Thursday Sept. 21^st arrived early for me as it did for six other Red Hat Ladies from Sharbot Lake and environs. Our Queen had arranged that we should "rise and shine" early for the possibility of being seen on Canada

A.M. in Perth . Car pooling had been arranged and we arrived at the designated meeting place in the cool misty pre-dawn darkness. I think after all the trouble we went to in order to dress up in our Red Hat finery at that

ungodly hour we should all be mentioned by name. First there is our Queen, Rose Mary Deachman, who organized us for this event and then Mary Howes, Therese Lombart, Marlene Beattie, Pamela Giroux, Kay Hopper, and Sonja Mclean.

We arrived in Perth just as dawn was breaking over the horizon to a town bustling with excitement. The crowd was assembled at the Tay Basin , and the host of the Canada A.M. show, Jeff Hutcheson, was staging his grand entry to Perth via canoe on the Tay River . All the people in costume were herded over to the front so that we could be caught in the camera's eye. It was quite interesting to be part of a live show and see all the things that happen behind the scenes. If any of you were up at 6:30 a.m. (like my husband, who taped the show) you would have seen Kay, Pamela, and Rose

Mary right in the one of the opening shots when Jeff is conversing with the Town Crier.

Later on in the show Rose Mary negotiated to get us in camera range again so those Sharbot Lake Red Hatters were visible. At one point I heard a Perth lady behind me who was dressed in pioneer costume

grumble that she thought the people dressed as Scottish ancestors should have been in the front. Ah well, she should have had a leader like Rose Mary if she wanted to be in front. In spite of cold feet and the early hour we all had fun and it was nice to hear how great we looked from our admirers back home.