This page will showcase just a selection of the outfits we've dressed up in for the Texas Moon fancy dress evening. This is usually held in April on the "anniversary" of the club being taken over by Paul & Penney when Frank & Rose retired. In the past we have picked our own costumes but in recent years Paul & Penney have selected a theme which seems to be much better. Its usually a fun evening and most of the members join in and some need very little encouragement to dress up!

This was us in 2001, we went as Edwardian/Victorian and yes I know they are not the same era but I hated history so who cares!

These are rented costumes from Wendy's Wardrobe but now we tend to try and buy stuff in as renting is expensive and the outfits have to be promptly returned on the Monday morning which is a pain when I have to go to work.

This year, 2009, the theme is Life on the Ocean Waves so we are going as pirates! Looking forward to it and will post the photos when they are available. (See below for images)

In the meantime here's a few extra photos of other dressing up times, namely Halloween, and these images are some of my favourites.

2009 - Life on the Ocean Waves

Here they are hot from the Photoshop press :-) The evening went off really well, lots of people took part in the dressing up which is always good for the club. Paul & Penney put a lot of effort into running the club for us week after week and this year celebrated 16 years since they took it over from veterans Frank and Rose.

2010 - Hollywood & Celebrities

Here's a look at this years Fancy Dress "do" at the Texas Moon ...

2011 - Hawaiian

This year's theme is once again Hawaiian, we have been busy buying costumes from Ebay and with my new longer hair I get to look all girly for once. Pics will be posted after the big do so watch this space ...

These are the coveted photos from the Hawaiian night, not that you can see my hair in the photos but did an "up-do" with flowers which made a real change for me as usually in the past my hair's been shaved so not had anything to play with :-)

It was a good night, most people dressed up for the occasion and we were glad that given the limited number of Hawaiian fancy dress outfits on the internet, no-one wore the same as Julia and I. There were lots of grass skirts and shell bras and that was just the men!

2012 - Nautical

This year's theme is Nautical, we have decided to re-use the pirates costumes from a previous year albeit with a few extra additions purchased online. So here's the final result in all it's glory...

2013 - Black & White / Masquerade

This year's theme is Black 'n' White or Masquerade, a distinct change from anything previous so should be good to see how much effort people make! It'll be on the club's 20th birthday which this year is the 13th April. I've bought a new dress, more Renaissance than Venetian but it's a start and a black/silver mask on a stick as wearing glasses makes using conventional masks a tad difficult.

2017 - Film Characters???

Not quite sure on the exact 2017 theme as I'm catching up here but below are a few images of the costumes from this year... It might have been pick an existing fancy dress costume and wear it ;-)

2018 - 25th Anniversary - Rock 'n' Roll

2019 - Nautical/Baywatch Etc...

2020 - CANCELLED - COVID-19

So, pretty much the arrival of Covid-19 has scuppered every event from the club, from this year's Fancy Dress probably all the way through until next year, some time, if we're lucky. This pandemic has seen most of us in Lockdown for at least four months from around the third week of March and it's not over yet although some things have re-opened. These are strange and not very pleasant times, unprecedented in most of our lifetimes and difficult to quite get one's head around. What started off earlier in the year as a cancellation of more recent events has just snowballed through the year so far and until the powers that be allow larger gatherings of people I suspect most of the remaining events will be abandoned this year, like firework events and going to see Santa.

2021 - STILL CANCELLED - COVID-19

So it's 2021 and things are still weird, although getting less so as this year rolls by. There was a brief moment when it looked like the club may re-open at the end of July but the school we rent the hall from put the mockers on that by insisting that face coverings were still to be worn. Who wants to sit wearing one of those for 2-3hrs? No one by the end of the discussions and Penney wasn't too keen on trying to police it either. Plus with an ageing membership, most of whom have probably been double jabbed now with the C-19 vaccine, it still begged the question of whether this sort of social activity was a good idea or not. On a personal note I wasn't too enamoured with the thought of returning and being around SO MANY PEOPLE after a year+ of keeping contact to a bear minimum, dancing around anyone whilst out and about and generally keeping myself very firmly to myself. I'm still working from home, haven't been near the office since March 2020 and so yeah I've become very wary of putting myself "out there" and mixing.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough (?) to restart in the New Year, just not too sure at this rate which New Year that might be 🤣

2021 - Club Closes For Good 😭

So the 4th September saw a post go up on Facebook on both Penney's page and the Texas Moon CMC page confirming that reluctantly, after much soul searching, they had decided to close the club doors for good.

The pandemic has won and as I said previously, with an aging membership and a venue that understandably placed stringent restrictions on it's usage, there was little future for what had once been a vibrant club pre-Covid-19.

Now we're all facing boosters and the potential threat of yet another variant maybe it was the right thing to do even though it marks the end of an era.

There are times when I wonder IF not WHEN we will ever get back to life as it once was.