The Rambling Red Rowdies

Connecticut’s Rambling Red Rowdies are a local chapter of the international organization, The Red Hat Society (RHS).  The Red Hat Society began more than a decade ago after author Sue Ellen Cooper gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a flamboyant red hat purchased a year earlier at a thift store along with a copy of Jenny Joseph’s poem "Warning." The opening lines of the poem read:  “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me . . . “

RHS has grown into an organization of over 70,000 registered members and almost 24,000 chapters in the United States and 25 other countries. It is the largest women’s social group in the world.

Member Lorraine Trinks says of the local Rambling Red Rowdies chapter, “Women traditionally have always taken care of everybody else, and this is our chance to just have some fun for ourselves.”