About a year-and-a-half ago, the Mapleton community women founded a Red Hat Society. The group meets once a month at the Mapleton convenience store allegedly to discuss business, but insiders say it is more of a chance for the ladies to have a night out and not have to cook.

Like all groups, they have a variety of activities, but one of them involves taking trips. In the 18 months they have been organized, they have had several fun trips to places such as the theater in Kansas City, the Gary Hawk Studio in Iola and the Chicken 'N Picken in Stark.

Lately, their selection of a place to visit seems to run into snags. A group planned to go to the Kress Tea Room last March for one of their outings, but the big fire on March 11 scuttled those plans. Most recently, they made reservations for the Red Barn for Jan. 27, only to hear that it was engulfed in a fire. One of their members said, "I'm afraid that once the word gets out about the Mapleton Red Hatters, no place in town will want to make reservations for the girls' day out."

Given the track record of the ladies, it would seem that the next meeting of the "Red Hat Society" should be held at the fire department.