One Tinton Falls community boasts five women’s ‘dis-organizations’
By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Donning dashing red hats and purple ensembles, women 50 and older all over the world prove they’re never too old to play dress up and have tea parties.
With only one responsibility— to have fun—the Red Hat Society empowers women to let loose and let go of the way society views their age group.
“It’s a way of being funny, doing silly things that you don’t ordinarily do or that you never did before, and being able to get away with it,” says Mary Ann Cuoco, queen mother of Les Chapeaux Rouges, one of five Red Hat Society groups at Seabrook in Tinton Falls.
Fondly dis-organized
Inspired by “Warning,” a poem by Jenny Joseph which depicts an older woman wearing a red hat and purple clothing, Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, Ca. informally founded the first Red Hat Society with 18 of her friends. According to the society’swebsite, www.redhatsociety.com, the phenomenon is now often referred to as the greatest women’s “dis-organization,”
“There are no rules and regulations in Red Hats, so you basically just do what you want,” Cuoco says. Like most Red Hat groups, Les Chapeaux Rouges gathers for monthly “get-togethers” of lunch, high tea, or shopping. “We don’t call them meetings because it’s supposed to be crazy and fun,” she says.
Edith Keough, queen mother of Seabrook’s Red Hattitudes, says it’s all about enjoying the camaraderie of people they might not meet in their everyday routine. “We just go to lunch and have fun wearing outrageous red hats and purple outfits,” she says.
The other Red Hat groups at Seabrook include the Sea Belles, the Red Hot Mommas, and Red Hats on Wheels.