By Pat Lawrence
Ladies of the Red Hat Society show their colors. |
Girls aren’t the only ones that just want to have fun. To prove
there’s fun after fifty, the sassy ladies of the Red Hat Society
have assembled in small roving bands across the country for the express
purpose of having a good time. Local chapters have sprouted like clusters
of animated red and purple pansies
Red Hatter Judith Smith has doubled her fun with dual hatship, in
Tampa and Parkersburg. “It’s fun. It’s silly. It’s
tea and camaraderie with panache,” she says. “We’re
more a ‘disorganization’ than an organization. The only
rule is that there are no rules.”
In most chapters, members rotate responsibility for each month’s
activity. Judith says, “For my meeting, I had an elaborate Victorian
tea. Next time, another member bought everyone red visors and we had
an ice cream picnic outside. In Florida, the Red Hats have gone on
cruises and even to England.”
In Teay’s Valley, Sue says their chapter is “mostly about
going out to eat! But, we went to the horse races in Keeneland last
year and we’re planning a trip to Lewisburg this year.”
The woman who starts each chapter is generally known as the Queen
Mother, a title she retains ever after. Linda Turner, Queen Mother
of a Parkersburg chapter, says, “Most members are over fifty,
but younger women may join in the fun as Junior Postulates. Junior
postulates wear pink hats and lavender apparel.”
Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, California, started the Red Hat Society
inadvertently when she took inspiration from the poem "Warning"
by Jenny Joseph. The poem opens “When I am an old woman I shall
wear purple with a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t
suit me.” It ends “But maybe I ought to practice a little
now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised when
suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.” Sue Ellen and her
friends started meeting publicly for tea in their red hats and purple
outfits. The signature attire and feisty philosophy have created a
crimson tide of sprightly followers in the last three years.
Mary Beth Blandin, member of one of the three chapters in Marietta,
says.”Most chapters, like ours, prefer to stay small. In large
metropolitan areas, chapters may have as many as a hundred members,
but 12-18 members is most common.” Mary Beth is a painting and
wallpaper contractor, but her hobby is decorating hats. “Our
ladies like wild and goofy hats with plumes and feathers. I stay up
till the wee hours of the morning putting them together.”
Chapter names are as lighthearted as the ladies in red. Judith Smith
recounts, “Here I am a Romantic Hatter. In Florida, I’m
one of the Red Hats on the Go. Across the country there are Scarlett
O’Hatters,. Vermillion Vixens, Red Hellions, Red Hat Tamales
and Raspberry Tarts. The Red Hat Flashes are a good group, and then
there are the La Tea Da’s.”
The Red Hat Phenomena has given rise to a budding cottage industry
in red hats, purple gloves, lavender boas and other society accessories.
In addition to what may be purchased from the Red Hat Society home
pages, there are a growing number of web based hatter sites. Linda
Turner of Parkersburg had a hat business and kept getting requests
specifically for red hats. After finding out why, she liked the idea
so much, she promptly started a Red Hat chapter. She’s transformed
over 500 plain red hats into cheery, cherry chapeaus suitable for
her fellow members.
Sue Simpson, in Teay’s Valley, purposefully includes plain
and fancy red hats in her Designer Alley boutique. Sue says ‘Nothing
lifts the spirits like a new red hat!”
Clearly the magic is working. Undaunted by time or convention, the
merry members of the Red Hat Society were tickled pink years ago.
Now they’ve earned their true colors and are ready to go –at
the drop of a hat.
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