REDUATION: 50 is the magic number for Kathy Taylor as she turns from pink to red at Red Hat Society initiation

Aug 22, 2008 (The Decatur Daily - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- RHAT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Aug. 22--It was a "Reduation" ceremony never before seen in the Valley.

A pink mortarboard, purple robe and gifts such as red satin gloves and a skimpy red bikini marked the occasion Wednesday when Kathy Taylor moved from Pink Hat to full-fledged Red Hat Society member.

The 15 members of Decatur's Les Femmes Elegante chapter of the Red Hat Society helped Taylor begin her 50th year with a formal induction into their group of must-be-50-or-older merrymakers.

By Thursday, Taylor was in the back of a van of Red Hatters headed for a mini-convention in Winchester, Ky., and they were all still giggling about the graduation and lunch at Cafe 113.

The national group's traditions include allowing women under 50 to meet with them and wear pink hats and lavender attire instead of full-fledged red hats with purple clothing.

"Kathy has been a Pink Hatter with our group for a year and a half, and she has looked forward to this since she joined us," said Sue VanLandingham, who for seven years has served as chapter "Queen Mother" of this group that doesn't believe in presidents and traditional officers.

"Kathy is the only one I ever knew who called AARP to see when she was going to get her card," she said. So they decided that the week after the Decatur woman's half-century birthday Aug. 12, they would officially make her a Red Hat member.

They met her at the door with a kazoo serenade, and Vice Queen Margaret Suggs read an "Ode to Kathy."

For the ceremony, Taylor took off the mortarboard and placed her right hand on a red hat for her pledge.

"It was a funny ceremony, because we had her swear silly things, like if any Red Hat sisters become comatose, she will make sure there's no drooling or hair out of place," said VanLandingham.

She said they had planned to give Taylor a red hat. "But we found out she had been buying them for the last year and a half to be ready, so we got her other things, instead. I found the red velvet bikini at a dollar store."

First Taylor received a pair of red satin gloves and purple satin-covered flipflops to go with her purple robe and pink mortarboard.

"Our newest member, Sharon Beach, made the mortarboard and robe," said VanLandingham. Beach was a member in New Mexico before moving to Decatur and joining this Red Hat group.

"She is proficient with the kazoo, so she became our director of kazoos," said the chapter's Queen Mother. "That came in handy when she led us in a kazoo version of 'Pomp and Circumstance' at the 'Reduation' and then also our kazoo rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to Kathy."

The graduation gifts were as unusual as the music. They included a can of Vienna sausage, a dill pickle, watermelon seeds to learn how to spit with, a walking stick, a piece of picket fence, and a treasure chest full of lipstick, eye shadow, warming lotion and Aleve, digestive aids and other pills.

"There was a bell to ring to be waited on, too, now that I'm 50," said Taylor.

Her Red Hat sisters read the poem that inspired the national society, "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple," and paused at points to give Taylor an item mentioned in the poem to aid her at that stage of life.

"I was just fascinated by everything," Taylor said. "I knew there was going to be a 'Reduation,' but I had no idea what they were going to do. They wouldn't let me come to the meetings when they were planning it."

This was the first graduation ceremony this chapter has seen for a Pink Hatter going to a Red Hatter. Unlike most organizations, the national Red Hat Society doesn't have any regulations, so they were free to plan whatever they wished.

"Some ladies came from Red Hat chapters in Cullman, Muscle Shoals, Arab and Falkville, and they had never seen such a ceremony, either," Taylor said.

"I had wanted to be a Red Hatter since I first saw them years ago, but I didn't know I could join as a Pink Hatter while under 50 until a friend told me," she said. "I became the chapter's first Pink Hatter in January 2007, and they called me their 'baby.' "

The event was even more special, she said, because her mother, Jeannette Russell of Decatur, was able to attend.

Russell, too, said she had never seen anyone so excited to turn 50.

"I've been buying red hats and purple clothes for a while," Taylor said. "I used to tell people, 'When I grow up, I'm going to be a Red Hatter.' "

Taylor already has been on several road trips with this sisterhood, including the Red Hat Society's national convention in Nashville and a mini-convention in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in 2007.

A retired nurse, Taylor now works at Bank Street Antiques a couple days a week. "That way I can spot estate jewelry to buy for the Red Hatters, because I like that bling-bling look," she said.

And when she opens her recently renovated Old Decatur home for the Christmas tour on Dec. 13, she plans to have her Red Hat friends serve as hostesses.

They will be right at home in a room that's already decorated entirely in red and purple. And perhaps she can put the fur-trimmed red bikini she calls her "Santa's Helper" outfit on display there.

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