So, there I am at work, and in walks a lady in a beautiful red hat, bedecked with purple flowers to match her purple outfit, and red trimmings.

"Oh! You look so pretty!" says I....

She smiles...a huge, welcoming Cheshire Cat Grin...

"I'm a Red Hatter." she said..

"A What?" says I...

"A Red Hatter." she repeats..."We're ladies over 50 who have a rollicking great time. We meet up all over the country. We're worldwide. There are THOUSANDS of us!"

"Cripes!" says I, smiling...

And so I came to meet 'Queen Jean' and her gang of Merry Ladies, all of whom, it has to be said not only looked gorgeous, but they were also some of the happiest people I've ever met. I spent the next 30 minutes laughing, whilst they scoured the shop for more purple or red clothes...

They have trips out, meet up, and basically have fun, wherever they go. Indeed, Queen Jean waved her lacey, scarlet knickers at me, which she keeps in her handbag (probably better than on her bottom, more kind of handy I guess)....They wave their scarlet knickers all over the place, apparently.

GADZOOKS! :0)

Anyway, from their feathers to their sparkles they filled the shop with sunshine and when they went out to the street again, people walking past, in their grey and black coats, found their miserable mouths forming huge smiles, without them even being aware.

I suggested to Joan that she runs for Prime Minister this election, 'cos hell, would those Sassy Scarlet Ladies put the fun and colour back into this country!

You don't have to be over 50 to join, but if you are younger, then you have to wear pink.. :0)

Here's a little of their history...

British Red Hatters website

Article from The Telegraph - 'Frivolous at Fifty'

And taken from that link above...

"The Red Hat Society, its name inspired by lines from an English poet, was formed by a Californian artist "as a haven for silliness and unfettered happiness among women of a certain age".

There are no rules, but members usually turn out in red hats and purple clothes for society gatherings which feature everything from tea parties to tobogganing, via belly dancing classes and "Laser Tag," a form of paintball.

"Chapters" have spread to more than 30 countries and this week their total passed 38,000, with worldwide membership now approaching a million.

"It's just so odd," said Sue Ellen Cooper, 60, the society's creator and self-styled Exalted Queen Mother, sitting in one of the throne-like red chairs in her office at the "Hatquarters" in Fullerton, near Los Angeles.

"We've never done any publicity, it's just word of mouth and the internet. It could so easily have fizzled out." In the early days she promised, rather rashly, to sport a red hat tattoo if the number of chapters ever reached 10,000. True to the spirit of the movement, when the number did hit five figures, she submitted to the needle and a red hat is now tattooed on her back. The once "uptight" Mrs Cooper came up with the idea after chancing on a scarlet fedora in an Arizona thrift shop. She then read Warning, a poem written in 1961 by Jenny Joseph, which opens:

"When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

"With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me."

Mrs Cooper decided to start giving all her friends who turned 50 bright red hats along with a copy of the poem to encourage them to see the milestone birthday as a cause not for mourning but celebration.

"Fifty is a difficult birthday for a lot of women and I wanted to remind them to be more eccentric as they get older and not to take it hard," said Mrs Cooper, a mother of two and a former muralist.

In April 1998, Mrs Cooper and friends dressed up in purple clothes and red hats and went out for tea. They had such fun they decided to meet regularly and call themselves the Red Hat Society. Word spread and the Red Hats have never looked back.

"We felt a bit silly, like little girls playing dress-up, and that loosened up a lot of things in us," said Mrs Cooper of the first outing.

"This is all about the simple pleasure of playing again - I would call it recess. Women are not allowed to age and when we do, we're supposed to disappear. But we are not dead. We are all still involved, active participants. This is about accepting where we are in life and making the most of it."

While there are no rules - "most of us are really tired with rules," said Mrs Cooper - there are guidelines. Younger women can join but have to wear pink hats until they turn 50, or "reduate"; founders of chapters are called Queen Mothers.

The Queen Mother title may have hindered the society's expansion into the UK. Or there could be another explanation.

"Initially, it didn't catch on in Britain," said Mrs Cooper. "I wasn't sure if it was to do with the Queen thing or the meaning that red hats apparently carry there: that you're not wearing any knickers and so you're a prostitute......"

Yikes, I never knew that last bit.. LOL


And here, of course, is Jenny Joseph's wonderful poem:

'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.
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 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 at a 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 surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple."



What really tickled my fancy though was the men who were in the shop were utterly under the spell of the Scarlet Women, and wanted to join the group too, but Queen Jean told them they weren't allowed. I told them they had to start their own group, called The Scarlet Waistcoats..(although I'm a little worried they may put red knickers in their lapels)


Anyways ups...I just thought I'd pass some Scarlet Sunshine on...... :0)