High Tea In The High Desert

Chloride Bank Café
Chloride, NM 87943
GPS Coordinates (in three formats):
N 33.338515^o, W 107.680770^o
N 33^o 20.3109', W 107^o 40.8462'
N 33^o 20' 18.65", W 107^o 40' 50.77"
Elevation: 6,176 feet

Today blew my mind. Eighteen ladies who are members of the Red Hat Society came to Chloride to have 'High Tea' at our Chloride Bank Café.

I had nothing to do with this and I certainly wasn't dressed (or shaved) for the event. I managed to get some pictures. Here are a few.

Hat by Cassie Hobbs

Bonnet by Cassie Hobbs

Table Setup

Tea Table

WOW! Look at those hats!

More hats

Gaynell Pyle and Krystal Torres did a great job serving the event

Some visited the Museum and Gallery

Those Boots Were Made For Walkin' Really?

Reports are that the ladies enjoyed their afternoon and their visit to Chloride. Thanks to Linda Turner for being the excellent hostess.

The Red Hat used as the center piece for today's event was made by Cassie Hobbs. Cassie, of course, predates the Red Hat Society and knew nothing of it (April 5, 1904 – May 20, 1989).

Here is what I learned about that hat from Linda Turner. Hat makers work on a hat manikin. Cassie didn't have one, so she made one.

Cassie Hobbs' Hat Manikin

She made the hat frame from wire and crocheted the hat onto the frame.

Cassie Hobbs' Hat (ribbon added)

The Red Hat Society (RHS) is a social organization originally founded in 1998 in the United States for women age 50 and beyond, but now open to women of all ages. As of 2011, there were over 40,000 chapters in the United States and 30 other countries.

The founder of the Society is artist Sue Ellen Cooper, who lives in Fullerton, Orange County, California. In 1997, Cooper gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a red bowler purchased at an antique 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.”
Cooper repeated the gift on request several times, and eventually several of the women bought purple outfits and held a tea party on April 25, 1998.

After spreading by word of mouth, the Society first received national publicity in 2000 through the magazine Romantic Homes and a feature in The Orange County Register. Cooper then established a "Hatquarters" to field the hundreds of e-mail requests for help starting chapters. She now serves as "Exalted Queen Mother", and has written two best-selling books about the Society, "The Red Hat Society: Friendship and Fun After Fifty" published in April 2004 and "The Red Hat Society's Laugh Lines: Stories of Inspiration and Hattitude" published in April 2005.Wikipedia