There was a time not long ago that the sight of a large group of middle-aged women decked out in bright red hats and purple attire would have turned many heads. By now, however, many people have become aware of the ever-growing phenomenon of the Red Hat Society.
The group consists of women age 50 and older, who periodically get together, don bright red hats of all shapes and sizes, and go out on the town for a day of fun. The group has achieved such notoriety that HATS!, a new Las Vegas stage production based on the fun-loving and carefree ways of the Red Hat Society, recently had its grand opening. The opening attracted around 1,700 Red Hat Society members who converged on Las Vegas not only to watch and support the production, but also to form a half-mile-long chorus line along the Vegas strip in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record.
Locally, no Guinness World records have been attempted, but the Red Hat Rovers based out of the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center is one of, if not the biggest, Red Hat groups in Connecticut, at more than 100 members. Red Hat Rovers “Queen Mother” and Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center Executive Director Vicki Anderson explained how the Pawcatuck chapter was formed.
“I really started with this through Millie Divine, who is the Queen Mother of the Thames River Reds, and our first meeting was at the Thames Club in New London, which never allowed women up until the 1980s so it was kind of fun to go there,” Anderson said, laughing.
“It really exploded,” Anderson added. “It all started out with this ‘make a red hat’ thing, which I thought wouldn’t work that well, but Carol [Granato], the Empress of Fun and Outrageous Things, she really pulled it off. And now everyone has a whole bunch of red hats, no one just has one red hat.”
Founded in 1998 in Fullerton, Calif., by Sue Ellen Cooper (the Exalted Queen Mother), the Red Hat Society was inspired by “Warning,” a poem by British author Jenny Joseph, which speaks to growing older with a continued zest for life. Friends of the original chapter began forming their own groups and presently there are more than 40,000 chapters in all 50 states and in 25 foreign countries.
The one underlying rule of the society is that there are no rules, although to be a red hatter, women must be more than 50 years of age (those under age 50 are allowed to join as a Pink Hatter), and when attending functions group members must dress up in full regalia, usually a bright red hat and purple outfit. And while the Pawcatuck chapter happily abides by these guidelines, they are different from most groups in that they don’t turn away those who want to join because they already have too many members. With most groups ranging between 10 and 20 members, the more than 100 members of the Red Hat Rovers is very uncommon, making their outings even more impressive to witness.
“When we went to the Steak Loft, a gentleman went out to his car and came back in with his camera because he wanted to get pictures of all of us. It was pretty funny,” Anderson said.
Founded in 2004, the Rovers began with 10 members and over the past four years membership has ballooned to 10 times that amount, with more women joining every few months. The Rovers also differ from other chapters in that they have an event planned every month, not quarterly, keeping their members active and always on the move.
Some of the adventures the group has taken over the past year have been to the Astor Mansion in Newport, R.I., for dinner and entertainment, to a luau at Port and Starboard at Ocean Beach Park, to the Hukilau in Chicopee, Mass., for a Hawai’in/Polynesian Christmas show, and to a cruise around the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek. Anderson recalls, however, that one of the most outrageous outings was actually in town, when the Rovers boarded the “duck boat,” an amphibious vehicle in the shape of a giant duck, which cruises the Pawcatuck River and tours Westerly and the surrounding areas.
“I was on the Westerly-Pawcatuck Chamber of Commerce at the time and I asked if we could have the duck boat for an outing…so a lot of the ladies got onboard and we went up Route 2,” Anderson explained. “Now the duck boat doesn’t move that fast, so that was also a funny thing because we went around Westerly ringing and waving and slowly up Route 2 to Randall’s Ordinary…that was a fun one; we certainly got some looks.”
Anderson said that the group tries to plan its farthest outings in the warmer months and stay local during the winter when driving and weather can be a deterrent. But regardless of the distance, the group always tries to plan a meal and an activity during all of their outings. Red Hat Rover and Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center board member Eleanor Johnson said she sees the group as one of few carefree things she’s ever been involved in.
“I think it’s perhaps the only group that I have ever been in, in my entire life, that is strictly for fun,” Johnson said. “I’ve been on boards of education, directed choirs, sang for weddings—I’ve had a very, very active, busy life and my husband and I had eight children altogether, but this is the only group that I’ve belonged to where I didn’t have to take minutes, run a meeting, look anything up. I can dress in a goofy red hat with a purple shirt and go somewhere and have a nice lunch and just talk and visit with a lot of nice people. It’s just a purely enjoyable group to be with and I enjoy it very much.”
The Rovers most recently traveled to the S&P Oyster Company in Mystic where they enjoyed a lunch buffet and the musings of a professional comedian.
And while their destinations are always different, one thing is certain: The Red Hat Rovers continue to grow in numbers and in age and are loving every minute of it.