Fedora Fantasy

 

Inspired by a Stevie Nicks quote. "Don't be a lady. Be a legend". I say be both! Fedora and jacket highlighted with glitter.  

(Painting Sold)

I wish I had the courage to wear a fedora. I own several but feel self-conscious putting one on in public.  I want to be bold but my shyness takes over. A hat of any kind might draw attention to me and that makes me nervous. Yet if you know me and I start telling my life stories, I love being in the spotlight. So why the hat conundrum? I'm afraid it says "Hey, look at me. Cool, right?" And I question my coolness daily. 

Yet, maybe, eventually. . . Meanwhile, I stay a legend in my mind knowing my fedora awaits an act of courage. One day I'll pull it off the top closet shelf, place it gently on my head, spin it a bit for the right amount of angle, and strut out the door with confidence. Here I am world!

Perhaps my fedora fantasy stems from a gal I watched dance at a club in Decatur, Ga a few years back, between my two hip replacement surgeries. I wrote about the incident in my memoir "The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later". 

"So Saturday night, after a glorious day in the country, I'm back in my hood with a male friend, eating dinner, watching younger folks dancing to old rock music. Tapping my feet to the beat and drinking wine at our table, I think about my upcoming birthday in August. If my surgery goes as planned in April, I will be on the dance floor, my cane no longer needed.

A woman that evening caught my attention. She danced alone, moving to the music, lost in her own world. I couldn't see her face, so I don't know how old she might have been. Wearing a black fedora, a blazer, short skirt, black tights, and tennis shoes, she danced a few minutes holding her wine glass high in her hand, and then vanished into the night. Mysterious, alluring, she never returned. Her image is etched in my mind. Could I be like her? Or at least, have that dark fedora and dance with abandon, steady on my feet?"

That question still haunts me. Can l be THAT woman? Dancing the night away,  black fedora shading my face, maybe inspiring someone else's fantasy with my coolness? The older woman rockin' it out with her cane. Yes, my cane and I are still partners in crime.

Dance like no one is watching. On the dance floor and in life!

(And thanks to Stevie Nicks for the inspiration for my latest painting!)