When I'm an old woman...

I read this book called, When I Am and Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple, when I was in my 20s. Of course at that time in my life, I wasn't really thinking about being an old woman but the story was recommended to me by a close friend of my mom's. I have the poem hanging on my wall in my office right in front of my desk. I read it frequently. It says a lot about who I am now and who I want to be. It goes like this: 

When I'm an Old Woman

         I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

                And I shall spend my pension on brandy

                and summer gloves and satin

                sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

         I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

                and gobble up samples in shops and press

               alarm bells and run my stick along the public

               railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

         I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and

               pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens

               and learn to spit.

         I will wear terrible shirts and grow

                more fat and eat three pounds of sausages

               at a go or only bread and a pickle for

               a week. And hoard pens and pencils

               and beermats and things in boxes.

         But now we must have clothes that

               keep us dry and pay our rent and

               not swear in the street and set a

              good example for the children.

       We will have friends to dinner and

              read the papers. But maybe I ought

              to practice a little now? So people

              who know me are not too shocked

              and surprised when suddenly I am old

       and start to wear purple.