ODE TO THE RED HAT SOCIETY
By Exalted Queen Mother, Sue Ellen Cooper!
A poet put it very well. She said when she was older,
She wouldn’t be so meek and mild. She threatened to get bolder.
She’d put a red hat on her head, and purple on her shoulder.
She’d make her life a warmer place, her golden years much golder.
We read that poem, all of us, and grasped what she is saying.
We do not need to sit and knit, although we are are graying.
We think about what we can do. Our plans we have been laying.
Instead of working all the time, we’ll be out somewhere playing.
We take her colours to our hearts, and then we all go shopping
For purple clothes and hats of red, with giant brims a-flopping.
We’re tired of working all the time, and staying home and mopping.
We order pies and chocolate fudge, and rich deseserts with topping.
We crown ourselves as duchesses and countesses and queens.
We prove that playing dress-up isn’t just for Halloween.
We drape ourselves in jewels, feathers, boas and sateen.
We see ourselves on television and in magazines.
We laugh, we cry, we hug a lot. We keep each other strong.
When one of us goes out for fun, the rest all go along.
We gad about, we lunch and munch, in one big happy throng.
We’ve found the place where we fit in, the place we all belong.
Ode to Red Hatters
Isn’t lovely and simply divine?
To finally be fifty and not forty-nine?
Fifty has substance, fifty has style;
Now you can do things that make folks smile.
None of this nonsense talk of “over the hill”
Relax and have fun, just do what you will.
You can wear purple outfits and a silly red chapeau;
Trimmed in feathers and flowers, be always on the go.
None of that “old talk” for this active bunch;
It’s off to bingo, or a tea-shop lunch.
We may have some aches; wrinkles may dot the skin;
But we’re in glorious shape, for the shape that we’re in.
We giggle and simper, gossip and tease;
Say what we feel, it’s us that we please.
You may find us silly; you may roll your eyes;
You may think purple, a strange disguise.
But purple is royal, it makes a grand show;
We have a Queen Mother; she is wise we all know.
So dust off the cobwebs and let’s have some fun.
Join the Red Hats, where new life has begun.
You can be an old fogey and sit on the side;
Or join all of us, wear our colors with pride.
That is our story; we hope you’ll agree;
Belonging to the Red Hats, is the best place to be …..
(Author Unknown)
