Just want to say "thank you" to Mr and Mrs Butler for being concerned enough about their employees and having the foresight to set up the profit-sharing and 401K programs that now enable me to have a better retirement. Thank You!

Still active in the Red Hat Society as Queen Mother of the Seacoast Red Hat Mama's chapter. We meet once a month for lunch. The chapter is part of the national organization that if based upon the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph that starts with "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat..."

We also take trips and just plain have fun! I started with a couple friends from Neslab, Bev Jewell and Ginger Willard and before I knew it, the chapter grew to 23 (not all Neslabians), but that is the joy of it, you get to meet people you may never have otherwise.

Editor's note: Was surprised and pleased to see Elaine and all the Red Hats on Amtrak Downeaster train 686 - I was commuting home from work, and they were just having a fun day in Portland! Guess it is true the train is a great place to meet women - RM

By MICHAEL GOOT
Staff Writer
Foster's Daily Democrat

NEW CASTLE -- The Red Hat Society's members were living up to their mission Saturday, putting on red hats and purple outfits and having a good time. About 275 women from 21 chapters of the group in New Hampshire held a luncheon at the Wentworth By the Sea Hotel. "I invited a couple of chapters to lunch. It just kept snowballing," said Elaine Anuszkiewicz of Portsmouth, queen mother of the Seacoast Red Hat Mamas.

Anuszkiewicz said each group, which is for women age 50 and older, participates in a variety of activities such as going out to lunch once a month, going on day trips or traveling to theaters or museums. The purpose is to meet people and to have a good time. "(There's) no rules and regulations. Get together and have fun," she said. "Women do for everybody else their entire lives. Then, once they turn 50, you do for yourself." The purpose of the organization is to let women "greet middle age with verve, humor and elan," "We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next," according to the organization's statement of purpose on its Web site at www.redhatsociety.com.

The society was started by Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, Calif., when she visited a friend in Tucson, Ariz., a few years ago and impulsively bought a bright red fedora hat at a thrift shop. About a year or two later, she read the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph and felt moved by the words, where the narrator says as an old woman she will wear a red hat and purple attire. The club gradually grew in size. Now it has 7,500 chapters all 50 states.

At Saturday's luncheon, there were groups from Alton, Barrington, Concord, Dover, Franklin, Hampton, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Pembroke, Portsmouth, Seabrook and Whitefield. Portsmouth Mayor Evelyn Sirrell was also on hand for the occasion. "This is the first time that I ever knew they existed. It's a great group of women," she said. They even made me put on a hat and I'm not a hat person." In a proclamation, Sirrell wished the members "many more such occasions to make new friends and enjoy red-hatted fun." Deb Carroll of the Seabrook Sassies said her group has done such fun activities such as riding on the Downeaster to Portland, Maine; getting readings from a psychic; touring homes in Newburyport, Mass., and attending a wine tasting in Lee. "There's no pressure. There's no real issue or anything but having fun," she said. "We're enjoying our age ‹ say what you want to say, do what you want to do." Mary Jo Cannarella of the Red Hat Mamas of Nashua described society members as "fun loving." "They've reached a point in their life where they can do as they please -- within reason," she said. "People who are red-hatters don't really worry what people think." Edie Drinkwater of Newburyport, Mass., was selling different types of collectible red hat merchandise like gloves, earrings and scarves. She has a room upstairs in her Newburyport shop where she displays the merchandise. "I don't care what age they are. When they go in there, they're like 7-year-olds. They start playing dress up," she said. The group is holding its third national convention in Dallas in 2004. Its first convention was held in Chicago in 2002. Earlier this year, it met in Nashville, Tenn. For more information go to www.redhatsociety.com.

© 2003 Geo. J. Foster Company