Registered: January 15, 2004 Location: tacoma, wa Posts: 302
Wed, Nov 10, 2004 @ 8:31 PM
this is how the red hat society started.
""How it all 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 that it was cheap and, she thought, quite dashing. A year or two later she read the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph, which depicts an older woman in purple clothing with a red hat. Sue Ellen 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. They decided they would find purple dresses which didn't go with their red hats to complete the poem's image.""
Registered: January 15, 2004 Location: tacoma, wa Posts: 302
Wed, Nov 10, 2004 @ 8:33 PM
Warrning (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 the flowers in other peoples' 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 suprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Have y'all read the hillarious novel, The Red Hat Club, by Haywood Smith?? I loved it! It says another is due April 2005, which I will buy too! This one has a definite Exwives Club flair to it, but SOUTHERN STYLE! These former debs are NOT going to take it lying down! Very FUN!
Registered: September 1, 2005 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2
Wed, May 24, 2006 @ 11:51 AM
I can not read your framed poem isit the same one that Kellyslattery sent? I would like a copy of both if different. Need ASAP going to retirement party. Love your idea have that stamp set.