“We get together once a month. We are the Bay Babes. We are part of the Red Hat organization. You have be old and wear purple. You have be be 50 to get in. We used to have red shoes, red fingernails, red everything. But I won’t get into that.”

“We meet to eat. That’s our motto.”

“We have no rules, no regulations, no fees, no worthy causes. We just get together and enjoy life.”

“Three of us have been friends since birth and lived within 50 yards of each other.”

“I am visiting. I am the interloper from south of Dallas.”

“We turned 50 in 2000. We just celebrated our 50th high school reunion.”

“I taught school for 30 years. For my retirement gift they gave me a two-hour ride in a hot air balloon. We don’t do run of the mill stuff, we do exciting things. We live life.”

“Kayaking, marathons, travel. We do it all.”

“I saw the Taj Mahal.”

“When you turn 65, then you have the excuse of being a senior.  I was on the phone with someone working on my computer, ‘Honey, I am old and do not understand computers. You are going to have to walk me slowly through this. It works every time.”

“You can get senior drinks and coffee. There are discounts at movies.”

“Senior coffee at McDonald’s is 50 cents.”

“And the young people let us go first.”

“There are benefits and we have earned them.”

“People crowd around us at Mardi Gras because they don’t think we are going to fight for beads and candy. They are wrong. I will stomp my foot on it and if I get a few fingers I say, ‘I am so sorry.’ I will knock you down and sit on you for a Moon Pie.”

“You have so much energy after menopause and the change. None of us took hormones or estrogen. Just take a shower or run around the block. Tough it out because it doesn’t last forever.”

“Dealing with our parents is one of the hardest things we have been through together. The situation is reversed and we are taking care of them now. My mother is 93 and still works full time. She is hardheaded. I am just like her. My kids live around me. I like keeping my thumb on them. I still cook for them every Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas even though I hate to cook. I like the family coming together but I don’t like the part I have to cook.”

“Most of our parents came to Mobile from Italy. We know where the bodies are buried.”

“We never know what is going to happen next. We are spontaneous, spur of the moment.”

“Fifty is only the beginning, honey.”