| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on February 11, 2000 |
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Master - From The East
It is hard to believe that one-half of the year has almost past! It's true! - Time sure flies when you are having fun!
Our next Stated Meeting will be on June 7. Dinner will begin at 6:30 PM, and Lodge will begin at 7:30 PM, or so. Our planned Lodge events continue to grow, and we are now in the final planning stages for all of our 1999 events. Please let us know your ideas so we can include them in our activities schedule! Our full schedule is posted on our Lodge website, and is available to be mailed to you upon request.
Events this month include our LAMTA meeting on June 9 at 7:30 PM; the OAM on Monday, June 14 at Charity-Jarman Lodge (3rd Degree/1st Section) with dinner at 6:30 PM; and a 3rd Degree/1st Section Officer's Practice on June 21 at 7:30 PM. I am also planning to visit Palo Alto - Roller Lodge on Tuesday, June 8, the day after our Stated Meeting - anyone wishing to also attend, please contact me by May 28 for making dinner reservations (dinner at 6:30 PM, Lodge at 7:30 PM; on Florence just off University in downtown Palo Alto).
Let's do some more fun things this year!!! Suggestions are: QZAR Laser Gun Contests; Bowling Contests; Bus Trips; Mahjong Instruction and Tournaments; and Beach Parties at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz! What would you like to create today? Make It So... !
Our May "Receiving More Light" function was very informative as our Stewards Erin Frost, Hal Bain, and (alternate Steward) Mike Sadler read passages from the book "Trestleboard Tibits" by the Masonic Service Association. These members did receive "More Light", in the form of Masonic flashlights attached to a key chain! This function will be repeated at each Stated Meeting this year! So, come to Lodge, join in the fun, and receive More Light!
This year, our Lodge sponsored a $1,000.00 scholarship to a deserving senior at Los Altos High School. The winner of the scholarship is Mike J. Friedman. The presentation will be made to Mike at the Los Altos High School presentation assembly on Tuesday, May 25, beginning at 7:00 PM. All Lodge Members have been invited to attend.
We have also received a request from the Los Altos Bethel No. 206, International Order of Job's Daughter's, for donations to allow their girls to attend their Grand Lodge this June in Long Beach. Please forward any donations to me at the Lodge by mail or at the Stated Meeting. The After Dinner Program for June 7 will be a "Comedy Combo": A live 30 minute presentation and "Elaboration on the Art of Hollowalately" by Dr. Joseph Herriges of Charity-Jarman Lodge, at 7:15 PM for all, followed by the 1 and 1/2 hr comedy videotape "Oh God!" with George Bums and John Denver. The very funny and "wholesome" presentation by Dr. Herriges was a "BIG HIT!" at the Mountain View Lodge dinner last May 4. Don't miss it!!! I look forward to greeting you in Lodge!
Fraternally,
Patrick Bailey
Master
Senior Warden - The Westerly Wind
As most of us know, the term "Traveling Man" is a nickname for a Freemason. I am not sure if anybody knows for sure when or where the nickname began, but it still applies in many ways.
First, the "Traveling" each Mason does through the three degrees of Blue Lodge Masonry, and the many travels many of us do in other Masonic organizations. Our travels are designed to teach us, through our rituals, "wise and serious truths."
But being a Traveling Man also means visiting other Masons - in other lodges, other cities, other states, and even other countries, for in every country and every climate are Masons to be found.
On Tuesday afternoon, May 11th, this Traveling Man drove the 210 miles to Chico, California, where Past Grand Master Charles Alexander (1996) received his 50- year button. The lodge room was jammed with many family and friends, as well as the line of Grand Lodge officers from 1996, and the current Grand Lodge officers, Inspectors, Committeemen, and Masons, including at least one Entered Apprentice, who was at my table, and Grand Master Melville Nahin who performed the presentation.
Those of us who know Past Grand Master Ted Merriam (I 964), a member of Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge, know he has a quick wit and great sense of humor. He retired many years ago from the women's clothing business. He "presented" Melville Nahin (we don't "introduce" the Grand Master to ourselves) but forgot to introduce Melville's wife Alice. Usually, there is a lengthy biography given of our Grand Master, but PGM Merriam gave just a few of the highlights, and then summed it up with, "That's enough about you. We aren't here to honor you tonight! " After the laughter died down, GM Nahin took the microphone and told us about an "ancient" custom among the group of Past Grand Masters - that if the speaker forgets to introduce the GM's wife (Alice), then the speaker (PGM Merriam) has to give her a new dress, and her favorite style is...
After a few brief comments by GM Nahin, we all retired to the lodge room, where GM Nahin formally presented PGM Alexander the 50-year button. After the presentation, PGM Alexander made a few comments, which made a deep impression on me. He commented that, although he had a wonderful time serving in our Grand Lodge as an officer and Grand Master, the most memorable part of his entire Masonic career were the approximately I 00 Masonic funeral services he performed. I was tired when I arrived home at 12:30 a.m., but very glad I was able to travel to Chico for this unique occasion.
Fraternally,
Robert W. Martin, P.M.
Senior Warden
Trestleboard Editor - Joseph Warren - Martyr of Bunker Hill
Well it has been awhile since we talked about Masonic history this column, so this month I thought you might be interested in an article I ran across the other day. The two part article recalls an important event in both American and Masonic history, and reminds us once again to recall the events of June 17, 1775, and of...
JOSEPH WARREN -
Martyr of Bunker Hill -
By Robert W. Williams III, -
Published in "The Trowel" (Massachusetts) Winter 1989 issue.
On a quiet summer afternoon about 230 years ago, some Harvard College students shut themselves in an upper dormitory room to arrange some affairs pertaining to their class. Another class member desired to be with them- knowing they intended to thwart some fondly cherished purpose of his own. They refused to admit him; the door was closed, and he could not gain admittance without violence, which he chose to avoid.
Reconnoitering the premises he discovered that one of the windows in the room was open and he noticed a nearby waterspout that extended from the roof to the ground. He climbed to the top of the house and slid down the eaves, then laid hold of the spout and descended until he was opposite the open window. With a prodigious physical effort he thrust himself through the window and landed in the room! Simultaneously, the waterspout crashed to the ground; had it fallen a moment sooner he would have been thrown to the pavement below and, undoubtedly, seriously injured. He coolly remarked to himself, "It served its purpose! "
That Harvard boy was Joseph Warren, later known as Doctor Warren and General Warren, the martyr of Bunker Hill and the Grand Master of Masons (Massachusetts Provincial Grand Lodge) in North America. The boy had already given promise of the man in whatever he undertook. The fearless act of getting to that room was the swelling bud which opened and blossomed and bore fruit in his adult life.
In December 1769 Warren received a commission from the Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, appointing him provincial Grand Master of Masons in Boston and within 100 miles of the same. The commissionwasdatedMay3O,l769. When the Earl of Dumfries succeeded Dalhousie as Grand Master he issued another appointment to Warren, dated March 7, 1772, constituting him "Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America," extending his original limits. He was indefatigable in the discharge of his Masonic duties and, coupled with his extensive medical practice, the care of his motherless children, together with his patriotic devotion to his country, won for him the highest regard of the public and the Craft. His name is indelibly engraved on the mystic temple of Freemasonry, just as it is on the pages of American history.
Some what impetuous in his nature, but brave to a fault, Bro. Warren craved the task of doing what others dared not do - the same courage imbued in Paul Revere and other patriots. On the anniversary of the Boston Massacre (March 3, 1770) Warren was the orator. While it was a duty which won him distinction, it was also one of peril. English military officers usually attended in order to heckle Warren and it required a brave man to stand up in old South Church, in the face of those officers, to boldly proclaim their bloody deeds. It required a cool head and steady nerves, and Grand Master Warren had both.
The crowd at the church was immense; the aisles, the pulpit stairs and the pulpit itself were filled with officers and soldiers of the garrison, always there to intimidate the speaker. Warren was equal to the task but entered the church through a pulpit window in the rear, knowing he might have been barred from entering through the front door. In the midst of his most impassioned speech, an English officer seated on the pulpit stairs and in full view of Warren, held several pistol bullets in his open hand. The act was significant; while the moment was one of peril and required the exercise of both courage and prudence, to falter and allow a single nerve or muscle to tremble would have meant failure - even ruin to Warren and others.
Everybody knew the intent of the officer and a man of less courage than Warren might have flinched, but the future hero, his eyes having caught the act of the officer and without the least discomposure or pause in his discourse, simply approached the officer and dropped a white handkerchief into the officer's hand! The act was so adroitly and courteously performed that the briton was compelled to acknowledge it by permitting the orator to continue in peace.
On June 14, 1775, three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill(actually Breed's FEII), Dr. Warren was elected Major General by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Without military education or experience, he was placed in the presence of the whole British army. Against the protests of Gen. Artemus Ward, Gen. Israel Putnam and others, Warren chose to shoulder a musket and join the fighting men behind the barricades on the hill. He felt a premonition of his death and declared to Betsy Palmer(whose husband joined the Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington), "Come, my little girl, drink a glass of wine with me for the last time, for I shall go to the hill tomorrow and I shall never come off."
Watch for Part Two of this article in the July Trestleboard!
Fraternally,
Bro. Luis Orozco
Editor
Brother Brits and Ladies To Visit
On Tuesday June 1, 1999 Los Altos Lodge will host a special welcome event in honor of a delegation of visiting Brethren and their Ladies from the Isle of Wight. Our visiting Brethren will include the Worshipful Terry Fisher and his lady Mavis, and the Worshipful Ernie Baker and his lady Margaret. The event will also be a reception in celebration of the 50th Wedding Anniversary of the Fishers.
The Worshipful Fisher, a Past Master of Manor Abby Lodge of Worcestershire Province England, is presently serving as Charity Steward. Brother Fisher holds the impressive rank of Past Provincial Junior Grand Deacon where he is the former D.C.
Additionally he is a joining member of Chine Lodge, Hampshire & Isle of Wight where he is also a Past Master and is presently serving in the rank of D.C. In concordant Body labor he was exalted into the Yarborough Chapter, Royal Arch Masons where he was installed I It Principal and in addition holds the rank of D.C.
Worshipful Ernie Baker is a Past Master of The Old Halesonian Masonic Lodge of Worcestershire Province and is a former D.C. there. Brother Baker holds the impressive rank of Past Provincial Grand Sword Bearer. He is a joining member of Yarborough Lodge, Hampshire,
Isle of Wight where he is a former Assistant Secretary. His Concordant body service saw him exalted into the Yarborough Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and installed into the I 11 Principal's Chair. He has also served there as Secretary, and holds the rank of Past Provincial Grand Sword Bearer. In addition both are founding members of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight I,' Principal' Chapter. In other service they are both members of the Rose Croix, the Knight Templar and the Knight of Malta.
The event is planned to begin with liquid cordiality refreshments at 6:30 PM in the dinning room followed by dinner and formal introductions. Afterward a program and presentations are scheduled in the Lodge room. This is a Lodge high point event as these popular Worshipful Brothers will be here only a short time. Please make a special effort to attend and help us extend as warm a welcome to our British guests as they have so often done for us when our Lodge and members visited England over the past number of years. Reservations by Sunday May 30 are a must.
For additional information and reservations, please call
Richard Rosenberg at [snip].
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