LES CHAPEAU ROUGE

“Les Chapeau Rouge”

Hi All,

The September 1, 2004 issue of The St. Albans Messenger carried an article written by Linda Collins, St. Albans Messenger Correspondent on “The Red Hat Club.”

I have heard of this club and knew of one person that belonged to it, however, in the article there was a picture of three women that I am sure many of you will recognize.

Members of the St. Albans “Les Chapeau Rouge”, club shown above, are Carol (Gaboury) Boissoneault, Pauline (Gaboury) Cray and Mary (Magnan) Boissoneault. These young ladies all lived in Fairfax at one time. (Photo is Courtesy of Stina Plant of The St. Albans Messenger)

Although I have never seen any of them in person all dressed up, I am told they sometimes wear purple fish net stockings and high top red basketball sneakers. There are 55 registered Red Hat groups in the state of Vermont and another 15 or 20 that are not registered with the national organization.

The society was founded by Sue Ellen Cooper in 1999 after she and her friends were inspired by the poem, “Warning” by Jenny Joseph.

The poem begins, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn’t suit me.” From those sentiments, the women decided to greet middle age with humor.

In a few short years, the organization has grown by word of mouth and the Internet, to become an international society with more than 10,000 chapters, a magazine and a retail outlet called, “The Imperium.”

The only requirement to start a chapter is to gather a group of ladies together, wear red hats and clashing purple outfits and celebrate life together. Women must be 50 years of age to join.

Now I know that many of you are interested in learning how to start or join one of these groups – Well, I’ll make it easy for you, just click on the following link for their official web site:

http://www.redhatsociety.com/

Have a great day,
Henry