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The society's founding mother, Sue Ellen Cooper, got the idea some years ago after reading
"The Jenny Joseph Poem, Warning"
(Copyrighted -1961)
"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
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages to go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But, now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But, maybe, I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surpirsed
When suddenly I am old and start to wear
purple(and of course, wear my red hat ...lol )
There are no rules in the Red Hat Society, only a few suggestions: The women over 50 years old, should attend functions in full red-and-purple regalia; under 50 wear lavender and a pink hat;Red Hatters should invite other women into the chapter and, most of all, should enjoy themselves at the gatherings.It 's fun!" , frivolous and sometimes even silly."
To Red Hatters, age is just a number and old is a state of mind. This group is for the young at heart and want to grow old playfully.
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