Photo a Day 14 - Red Hats

I snapped these colourfully attired ladies in Hahndorf, South Australia. They belong to the "Red Hat Society and although I had heard of it, I had never seen any members before. Apparently there are thousands of groups in USA and in other countries around the world.

Originally the society was formed for women over 50  to get together, socialise and support each other. Now it is open to women of all ages. They wear red hats and purple clothes to their get togethers. The Under 50s wear pink and mauve.

This poem says it all.

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat that 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 am 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 people's 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 beer mats 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 will have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practise a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised, When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple!  Jenny Joseph

Liz Needle