13th Annual Turquoise and Silver Tea in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Over 400 mostly women attended the Flickinger Theater Guild Turquoise and Silver Tea "Puttin' On The Ritz", held in the Willie Estrada Civic Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Among the attendees were twelve members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society dressed to the nines with their beautiful hats atop their heads.

As always, the tea was a lovely affair starting with a prelude by SKY Yates and Ed Dittmer, a lovely duo well known around town for their "acoustic this and that". James White and Sarina Turnbull more than ably served as emcees of the event.

Entertainment started with Monique Foster, owner/instructor of the Alamogordo Academy of Ballet presenting three of her students in a beautiful ballet movement.

Carolyn Dittmer playing the Reporter, presented a group of AMT players in a musical skit "Puttin' on the Ritz" (adapted from "Young Frankenstein") which included Tony Calderon (Dr. Frankenstein), Joel Burg (The Monster), Zack Miller (Igor) and Victoria Kennedy (Inga), also the choreographer.

Vocal with Instrumentalists were Joanne Blumenthal, Scott Hancock on flute and Don Thorp on guitar.

Refreshments were prepared by Mountain View Catering @ GCRMC and served by AHS ROTC Cadets, along with instructor USAF CMSgt (ret) Patrick Tedford.

Susie Hall moderated the Fashion Show featuring fashions and accessories from Bealls, Dollar Boots & Jeans, Elite Memories, GCRMC Auxillary Gift Shop, Instant Karma, JC Penney, Maurice's Rue 21, Seasons at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, NM and Zales.

Going on the whole time were drawings for door prizes. Five members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society won prizes as did many other people. In the meantime, a Silent Auction was also running and I bid on and got a gorgeous beaded jacket and a Venezuelan dress.

Twelve Red Hat members were in attendance looking lovely as ever in their purple attire and red hats. We made a lot of noise every time one of us won a door prize so everyone knew we were there.

Shot of the Red Hat group taken by Jan Jennings

L to R: VQ Donna, Darla, Lu and Gail

L to R: Alice, Margie, Queen Ladybird, VQ Donna, Darla, Lu, Gail and Trudy with Jan Jennings at the end of our table

Alice and Margie, our Mountain Girls from High Rolls

Lu and Gail looking lovely as ever

Trudy looking pleased as punch about something

Margie with Carmen just arriving looking quite elegant

Queen Ladybird placing a pink ribbon on Terry's hat with prospective member, Kathy, looking on. October is Breast Cancer Month and we always tuck a pink ribbon in our hats to show our support.

Dorothy E. and Terry contemplating something??

The door prize drawings started and VQ Donna won the very first one, this lovely glass swan shown in the photo

Victoria Kennedy modeling one of the fashions on the runway

The Ballet dance has begun

They were quite professional and entertaining

Joy Kosinski modeling clothes and accessories from Dollar Boots & Jeans

Alice unwrapping her door prize with Kathy looking on

Carmen with her door prize win

L to R: Joel Burg, Tony Calderon, Victoria Kennedy and Carolyn Dittmer "Puttin' on the Ritz"

L to R: Tony, Zach Miller (Igor), Victoria and Carolyn

Zach Miller and Victoria Kennedy

Tony, Joel, Zach and Victoria strutting their stuff

Tony, Zach and Victoria

Zach, Victoria and Tony

Zach and Victoria "Puttin' on the Ritz"

Tony, Victoria and Zach in the finale

Another winner - Terry with her door prize and Kathy wondering why her number hasn't been called

Gail with her door prize, two gift cards, looks very pleased

Thanks to Douglas A. Kerr, Photographer for this official shot before I left for the tea.

The tea was a huge success as always and everyone had a grand time. Can't wait to see what they come up with for next year, but we will be there, for sure.

This is all I have to say for now.

Third Friday Art Walk in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Friday, October 16, 2015

Connie Breding, Drama Instructor at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo and I set up a table at the Third Friday Art Walk on New York Avenue to pass out flyers on the latest play offering at the Rohovec Theatre on the Hill. The play, written by well known playwright Ken Ludwig, is "The Fox on the Fairway" and promises to be hilarious. This is a farce containing adult humor so best to leave the little ones with a sitter.

We interacted with many people and took some photos of the happenings as they crossed our path.

If you are up for some professional entertainment, make plans to come and see "The Fox on the Fairway" on November 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7:30 pm or Sunday Matinee on November 22 at 2:00 pm. Advance tickets are available at The Blue Stone (1117 S White Sands Blvd.) and Books Revisited (inside White Sands Mall). Advance tickets are $8.00 for adults ($10.00 at the door). For more information, call 439-3670.

The Rohovec Theatre on the Hill is located on the NMSU-A Campus, 2400 N Scenic Drive, Alamogordo.

Connie Breding, Drama Instructor at NMSU-A

Carla Kerr, President of Theatre on the Hill Guild

Two young geniuses with the robot they built

Here he is in all his glory. He does take donations

As soon as this man dropped his money in, the robot took it immediately to his creators

Some very interesting dancers

I will try to do more photography next month because there were several dance troupes and singers that I missed shooting. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the people who came out for this event.

This is all I have to say for now.

New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of RHS Shop in Old Mesilla

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society in Alamogordo, New Mexico took a little road trip to Old Mesilla near Las Cruces, New Mexico to engage in the RHS official sport of shopping and then dining at Peppers Restaurant (attached to the Double Eagle Restaurant). As always, the food was delicious, but the service quite slow. In fact, it took so long to get our food that we actually did not have dessert (a very unRed Hat thing to do).

Two girls birthdays were celebrated with our official kazoo serenade of "Happy Birthday" which got off to a slightly out of tune rendition as led by Queen Ladybird (not one of her better efforts) but this created quite a bit of laughter. It so happened that a friend from Alamogordo was at the next table and she took a couple of pictures of our joyous response with her IPhone. The birthday celebrants were Darla Shelley and Jean Courtier.

A number of purchases were made including a wonderful embroidered, red Mexican style dress that Queen Ladybird purchased for next year's RHS convention in San Antonio, Texas taking place the last week of August, 2016. August is her birthday month, thus the purchase of a red rather than purple dress ( a reversal of colors).

Trudy, showing off her motorized tricycle

L to R: Darla, Dorothy E. and Lu in a FUN discussion

Oops! They decided they wanted a more proper photograph. We aim to please!

L to R: Alice, Margie and Gail ready to shop til they drop

Vice Queen Donna ready with her shopping bag

One of our birthday girls, Jean

The shopping mostly done, it is time to dine with Alice and Margie

Trudy and Gail in this lovely setting at Peppers

Actually, Darla's birthday was last month but she couldn't come so we celebrated today

Jean looking especially jovial and that cute Ms. Lu

Dorothy has much to celebrate with this margarita. Her son finally got his kidney transplant. Hurrah!!

VQ Donna looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. One never knows what she's up to!

Queen Ladybird aka Carla K. with VQ Donna. I forgot who was kind enough to take this picture and I wasn't even drinking margaritas or anything else but ice tea

Random table shot (still waiting on food!)

We had just finished serenading Darla and Jean with our kazoos with an unusual rendition of "Happy Birthday" when friend from Alamogordo, Ann Bagby, snapped this photo

Trudy on her tricycle and Gail and VQ Donna perched on this wall waiting for shoppers to finish up

Darla and Alice patiently waiting for the rest

A grand time was had by all and although we discussed stopping somewhere on the way home for dessert, everyone was so pleasantly tired by this time, we decided to save those calories for another day.

This is all I have to say for now.