How to filter between two dates in MS Query criteria when the dates are text ("20180903", etc.)

[kingmb]

In MS Query I have a filter in the criteria that looks like this: >='20180903' And <='20181019'. (The dates in this field are text instead of date format, yyyymmdd)

I want to change it from the above to: >=[enter start date] And <=[enter end date] (or an equivalent), but apparently because of the text format it returns an error message.

Suggestions? Thanks for any help you can provide.