Provincetown, MA. August, 1992

Meet the Hat Sisters. Or re-meet them, as they’ve been around, making people happy for some 25+ years now. Tim and John Michael met in 1984, and since then, they’ve been appearing at the Provincetown annual Carnival each August, at countless Boatslip tea dances, at various events and fundraisers near their homes in both Ptown and Boston. And any time they show up, it’s always a real hoot and the crowd always goes wild. “Officially” married, as they say, upon the occasion of their 20th anniversary together in 2004, here they are a dozen years earlier vamping their way down Commercial Street, laughing all the way. I met them “officially” at one of those character-driven “wedding” fundraising events one summer night at the Boatslip -- they were both gussied up as mothers of the bride; I was dressed as an altar boy. Among their favorite identical outfits from over the years: the “Washington Monument” hats they wore to the 1987 gay march on the nation’s capital. Just one more visual example of their philosophical mission -- to help people realize “it’s OK to be who you are and what you are. And if we can get a giggle out of it...that’s what it’s all about, enjoying life.” Amen, Sisters!