By Joy Kraft
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

With a red hat which 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 have no money for butter
. . . but maybe I ought to practice a little now?
- Excerpt from "Warning" by Jenny Joseph

We discovered The Red Hat Society in March when researching a story on Easter bonnets. The national group for 50-plus women who fancy hats and a good laugh was started by a Californian Sue Ellen Cooper when she picked up a "dashing" red fedora at a thrift shop while visiting a friend in Tucson.

Shortly after, she ran across a poem, "Warning," by Jenny Joseph and sent it to her friend along with the hat. That friend did the same with another friend, and another and another, and the Society was born.

In March we mentioned two local groups and a third one in its infancy being formed by Dee Atkinson of Hartwell.

Members wear red hats and purple dresses and meet for tea, dinner, shopping, trips to the racetrack - and always for laughs.

"It's about having fun. There's just not enough happiness in this world,'' says Nanette Ripberger of the Cheviot chapter.

Single-handedly, the Tristate is changing that.

"We have 13 chapters now,'' says Ms. Atkinson. "There's been an explosion here. My chapter, which was just forming, got so large we split into various groups. We had 60 at one time," she says.

The groups aren't hard to miss with their distinctive dress and live-and-laugh attitude. Not a wallflower in the bunch.

"Once you go out, women just want to climb aboard,'' she says.

Red Hat Society gift cards, stationery, aprons, magnets and T-shirts have even turned up in the gift shop at Mercy Franciscan Hospital in Western Hills.

Each chapter, usually formed by location for ease of meeting and communicating, has its own agenda. Meetings are planned by whoever wants to be in charge of that month, says Ms. Atkinson.

"It's up to the individual group as to how they want it to work,'' she says.

Local Red Hatters have planned an outing at Stein Mart at Harper's Point 6-8 p.m. Nov. 24. "They're pulling together all the red and purple merchandise they can for us,'' says Ms. Atkinson.

The group is also trying to organize a citywide holiday party, and many are expected to go to the Nashville annual conference in 2003 . . . with their red hats and purple dresses of course.

For information on the group go to www.redhatsociety.com