It was more or less by accident that The Red Hat Society came into being. It all started when a lady from California by the name of Sue Ellen Cooper decided to give her friend Linda Murphy a red hat for her 50th birthday, accompanied by the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph.The first sentence of that poem reads: "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me…" In other words: Who cares? I don't!
The gift was a great success and soon other friends were starting to follow suit. When Ms. Cooper and a group of friends all went out for tea one day decked out in purple clothes and wearing red hats, The Red Hat Society was born. After a wave of publications in the written press and an appearance on the Today Show in the U.S .in 2000 the Society took off on a national, and from there International, scale.
You cannot become a Red hatter, being a Red Hatter is in you: it's a matter of mind!
At the end of February 2005 an article appeared in the Dutch newspaper NRC/Handelsblad. It was this article that spurred the start of the Society in the Netherlands. Who would have thought so many women would be inspired! There are now more than one million Red Hat members worldwide!

At present we have more than 100 active chapters in The Netherlands, and surely there will be more to follow…. We are not an organization with any fixed objective, and neither are we in any manner a religious or political organization. We have no rules, other than being over 50. In fact, we call ourselves a dis-organization. Our only purpose is fun and friendship after 50. Gaining higher visibility for women in our age-group and reshaping the way society views us is an added bonus. Dressing up in splashy colors and donning a Red Hat is a way of expressing the fun spirit which resides within us.
Age is a matter of mind: if you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
The feeling of "togetherness", friendship, and just getting to know others in our age-group is an exciting and wonderful experience! Women over 50 are teaming up! Not only here in The Netherlands, but all over the planet! We are the Red Hatters! Fantastic!

This site was published due to the tremendous reactions after a TV broadcast at the Dutch public canal two at 17 november 2005 covering the first Dutch national convention at Utrecht. The Dutch Red Hat Society at that time was not that huge and some chapters received hundreds of mails asking for information. Some Queens asked the question why we do not start a Dutch information page in our own language and so for everybody in the Netherlands to understand.

There is no main organisation of the Red Hat Society in the Netherlands. All Dutch chapters are members of the motherorganisation in America. So in the Netherlands we do not have a superqueen or chairman. All Dutch queens are their own boss in their own kingdom. This page is not an official page for the red hat society Netherlands, because an official red hat society Netherlands does not excist.

Jenny Joseph's original poem, where it is all about.
WARNING

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've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when Im 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 flowers in other peoples gardens
And learn to spit
The original article from NRC/Handelsblad can be found , klick NRC/Handelsblad (Sorry, only in Dutch)
 
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