They say that as we grow older, we lose our inhibitions. We begin to say what we feel more often, becoming bold and unapologetic.
While they're many years away from being AARP eligible, when Nicole Mowbray, Heather Connor and Courtney Polimeni went to a grandma-themed bachelorette party, they felt those feelings while wearing grey, curly wigs and orthopedic shoes.
"It was extremely liberating," Polimeni says. "We had this overwhelming sense of freedom among a group of people we didn't know. We were uninhibited in a way that we don't feel walking around as ourselves."
After that bachelorette weekend, the trio decided to do it all over again, but this time without a specific reason. They invited coworkers to join them and took the Spokane nightlife scene by storm — walkers, canes and all.
"We realized that not only is it freeing for us and we're having fun, but the people at the bar we were at would walk by and talk to us," Connor says. "They were so full of joy and asked if it was possible for them to join next time."
The group created such a stir that they made the Instagram page Spokane Grannies (@Spogrannies) where they now post updates and invite other women to join them on their faux elderly escapades about town.
Taking on these liberated personas, the group is often found on the dancefloor at downtown bar Zola, dancing the night away in their granny garb. Most don garish prints, frilly blouses, thick-rimmed glasses and outlandish costume jewelry. Some women wear bald caps and suspenders for more of a grandpa aesthetic.
Filling a side room or two at Zola, their laughs can be heard over the music. The grannies' joy is infectious, garnering smiles and cheers from passersby. Some pull out old-fashioned dance moves, often holding their lower backs as if in pain.
The SpoGrannies make it clear that they're not poking fun at older people, but admire their unapologetic nature.
"We feel like now's the time to invite other women into this, into our flock of wiser women, and we can get them to experience the freedom that comes from putting on that cloak of being an older person," Mowbray says
So far, the group has gone out together to play arcade games and party at bars. You can do anything as a granny if you've got the gall. So, for SpoGrannies, the possibilities are endless when it comes to future events.
"We really hope to expand this," Mowbray says. "We have a lot of momentum right now and just want to reach other women at this point. We want people who don't have a group of friends to come with to come solo. We want people to experience the joy of connection and meeting new women and feeling supported by a group of women."
All three founding members of SpoGrannies work in health care at local hospitals and have worked with the aging community, seeing firsthand the freedom and joy that some people experience in the later years of their lives. It's exactly what the group finds liberating about transforming into their elderly alter egos.
"It's a beautiful thing to be at a stage in your life where the only person you care to impress is yourself," Polimeni says. "Sometimes you meet a woman who has achieved that. She is true to herself in a way that you hope to be one day and she tends to be an older woman. She's gone through the gauntlet and doesn't spend time caring about things that don't really matter."
The trio, clad in beaded glasses chains and compression socks, have no shame or fear of going out into the world looking older than their true age (in reality, the members range from women in their late 20s to 40s). In fact, they look forward to drawing on wrinkles and peering over their bifocals all night. Dressing and acting older than they appear has helped the group value the decades they still have before they're truly elderly.
"You're never going to be here again," Polimeni says. "Health is fleeting and it's not guaranteed. You don't get to be in this moment again and you're as young in this moment as you're ever going to be. We don't want to waste it."
The trio also mentions the lasting impact the COVID pandemic had on the nightlife scene, and how SpoGrannies is a needed bright spot.
"Being able to connect with other people in the community after going through something so difficult as a collective, that's been a really neat thing, to see people feeling reconnected again," Connor says.
"Through shared experiences with a lot of our patients, [we know] that time is precious," Polimeni adds. "The shared human experience of understanding that we are not forever is what kind of drives us to try and enjoy this moment as much as possible." ♦
