being with more mature ladies. Since we have moved, I don't know that many people. We are getting involved in our church so that is good, but the only other people I interact with are people I work with. Most of the women that I work with are girls, they are young. They are in a completely different stage of their life and some of them are slightly immature, caddy and emotional, which I do not handle very well! I was telling my MIL about it this morning and how it was nice to be with mature ladies who can mentor me and how different it is from being with ladies my own age (or younger) and she chimed in "and not having to be in competition over everything." This is so true! Amanda wrote a great post about this a couple of weeks ago, you should go read it!

Anyway, the ladies were explaining that the Garden Club was the closest thing that we had to a neighborhood association. It is not always about gardening, although a lot of these ladies are very in to that and good at it, but it is about really being a community and looking out for each other. It is crazy, they know all of the city council, mayors, etc. and what is going on in our city. I am glad that I am getting involved in our neighborhood and will be able to say hello to people I "know" now when we are out walking or running. The funny thing is, I talked to one male neighbor a while back, and he was telling me about the Garden Club and was kind of "mad" that it was only open to ladies and said it was because it was just a gossip club. It is funny! Hopefully I will have more stories about it as I continue to go to meetings.