The colors were bold, the styles original, and the details handmade. But residents of Edgemere didn’t need to splurge to stand out in their eye-catching Kentucky Derby hats.
Store-bought headwear wouldn’t buy more fun on Derby Day, ladies in the senior living community remarked as they crafted their own headpieces with tulle, pearl strings, and even mini horse figurines.
“I just love colors,” 92-year-old Aysel Gursel said as she added feathers to the bright yellow hat that she’d decorated with flowers in shades of pink, blue, green, and red.
Gursel added that she wouldn’t waste her money gambling on the race — she’s more interested in riding horses than betting on them. But she still planned to join the fun at Edgemere’s Kentucky Derby celebration.
The senior living community’s Derby Day festivities included a showing of Seabiscuit, a hit film about a legendary racehorse, culinary treats, such as rich derby pie and hearty hot brown sandwiches, and a fancy hat parade and competition.
Almost all the fashionable hats residents wear on Derby Day are homemade, and some are elaborate, said Layla Barron, Edgemere’s assistant director of lifestyles. One year, a resident turned her hat’s brim into a track and put miniature horses on it, and another memorable hat-competition entrant decorated her brim with a white picket fence and roses.
“It’s a social event and we love to socialize here,” Barron said. “We love any excuse to have a party, bring everyone together, and cheer for a greater cause.”
On race day, residents planned to view the Kentucky Derby and place bets on the winning horse. Those who chose correctly would be entered in a prize drawing.
Linda Waterman said while adding pastel pink flowers to her off-white hat’s brim that she would definitely tune in for this year’s Run for the Roses.
Waterman has been a Derby fan ever since she watched her first races on her family’s Zenith black-and-white television. She was nine years old when her family became the first on the block to get a TV.
“My parents used to love horse races,” she remembered.
Dorothy Black chose to decorate a hat that was pink, one of her favorite colors. While she was planning to wear her fancy headwear on Derby Day, she didn’t think she would bet on the race. Black said that she’s never had much luck at games like Bingo. But she’s been lucky in life.
“I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby, so I doubt that I would buy a hat for the occasion,” she remarked. “But when I saw that they were doing this, I thought, ‘How fun. Good idea.’”
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