Members of the “Ruby Reds” chapter of the Red Hat Society came to the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center on Oct. 11 to meet, eat lunch and visit the Gift Shop.
Most of the women were wearing red hats and purple clothing, the official style for a Red Hat Society. The Society began in 1997, when artist Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, Calif., gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a red fedora purchased a year earlier at a thrift store along with a copy of Jenny Joseph’s poem “Warning.” The opening lines of the poem read:
“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,
With a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.”
Here are some of the hats that the members had on display while they were in the gift shop.
