Saratoga Sampler
RubyRed MadHatters have a very important date
By Mary Ann Cook
RED HATS & ALL: The RubyRed MadHatters will hold a luncheon meeting at Steamers in Los Gatos on April 20 at 11:30 a.m. The RubyReds are a local chapter of the Red Hat Society, an international organization of women of "un certain age," as the French would say. (Age 50 and over is the rough translation.)
The local chapter is headed by Karen Kilgore, who calls herself the Founding Instigator. The group's origins are based on the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. The poem begins, "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn't go."
The idea is that older women are freer to express themselves, and do so with more humor. Kilgore copied the poem, framed it and hung it in her house. Then she kept running into other women who also responded to its theme. She looked up the Red Hat website and decided to start a chapter herself.
There are no rules, but there are some unrules: anybody who wants to can plan and carry out an event. There are 60 members, but only about 15 attend each function. To embody the poem--and its attitude--attendees wear bright red hats and royal purple dresses.
Most of the women don't know each other until they meet at a gathering. Organizer of this luncheon is Karen LaRoche. The only other officer is Brandy Devine, who is recorder and keeps the scrapbook. The website is www.redhatsociety.org. There are chapters all over the world.
NEW AUTHOR: Tami Anastasia has written a book with the same name as her business, and both enterprises echo her first name. The longtime health and fitness counselor has just written Toward A Magnificent Self: The Exercise Book For Every Body, published by Xulon Press.
Toward A Magnificent Self identifies the psychological roadblocks that stop people from making exercise a habit and teaches the reader how to break through those roadblocks. Included are self-assessment questionnaires, journaling, writing exercises and anecdotes.
Anastasia's private exercise studio is named TAMS (Toward a Magnificent Self) Wellness Studio and has been open at Vasona Station for the past two years. Before that her health consulting business operated out of the club on Los Gatos Boulevard started by her father, John.
Anastasia's Athletic Club in Los Gatos ran for 13 years and Tami was its manager. It was the first health club in Santa Clara County, having opened in 1967. Tami Anastasia specializes in working with people who are sedentary and have difficulty motivating themselves to exercise.
And she works with those who suffer chronic pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia, and osteoporosis, and those who are recovering from surgery. She has a master's in counseling from the Santa Clara University. She and her four siblings grew up in Saratoga, and her mother Gloria, now widowed, and brother Donald live here.
STEINBECK INTERVIEW: Saratogan Audry Lynch will appear on C-Span April 28 at noon interviewing several people at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas about John Steinbeck. Among those being interviewed is William Thomas of Saratoga, who grew up in Salinas and whose parents knew Steinbeck.
It's part of C-Span's American Writers series, which was postponed after Sept. 11. This year is Steinbeck's 100th birthday, so the spotlight is turned up on that very American writer whose themes, such as homelessness and the conditions for agrarian workers, resonate today.
MOUNTAIN MAMAS: As part of the Open Art Studios April 20 and 21, the Mountain Mamas will hold a display of their work at 16471 Bonnie Lane in Los Gatos. The group hopes to raise money for the LG-Saratoga Observation Nursery School tuition fund. Each artist will decide what percentage of sales to donate.
The school is affectionately known as "Mountain School," from which springs the name of the artists and mothers known as Mountain Mamas. Marina Barnes is the host, and the show will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Artists showing their work include painters Halina Gallagher, Jill Templeton and Dana Williams; quilters Jeanne Dominguez, Templeton and Laurie West; jewelry makers Angie Davidson, Blair Kilbey, Sharon Perry and Caitlin and Tani Pryce; cardmaker Jan Eby; glasswork by Gallagher; and portraitist Lily W. Soetarman. Background music will be performed by Bonnie Ward, Dominguez, John Templeton, C. Pryce and April Soetarman.
NEW OFFICERS: The Saratoga Foothill Club's newly elected officers for 2002-'03 are Marlene Duffin, president; Ellen Prandi, first vice president; Ann Peterson, corresponding secretary; and JoAnn Syvertson, treasurer.
Continuing officers are Mary Ann Henderson, second vice president; Marty Clevenger, membership secretary; and Diana Stoiber, recording secretary. Phylis Ballingall is publicity chairman.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
