Page 90 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Summer 2022 - Online Magazine

Friendship
Red Hat
Society
000 was an eventful year. We
survived Y2K with phones
2still working, computers still
processing, and plenty of staples in
our pantry, since everything did NOT
shut down as anticipated. George W.
Bush won the White House; the final
"Peanuts" comic strip was published;
the Olympics were held in Australia.
And, unbeknownst to some, the
biggest thing to blow into Lubbock,
TX was the Red Hat Society. That is
when many discovered that “Red
Hatters Matter!”
The Red Hat Society is an
international social organization that
was founded in 1998 in the United
States for women of age 50 and
beyond. It is now open to women
of all ages. It was organized in part
by Sue Ellen Cooper as a playgroup
90 Lubbock Senior Link
the FACTOR
A Social Playground
for Women
by Sheila Kirby
for women to connect with
like-minded women, make
new friends, and enrich lives
through the power of fun and
friendship! Many of the Red
Hat Society’s traditions can be
summed up with words from
the poem “Warning” written
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.