|
How We Got Started
While visiting a friend in Tucson several years ago, Sue Ellen
impulsively bought a bright red fedora at a thrift shop, for no other reason than it was cheap and, she thought, quite dashing. A year or two later she read the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph and felt an immediate
kinship with Ms. Joseph. She decided that her birthday gift to her dear
friend, Linda Murphy, would be a vintage red hat and a copy of the poem. She has always enjoyed whimsical decorating ideas, so she thought the hat would look nice hanging on a
hook next to the framed poem. Linda got so much enjoyment out of the hat and
the poem that Sue Ellen gave the same gift to another friend, then another, then another.
One day it occurred to these friends that they were becoming a sort of "Red
Hat Society" and that perhaps they should go out to tea...in full regalia. Since
the narrator of the poem threatens to "...wear purple and a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me...." they decided
they would each find a purple dress to complete the image.
The tea was a smashing success.
Soon, each of them thought
of another woman or two she wanted to include and they bought more red hats. Their
group swelled to 18 and they began to encourage other interested people to start
their own chapters (18 women doesn't fit well around a tea table). One of their
members passed along the idea to a friend of hers in Florida and their first "sibling" group was born.
Sue Ellen's fondest hope is that these societies will proliferate far and
wide. We have now held two successful Red Hat Society conventions - entire hotels
filled with women of a certain age wearing red hats and purple outfits! Could
world domination be far behind?
“Warning”
by Jenny Joseph
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……
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.
*We do not own the rights to this poem, but have secured permission
from the author, Jenny Joseph, to post as much as we have shown here. An unedited
version of the poem may be found for sale at the Red Hat Society Imperium.
|
