TRESTLEBOARD

November 2001

Seems like just yesterday I was worried about my first Stated Meeting, First EA Degree and Inspection. Now I look at the Calendar and its my last degree (MM) on November 1st, last Stated Meeting on November 8th, and my last Special (Awards Night) on November 15th. Hopefully I’ve already performed my last funeral service, but that’s up to the Grand Architect and not me. Not that I don’t like to do them, but I’d rather see you guys in Lodge

Overall I think we’ve had a good year. Even though until inflation catches things up though I’ll probably have the record for spending the most money. The amount of money we’ve put back into the Temple this year is staggering. However, the Temple is looking better by the day and I think we will reap benefits for years to come. A special thanks to Vaughn Cover and Dave Kurtz whose perseverance is finally beginning to pay off. I think the interaction between the various groups has been wonderful. The Stars/Blue Lodge picnic was a success, the Donut Hut had another good year in spite of a dramatic decrease in fair attendance, Roger Thomas, Bob Askew and Jeff Marshall and his wife put in some really long hours at the Donut Hut - thanks!. Throughout the year the attendance at the breakfasts has been great - and I think we all owe a special thanks to Bob Askew who has kind of taken over as the breakfast cook. A special thanks to Pat Askew and Eula Brooks as the Eastern Stars and Rainbow have done wonderful jobs providing the refreshments at our various special events - I couldn’t have done it without them. A special thanks to WB’s Ken Crouse, Roger Edgington and Daryl Garris and RWB Dennis Lawson. I found the ritual work put on by these brothers to be inspiring, I could only hope someday to be as good as they are. They’ve always been willing to help and offer advice (sometimes when I didn’t want it too). If I could offer any advice to officers coming through the line is that if you have any questions on degree work - find these guys!!! Finally, a special thanks to Lloyd Egbert, he has served as Fellow Craft team captain for many years and doing the MM degree without him is unthinkable.

I guess if I were to offer any words of wisdom it would be to try to attend lodge more and participate any way you can. You get out much of Masonry more than what you put into it. I know Stated Meetings can be snoozers, I wouldn’t have attended half of them if I wasn’t the Master. Vaughn Cover and I have tried various things to make them go faster (the better ideas were Vaughn’s), and in fact we had one Stated Meeting last only 50 minutes. But if nothing else, attend the degree work and if possible participate in that third degree. The impression on the candidate will last a lifetime.

In closing, I guess I’ll wish Lloyd Egbert good luck in his upcoming year as Worshipful Master. Lloyd has been a brother for many years and I can’t think of anybody more deserving to sit in the East of our lodge than Lloyd. See you in Lodge. .

In recognition of our veterans on Veterans Day

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell just by looking.

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden blanks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back at all.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand. The career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who never has seen combat but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the three anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So, remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say thank you. That's all most of these veterans need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "Thank you".

Freedom is not Free
By Anon

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze;
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,
So young, so tall, so proud;
With hair cut square and eyes alert,
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought ... how many men like him
Had fallen through the years?
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilot's planes shot down
Over foreign land or sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers graves?
No ... Freedom is not Free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still;
I listened to the bugler play,
And felt a sudden chill;

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend;

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands ...
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves in Arlington ...
No ... Freedom is not Free!

Freemasonry's Mission Statement

Freemasonry provides opportunities for sincere, honest, forthright men who want to contribute to the improvement of themselves and of their communities. Through our Masonic fraternalism, we reaffirm our dedication and unity to become involved citizens who have a strong desire to preserve the values that have continued, and will continue, to make America great.

Calendar of Events

Stated Meetings
Thursday, November 8^th, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 13^th, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 10^th, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 24^th, 7:30 p.m.

Annual Meeting & Election of Officers
Thursday, November 8^th, 7:30 p.m.

Practice for Installation
Friday, November 16^th, 7:00 p.m.

Special Meetings

Awards Night
Thursday, November 15^th, 7:00 p.m. - Refreshments after Meeting

Open Installation of Officers for 2002
Saturday, November 17^th, 7:00 p.m. - Refreshments after Installation

Past Masters' Night
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Dinner at 6:30 p.m. - PM's open Lodge & confer FC Degree at 7:30 p.m.

Ladies’ Night
(An Open Event)
Thursday, June 20^th, 2002
Dinner at 6:30 p.m. - Entertainment at 7:30 p.m.

Annual Inspection - Entered Apprentice Degree
Thursday, February 7^th (or 21^st)
Open at 6:00 p.m., Dinner at 6:30 p.m., Degree at 7:30 p.m.
Menu and exact date t.b.a. in a future edition

Non-Meetings
Thursday, November 22^nd
Thursday, December 27^th

Saturday Morning Breakfasts
Saturday, November 24^th, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Saturday, January 26^th, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Medina Masonic Temple Dining Hall

Saint Johns' Day Observance
Sunday, June 23^rd, Time t.b.a. in future edition
First Christian Church, The Rev. Michael Cassady, Pastor
3611 Center Road (SR 303), Brunswick