Met two friends in Columbus, Ohio for a royal wedding/shopping weekend.

Our first objective was to create hats for the event. Mine had yellow tulle and flowers with a white butterfly. Flowers and birds bedecked the other two friends'.

Gift bags handed out contained British cookies, crackers and cereal, tea, key chain with bejeweled crown hanging and a cup with the picture of the happy couple, William and Kate. Buttons for our coat lapels had a photo of the couple and a copy of the wedding invitation.

After a few hours sleep we rose to don our hats, fix our tea and sample scones, biscotti and truffles while we sat watching the international event. From the time the Abbey opened its doors to the drive out of the palace with the Just Wed license plate we were mesmerized.

Critiquing hats was the order of the day. The elegance of a lady in a hat gave over to a 'what was she thinking' attitude when a particularly unappealing chapeau appeared in the church. There were plenty of both.

What is this fascination with royalty?

Part imagination and part escape the royal wedding provided both in abundance. In the play Camelot the king sings, "I wonder what the king is doing tonight? What merriment is the king pursuing tonight?"

However we were three women in our early-late life dressed in hats that some might call silly wearing pins emblazoned with a couple's photo whom we will never meet or know personally. To allay fears of early-onset senility we did stay in our room. Not so other groups of merry makers. Groups of friends and family, some of them half our age, were seen around the shopping areas in Columbus, some in wedding T-shirts, others in hats or tiaras, some with buttons with a photo of the couple. So it wasn't just us. However they were all women.

I remember a long time ago my own mother was creating a costume for a picnic fashion show. She tried it on for the family and waltzed out of the bedroom wearing a red and white checked tablecloth for a skirt. Hanging from the skirt were strings of hot dogs. Her hat was adorned with huge ants. There was more but that's what I remember. I also remember wondering if she thought the outfit was funny and creative and was secretly happy not to be attending her 'old' people's event with her.

My kids and grandkids might have felt the same upon seeing me this weekend. Perhaps Gma, for that's what they call me, is losing her sense of style. Perhaps it is time to check into an alternate living situation for her.

And that's why I leave them all behind for the weekend and meet my friends, who also have kids who probably would think the same things my would if they were to see us.

Sadly, thanks to Facebook, they have seen it all. Okay, not all of it, but enough to start them wondering.

And that's what I think about it.