Lucite Canes for the Red Hat Society.

All across America (and elsewhere) bodacious women are gathering in groups and calling themselves The Red Hat Society. It has become quite a 'movement'. The official colors of the Red Hat Ladies are Red (of course), Pink & Purple. The organization is dedicated to fun after fifty (and before) for women of all walks of life. They believe silliness is the comedy relief of life and, since they are all in it together they join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, they share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes them next.
The idea was begun by Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, California when she and a few friends took inspiration from a popular poem entitled "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. Since the poem mentions wearing a red hat and purple clothes, she and her friends formed a group that met on a regular basis for tea in their red hats and purple dresses.

Here is a portion of the poem that started it all:
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 I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .

by Jenny Joseph

The Red Hat Society® formed in 1997 as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and élan. The Red Hat Society® has grown to more than 21,000 chapters with an estimated 500,000 members in over 20 countries, and continues to grow at a rate of 500 new chapters a week.