Cape men form counterpart to Red Hat Society

Their white hats stood in stark contrast to the red fire engine.

Adorned in cowboy hats, ball caps and Panama hats, all shades of white, 13 members of the White Hats toured the new fire station on North Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau.

The men, all over age 70, got together a year ago and decided to organize a group that would take monthly trips to sites in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

The idea came from John Dumont after he watched ladies in Chateau Girardeau meet for tea and go on outings as part of the women's group the Red Hat Society.

"I thought, hey, us guys could do something like that," Dumont said. "I wanted to see some of the surrounding area, and I thought that would be a good way to do it."

He called about 15 men who lived in Chateau Girardeau. They met, liked the idea and have been taking monthly trips ever since.

They had the members. They had the trips planned. Now they needed a name.

Because the group was loosely inspired by the Red Hats, someone suggested the White Hats. Another said the White Caps, but that name "suggests more vim and vigor than we've got," member Rudie Slaughter joked.

So the White Hats were formed.

"The idea is to visit someplace that is a little educational before we go out for a meal," said Dan Neely, who donned a white cowboy hat on the trip.

Touring the fire station was his idea. A few months ago, the fire chief visited Chateau Girardeau and talked about the fire department and then offered to take them on a tour of the new station when it was completed.

"So we just took advantage of it," he said.

The men have been to Southeast Missouri Hospital to tour the surgery center. They've been to Lenco in Jackson and cotton farms in the area.

"We're giving the Red Hats a run for their money," Dumont said. "We go out, we tour places, we go home and take a nap."

Dumont, who grew up in Maine and lived in Hawaii, said his favorite trip thus far was going to see the cotton fields in bloom and going to the gin to see cotton processed.

He even got to drive the combine up one row and down another.

"That was wonderful," Dumont said.

The men are retired doctors, professors, used car salesmen and engineers.

"We're mostly old," White Hat member Bob Chisum said as his fellows named off the various professions of the group.

Many of their wives and significant others are part of the women's society of Red Hats, but the association with the group ends there.

"No, no, no," Dumont said when asked if they pair up for trips with the ladies. "This is a boy thing. We don't take girls."

While the women are banned from the trips, Dumont admitted members of the two groups organized a picnic this summer.

Modeled slightly after the Red Hats, the White Hats appoint a man each month to organize that month's trip. Unlike the women, though, the men have no dues and no rules, according to Slaughter.

"We're more informal than they are," he said.

The Red Hats is a worldwide group for women over 50. It originated in 1998 and now has more than 40,000 chapters, according to its Web site.

"If it were to get a little notoriety and so forth," Dumont said, the White Hats could go global.

As for now, Cape Girardeau has 11 Red Hat Society chapters, but it has only one White Hats group.

charris@semissouiran.com

335-6611, extension 246