Red Hat Society

The Red Hat Society is an international social organization that was founded in 1998 in the United States. Women age 50 and beyond started the organization but all women are invited to join. With over 20,000 chapters in the United States as well as in 30 other countries.

Whether you are 5o and a true red hatter or younger and considered a pink hatter the truth is it is all about the hat. It is a group where women can escape and have a bit of fun. Why you might ask?? Well it is women who often give all they have to the family, career, and community. They love doing it all and do it all so well. Along the way though there are bonds of friendship that seem to disappear. Members of the Red Hat Society wanted to reconnect with old friends, make new friends and rediscover joy of getting together with other woman for the simple purpose of having fun It is a bit of a brake from the every day cares and duties of everyday life in which Hatters gather for no other purpose than to play

Sue Ellen Cooper an artist from Fullerton California purchased an old fedora for $7.50 from a thrift shop in Tucson Arizona. She would gift this and a copy of the poem "Warning" to a good friend on he 55th birthday.


WARNING
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .

The ending of the poem pleases its readers when the woman says . . .

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.


The gift was to remind her friend to grow old graciously and in a playful manner. Age is just a number and her friend should age as in control. The red hat symbol would inspire women as they started to wear their own red hats and entered a new women's movement that embraced a renewed outlook on life filled with fun and friendship, fulfilling lifelong dreams. On April 25th several ladies would come together dressed in purple outfits and wearing red hats as they enjoyed a tea party together. This was the start of the Red Hat society.