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FIDALGO LODGE #77 ANACORTES, WASHINGTON! JULY 2014
! PAGE 1
TRESTLEBOARD
http://www.AnacortesMasons.org
rethren ,
Greetings from the East. For those of you who missed
June's stated, you have my sympa-‐thy. You missed Professor Bob Gara’s excellent presentation on his days as a smoke jumper in the Fifties. Brother Bob showed many of his photos taken during the jumps and gave us some education on what the forest fire-‐fighting life was like back then. Previous to his presentation,I thought I had worked very hard at various times on my life. I stand corrected. These brave men, after putting out a fire, sometimes had to walk 80 miles to get picked up and flown out. Thanks again Brother Bob; you’re an inspira-‐tion!
Fraternally, Stephen Ellis
From the East
CHARTER -‐ In Freemasonry, a document issued by a Grand Lodge, or Chapter, or other grand body, to a certain number of members, empowering them to organize a Lodge or Chapter, etc., and confer degrees. A Lodge can never be opened for labor unless the Charter is present; and it is the right of every visiBng brother to see it before he enters the Lodge.
ESOTERIC -‐ That which is secret, revealed only to the iniBated. In the secret socieBes of the ancients, the doctrines were di-‐vided into the esoteric and exoteric; the former for the iniB-‐
Calendar7/4/14 (Friday):
• Independence Day Parade: 10:30 show for an 11:00 go. 2nd St & Commercial Ave.
7/8/14 (Tuesday):• Temple Board: 5:30 PM• Stated Meeting: 6:30 PM
• WB Jimmy Norton on Educational De-‐velopment
7/23/14 (Wednesday):• District 9 Leadership Association-‐ 7:30 PM
7/27/14 (Sunday):• Annual Picnic: Munks Farm
AnacortesMasons@gmail.com
Life of a Mason: W.B. Danny Beatty
B
From the South ~ The Masonic Words of the Month:
As I start to write this short essay it is May 14, 2014, my fifty – eighth Masonic Birthday. On May 14, 1956 I was raised to Master Mason in Ferndale Lodge #264 by my father and other masons who I had known most of my life. These Masons were also the fa-‐thers of school friends in the small town where I went to school. I was born in October 1933; a few months after President Roosevelt took the oath of office. My parents were living with my father’s par-‐ents on sixty acres of land which was left from the original Beatty homestead settled in the 1870s by my great grandparents. Dad, being the youngest of three children, fell into the task of taking care of his father who had Parkinson disease and the place was behind in taxes due to granddad’s inability to work. The depression limited dad’s employment to a little local farm work and some weeks on WPA. This arrangement lasted until after I gradu-‐ated High School when my folks finally realized they were never going to have a place of their own unless they made a difficult choice. Granddad had died and Grandmother was somewhat able to look after her-‐self. While we worked hard to do all the farm work it supplied little in the way of cash flow so our way of
(See: Beatty, pg. 3)
W.B. Jim Norton, President of the Edmonds Chapter of Ritual Riders, past master of Edmonds Lodge #165, and the chief of educational development in District No. 2, will present a program building up Masonic education in our District.
July’s Presentation
(See: Ragan, pg. 2)
Brother Terry Ragan -‐ JW
http://www.AnacortesMasons.orghttp://www.AnacortesMasons.orgmailto:Mason77@Fidalgo.netmailto:Mason77@Fidalgo.net
FIDALGO LODGE #77 ANACORTES, WASHINGTON! JULY 2014
! PAGE 2
(From: Ragan, pg. 1)
ated, who were permiEed to look upon the most sacred mysteries of the arcana; and the laEer for the uniniBated, who remained in the outer court.
ENJOIN -‐ to command; order
INCULCATE -‐ to impress upon the mind, as by insis-‐tent urging.
Highlights of the June 2014 Communications
• Brother Bob Gara: gave a multi-‐media presentation on his life as a smoke jumper in the 1950’s. This part of the meeting was open to the public.
• Posting Lecture: Brother Corey Stout gave a well-‐stated recital, with VWB Red Bell as mentor.
• The Origins of the Buckle Fund: this account at Skagit Bank was found to have been opened under the aus-‐pices of the Temple Board as a building fund-‐raising endeavor.
• Scholarship Account: The Secretary, following the di-‐rection of the Audit Committee, transferred the schol-‐arship liquid funds account from WA Federal Savings to the Fidalgo Masonic Scholarship Foundation account (# 3667025787), with the Secretary and Marshal of the Lodge holding signature authority. The bulk of the Scholarship Fund is in a Money Market account at Wells Fargo, with a healthy balance, available, at your re-‐quest, from the secretary-‐treasurer of the Lodge.
• Bills Paid: included $800 to Skagit Cycle, for Bikes for Books.
• Communications: Thank you note from Tyler Baker, scholarship winner; a leEer from Aaron Rasmussen, Esq., re Alice Monroe Trust; a thank you note from Naomie Robinson and the members of Coupeville Rain-‐bow Assembly, and a thank you note from the gentle-‐men at the N. Sound Chapter of the Order of DeMolay.
• Pe00on for the Degrees: A peBBon by Mr. Jonathan Nicholas Miller for the Degrees of Masonry was read and the WM elected an invesBgaBng commiEee: WB’s Gerald Guthrie, Eric Johnson, and Stephen Ellis.
• Best Tex-‐Mex Ou@it Award for 2014: a Masonic pocket watch, made by actual Chinese communists, was pre-‐sented to Brother Bob Belli
• Good of the Order: WB Jerry Myers walked as part of Relay for Life effort of the Rainbow Girls, which raised over $3000
• VWB Paul Steinsiek : This was his last meeBng as Dep-‐uty of the Grand Master for District No. 9. His term of office began and ended in Fidalgo Lodge, where he used to come as a DeMolay. He looks forward to VWB Jim Fulton assuming the duty.
The Fidalgo Lodge No 77 TrestleboardPublished close to the 1st Day of each month, Lord willing.Eric Johnson, P.M., Secretary/Treasurer & editor
............................David C. King 07/31/1984................................Bud Noble 07/28/1987
July Masonic Anniversaries: Raised as a Master Mason
Bikes for Books
W.B. Ken Jacot reports that Island View has had their reading assembly and two bikes were awarded in behalf of the Masons and Skagit Cycle.
The winners were both girls, 2nd grade and 4th grade.
The Island View students read a total of slightly more than 399,200 pages during their reading month, a new record.
Kindles For Kids In MontanaSince 2005, the Montana Masonic Foundation has been promoting a Bikes for Books program to encour-‐age elementary school children to learn the enjoy-‐ment of reading.For every book they read, they receive a chance to earn a new bike at the end of the school year. The more books read, the better chance to get a bike.In 2013, the Foundation began switching the program reward from bikes to Kindles and the program has been working successfully. (The Kindle is an electronic book, allowing users to download and read e-‐books and magazines, etc.) Soon the Bikes for Books will be phased out in favor of just Kindles for Books.
Emessay Notes June 2014
FIDALGO LODGE #77 ANACORTES, WASHINGTON! JULY 2014
! PAGE 3
living would better be called a subsistence livelihood. My first encounter to Masonry was when some men came to the house to visit with dad about joining the lodge. A couple of months later I remember him tak-‐ing the little black book with him to study when he took a break from fieldwork. One time we could not see him and later found out he was lying on his back in the mid-‐dle of a hayfield studying the guide. After H.S. graduation I at-‐tended and graduated from Western Washington College with a B.A. in Ed. That fall of 1955 I arrived in Ana-‐cortes for my first teaching assignment at the Junior High which was located in the old Columbia Building. During college I had received numerous deferments from the mili-‐tary draft so when another draft notice arrived on February 14, 1956 it noted that there would be no more defer-‐ments though Superintendent Henning did get an extension to June 26th. I had talked to dad about joining the Masons and when the draft notice arrived he talked to the officers of Fern-‐dale Lodge and they agreed to move rapidly on my ap-‐plication and degrees. In about six weeks I did my mas-‐ter mason degree prove up and received my member-‐ship card. Recruits were not allowed off base during the first eight weeks. My next assignment was Fort Benning Georgia and the second weekend I found the Masonic lodge in Columbus. A few evenings later I went to the hall and gained admittance. They did not have much more than formal opening and closing so the officers did that in a hurry so they could take me across the river to a lodge in Alabama and witness a third degree. I learned early on the importance of the dialogue between the Master and Senior Warden in the third degree opening and closing of lodge. From the beginning of basic we knew we were going to Germany. Early January 1957 we boarded a troop ship in Monterey Bay and left for Bremerhaven and on to Aschaffenburg. I checked for a Masonic lodge but was unsuccessful. On leave to London I did find the main Masonic Lodge Building and spent an hour one after-‐noon talking to the attendant who made arrangements
for me to attend lodge that evening and again watch the raising of that lodge’s only candidate for the year. Royal Naval Lodge #16, one of the oldest Masonic Lodges in the world. Dress code was for “Morning Dress” and I was to arrive in time for a rather formal dinner. The one other brother guest was from Sheboygan Michigan. We viewed the ritual from a balcony overlooking the lodge floor after the opening ceremony. Here I was,
only a year ago proved up, now watch-‐ing the raising of a Mason who had been in the process for over a year. Late summer of 1957 I was trans-‐ferred to Wurzburg which did have a Masonic lodge and a military lodge. I was soon in touch with the Major who was Master and attended the military lodge. The dispensation was from Oregon so again; I learned how vari-‐ous jurisdictions had somewhat dif-‐ferent wording of the ritual. The offi-‐cers often were away on maneuvers so I filled in many of the line offices during the next months. On two occa-‐sions we had a joint get together with the German lodge and I attended.
1957 was twelve years after WWII. During the war the lodges had to go “underground”. They were still not well marked and with small membership for size of Wurzburg. After discharge and returning to Anacortes I was not very active because of marriage, children and teaching. I got to know Ed Eriks pretty well and he invited me to join the Royal Arch. That led to being a chapter officer and district deputy. I learned that Ed and my father knew each other from the 1950s when they were Masters of their respective lodges the same year. Somewhere during this time I transferred my membership from Ferndale to Fidalgo. In the 1980s Bill Etter dropped by the house and asked if I would take a line office in Fidalgo Lodge. Moving through the line I was elected Master for 1990, the 100th anniversary of Fidalgo Lodge. A small committee, with WB Stanley Mondhan as chairman, was in place and some of the prepara-‐tion was nicely underway. Sidney Kase, Most Wor-‐shipful Grand Master, was invited to convene a re-‐
Beer Stein -‐ Wurzburg LodgeNotice that the stein has the fellow-‐craft degree (the right point of the compass is below the square. The German lodge worked at the fellow-‐craft level. I never learned why.
(See: Beatty, pg. 4)
(Beatty; from pg. 1)
FIDALGO LODGE #77 ANACORTES, WASHINGTON! JULY 2014
! PAGE 4
dedication of the lodge building. The day was bright and what a sight to see the grand lodge officers, visiting lodge officers and members, and our own Fidalgo lodge members lined up on Eighth Street toward Storvik Park. When all had marched in there was standing room only. Ceremonies went along until it was time to close lodge. At that point, Grand Master Kase did not ask the non-‐masons to leave and proceeded to close in ample form. I, sitting, with the Grand Master in the East, sort of held my breath as we witnessed something that until then had only been thought of and for most, not even that. The next day, and for a couple days after, my phone was ringing pretty steady as Masons around the state wanted to know what was going on in Fidaglo Lodge. Our Fidalgo member and then Junior Grand Warden, Ken Robinson, called and told me to refer future calls to him. What a relief! Since my year as Master my at-‐tendance in lodge de-‐creased as my hearing loss got worse. It finally got so the only part of lodge I understood was the opening and closing which I, of course, had memorized and could say it to myself as the officers said their parts. My years as a Mason have been well rewarded. I have traveled to many places and received Masters’ Wages. Every Mason has a story to tell. Mine has ex-‐tended from my father to my childhood friends and sup-‐porters to many Masons along the road of life. These men and often with their families have made for a richer and fulfilling life. Thank you.
(Beatty; from pg. 3)
Jeannette and I often traveled to Montana where I participated in the Fly Fishing Fairs. This picture was taken in Glacier National Park.
In June we began our transition to a new email address:
AnacortesMasons@gmail.com Please update your address book. Thanks!
Our Email Address
MSA Surpasses $10 Million in Disaster Aid
The Masonic Service Association has been distrib-‐uting disaster relief assistance for more than 90 years and this month has gone over the $10 million plateau in funds contributed.
In May, MSA wired $42,500 to the Grand Lodge of the Philippines and THAT action elevated MSA above the $10 million mark.
The latest $42,500 brings to $185,000, the total of relief that has been given to the Philippines, fol-‐lowing the typhoon, which struck the island nation last year. That appeal has now ended and all the contributed donations have been sent to help our brothers in the Philippines.
Since 1923, when Masonic Service Association is-‐sued its first appeal to help Japan, the MSA has become the recognized and credible Masonic group to which all the Grand Lodges trust in for-‐warding disaster aid when it is needed. This is one of MSA's key services.
Also, remember that this is not MSA money. The funds are donations from YOU – from individual Masons, Lodges and Grand Lodges, and not a penny of it is kept by MSA for administrative costs. All disaster appeals are initiated by a Grand Lodge, and all money collected is forwarded to that Grand Lodge for local distribution.
The Masonic Service Association of North America is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as 501(c) (3) non-‐profit organization, and all dona-‐tions are tax-‐deductible.
For more information, see www.msana.com
The Supreme Being. Masons believe that there is one God and that people employ many different ways to seek, and to express what they know of God. Masonry primarily uses the appellation, "Grand Architect of the Universe," and other non-‐sectarian titles, to address the Deity. In this way, persons of different faiths may join together in prayer, concentrating on God, rather than differences among themselves. Masonry believes in religious freedom and that the relationship between the individual and God is personal, private, and sacred.
Masonic Information Center, December 1993
mailto:AnacortesMasons@gmail.commailto:AnacortesMasons@gmail.comhttp://www.msana.comhttp://www.msana.comRecommended