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Betty Whitten, queen of Cullman’s Red Hat Ladybugs, shows off her hula dancing during the hula contest at the Red Hatters’ meeting.
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Red Hatters come to Cullman
Ladies in red hats, grass skirts and colorful leis gathered Thursday in Cullman from all over the state for a luau at the All Steak restaurant.
“Our goal is to just have fun,” said Jean Nelson from Sheffield.
She, along with her Red Hat Society group, traveled to the gathering where more than 200 ladies socialized and had lunch.
“We are a group of ladies from 50 years and up that just meet and have fun,” Nelson said.
She said the fun about being in a Red Hatters group is that there is no purpose. The purpose is just to have fun.
“I’m the only one with an authentic moo moo from Hawaii,” Nelson said of her attire for the Hawaiian-themed luncheon.
Ladies enjoyed music by Senior Ms. Cullman County Lillie Tucker and Willie Nelson tribute artist Wayne Abbott.
“We just get together and have fun,” said Jean Horton from the Shoals.
Different groups get together for different events throughout the year, Horton said. Most smaller groups meet at least once a month for their own social. Horton is the co-queen of her group. Each group has a leader, called the queen, and the second is line if the co-queen.
“We take day trips and just have a good time together,” said Horton, a co-queen. “We’re getting older in life, so we just get together and have fun.”
Betty Whitten, queen of Cullman’s Red Hat Ladybugs, emceed the event.
“We just go everywhere, and we go to every party we can and just have wonderful, wonderful fun,” she said.
The Red Hat Ladybugs is a newly formed unit of the Red Hat Society, and this was its first joint meeting with other groups.
“No purpose, no rules,” Whitten said. “That is the rule of the Red Hatters: no rules, just fun.”
Betty Leeth Haynes is the queen of the Happy Red Hatters group in Cullman.
“We eat and have fun,” she said.
Haynes said her group does things like this all the time and travels to other communities to meet with other groups.
Childhood friends Berta McGriff and Thelma Arnold are in the Happy Red Hatters group and enjoy the time they spend together.
“We have been friends since high school and are friends for life,” McGriff said.
As Abbott sang Tiny Bubbles, all the ladies blew bubbles. Blowing the bubbles is a way to blow their cares away, one Red Hatter said.
Artist Sue Ellen Cooper founded the Red Hat Society in Fullerton, Calif., in 1998, when she gave a red fedora to a friend for her 55th birthday along with a poem written by Jenny Joseph, “Warning,” whose opening lines read, “When I am an old women I shall wear purple. With a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.”
She repeated the gift for other friends, and eventually the group met and wore their outfits for a tea party. Red Hat groups now meet all over the country.
‰ Tiffany Green can be reached by e-mail at tgreen@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 221.
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