With four to a table, a group of good friends made a colorful gathering at the Natchez Eola Hotel Tuesday.

But these are not just ladies who lunch. Mothers and grandmothers among them &045; and busy volunteers all &045; they have just inaugurated Natchez’s first Red Hat Society chapter.

Made up of members of the dissolved Salvation Army Auxiliary, the group received its charter this week for the society, which is inspired by the Jenny Joseph poem &uot;Warning&uot;:

&uot;When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

&uot;With a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.

&uot;And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

&uot;And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.&uot;

Hence the purple clothing and red hats, which the women plan to wear at every meeting.

Those meetings, though, won’t be held every month &045; the point of the Red Hat Society is that it isn’t so much an organization as it is a disorganization.

&uot;What about dues?&uot; charter member Yvonne Robbins asked leader Joyce Borum as the group sat down to lunch.

&uot;Dues?!&uot; Borum said. &uot;We have no dues.&uot;

No dues, and no regulations either. If there is one rule, it is the attire &045; and the attitude.

&uot;I’m the Princess of High Maintenance,&uot; member Carla Mason announced as each member introduced herself during a broadcast taping for a local cable channel.

&uot;I need a lot of pampering and a lot of attention,&uot; Mason explained later.

She joined the group, she teased, simply because &uot;I have a lot of red and purple and I was just waiting for the right group to wear it with.&uot;

After their introductions, the camera man asked the ladies if he could film them marching to their lunch tables.

&uot;Should we be spaced out or as a group?&uot; Borum asked.

&uot;We’re already spaced out!&uot; one of the ladies chimed in.

All kidding aside, these are women who do deserve a little pampering. After spending many hours working, volunteering and tending to their families, they decided to use the Red Hat Society as a chance to enjoy themselves.

The next meeting, to be held in February will be at Mainstream Fitness, Borum said. After that outing, they will go for a healthy salad lunch.

And in the spring, members have a chance to attend the Red Hat Society national convention in Dallas.

Red Hat societies keep their membership low locally. Established by a California woman and her friends who believed &uot;silliness is the comedy relief of life,&uot; the group has been growing over the past

two years. The Dallas convention will be the group’s third national gathering.

Borum said the Natchez society grew out of the Salvation Army Auxiliary, as those women were looking for an activity they could do together. They met a few times for lunch, just to keep up their friendships, and then one discovered the Red Hat Society.

But don’t think you won’t see these women without their red hats.

&uot;I think it’s fun,&uot; Borum said. &uot;It doesn’t mean we aren’t going to do charitable work. All of us are very involved.

&uot;We’ve spent our time doing club work and fund-raisers,&uot; Borum said. &uot;We just thought we needed to do something fun like this.&uot;