| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on January 3, 2008 |
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Summer time and the living is easy. Well not too easy. The officers have been working very hard on their advance stations. They hope to be ready by Grand Lodge in September. We have an opening for Junior Warden. We need this station filled in order to keep our charter. This station could be filled by a Past Master. Think about it. I will continue to do the dinners along with the help of Brother Jim and the Eastern Star, so cooking is not required for Stated Meeting, just refreshments for Degree Nights.
Our picnic is the Sunday before Stated Meeting. I have reserved a group area at Ortega Park in Sunnyvale, a map is included in this Trestleboard. We will have games such as horse shoes, ring toss and a couple of others that Linda has picked up. And of course there will be prizes.
Wednesday August 1 from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM Los Altos Lodge and Daylight Lodge will be manning the Child ID booth at the County Fair. We have had this at the Art and Wine Festival in Los Altos before and maybe we should think about doing it again. There were a couple of interested young men that we talked to at the festival and handed out a couple of petitions. We felt that the crowd this year was not as large as in previous years. In fact I felt that the last two years it has been down. I heard that there was another festival in Palo Alto at California Street the same week end. There were a few Brothers that stopped by from other lodges to say hello. For next year I’m going to have a banner made so people will know who we are. Linda was with me on both days and met a few ladies that were interested in Eastern Star. Thank you Jim Gable for the loan of your canopy that shielded us from the sun and leaves from the pepper tree. Thank you to those that took time out to come and help man the booth.
The Temple Board met with the Architect and builder. The contract has been signed and work will start on the elevator project beginning the week of the 30th. It should be finished about the middle of November. It will be a couple of weeks before any noticeable construction will happen, but it will.
The attendance at Stated meetings has been about 20, which is about 10% of our membership. If 10 more members came it would be 15% and 20 more would be 20%. We have a good dinner and short meetings. It’s only once a month. Hope to see you there.
Shaken not stirred in 2007,
Bill Malmstrom, P.M.
Master
Brethren:
Well here it is August and the officers are already practicing in advanced stations. With luck we will be ready to assume our new posts in January without the usual confusion. All officers are requested to consider every Monday night a lodge night so that we may gain that proficiency as fast as possible.
As I promised last month, I am writing this month’s article on the Masonic genealogy search I have been pursuing and the surprises I have been met with along the way. I completed the Gable family portion earlier this year, so I thought I was done. But as John Wayne once said in a movie: “Not Hardly.” As you know, Nancy and I vacationed in my family hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania last May. During our stay we toured the Lancaster Masonic Center downtown. My reasoning was not for genealogy, but to starting looking for a new home lodge for when we retire there in 2013. Four Masonic bodies meet in the center, 2 Blue Lodges, 1 Prince Hall Lodge, and 1 Royal Arch Chapter. We enjoyed a wonderful time with one of the lodge secretaries and viewing almost 250 years of Masonic history in one place was fascinating.
On my return home I wanted to learn more about each of the potential lodges, so I did some web searches and found that each had produced historical books during their anniversaries in the 1910’s & 1920’s. To learn more about their ‘roots’, I purchased the antique volumes for two of the bodies and had them shipped to me. The first to arrive was the 150th Anniversary of Lancaster Lodge #43. While full of fun information on Masonry from the early 1800’s, there was nothing of a personal note to mention. The second was the 100th Anniversary of Lancaster Chapter #43 of the Royal Arch. While scanning the pages a name jumped out at me: “Milton E. Gingrich”.
I knew the name well as Milton was my grandmother’s brother and he is buried near her in Landisville, just north of Lancaster. There was nothing detailed about him, only that he was a member as of their anniversary in 1910. Well, if he was a Royal Arch Companion, he must also be a Master Mason, but where?
So, next up for me was to search for the history on the second Blue Lodge. True to form, Lamberton Lodge #476 published an 100th Anniversary edition in 1926. I found a volume through an on-line book service and awaited its arrival. Once received, I eagerly scanned the membership listings and not only found Milton as a member, but as a Past Master! And as luck would have it, they listed the Masonic pedigree of each of the Past Masters. Milton’s covered 2 full pages! Past Master (1913), Past High Priest AND Past Deputy Grand High Priest (both 1912), Past Illustrious Master (1907) and Past Commander (1910), this was one busy guy! And I didn’t even know that Mennonites joined the Masons….. In addition, it threw some light on another curious question I had. My grandfather became a mason without prior Masonic affiliation and shortly after moving to Philadelphia in 1913, but I never knew why. While purely speculative, I now wonder if it was at the urging of his brother-in-law Milton during his Master’s year that set the course.
And there’s another haunting fact that raises some questions, at least for me. My grandmother and her other brother, Tom, purchased that section in the Landisville Mennonite Cemetery for their families, divided into 2 rows. The Gingrichs in one row, the Gables in another. Milton and his wife are not in the Gingrich row, but next to my grandmother and grandfather, my aunt & uncle, my mom & dad’s monument, and Nancy and my site, all in the Gables' row, and we're all masons. Coincidence? I don’t have any answers, but it is rather ‘spooky’. Isn’t it? Have a wonderful and safe summer.
Jim Gable, Senior Warden
Some Thoughts on Public School
I hope all the brethren took note of the great picture in the July Trestleboard. The one which contained the scholarship recipient and the teacher of the year with our WM. Los Altos Lodge is proud to be able to sponsor these events. It is a symbol of Masonic involvement in education and our Lodge’s community support.
In the month of July our lodge will participate with our traditional booth, in the Los Altos Arts and Craft Fair. In past years I have found being working at the booth a rewarding experience. I am sorry I sorry to have missed out it this year. A pre planned trip was in conflict with that weekend.
Involvement with our community is great reminders of the history of freemasonry. Most Masons are aware that freemasons were involved in starting the first public school systems in the new world. I find few in the realm of education aware of this fact
. I think our lodge should be involved in presenting an award to the Police and Fire Department of Los Altos. I made some inquiries in my year as Master and was informed that they do have a presentation of awards annually. We should consider providing a monitory award to this local institutions as a token of our appreciation for their devoted service. Something in the realm of $500.
As a member of the lodge I am very happy with our scholarship program, however I have had a nagging problem with it. Los Altos is one of the more affluent communities in California. Supplying this scholarship is helpful but not essential to the awarded student’s education. I always felt that we should support a more needy community. I think we should give some thought towards this end. In discussing this with Brother Lou Orozco, it turned out he had similar feelings. In our discussion he suggested that perhaps we could team up with the East Palo Alto Prince Hall Lodge and put together a small scholarship ($500 or so on our part) and offer it to a graduate of the East Palo Altos High School. It could be presented at their graduation or at a function sponsored by the Prince Hall Lodge with representative of both our lodges. What do the brethren of Los Altos think of such an idea?
I am interested in hearing from our brethren and what their thoughts are about helping a needy community.
If any brother has a good idea on the subject, please to bring it forward.
Ernie Castillo. PM
Reply to Some Thoughts on Public School
Although Lou's and Ernie’s hearts are in the right place, I don't think the CMC allows us to do what he suggested, that is, fund a student or a Prince Hall Lodge in East Palo Alto. First, it would be outright charity, and that is not allowed except for charitable causes approved by Grand Lodge (except as dispensed by the Charity Committee, and that is an entirely different thing). Second, CMC Section 809.550.O states that a Lodge may: "Allocate funds for community improvement, charitable activity, or sponsorship of programs that will benefit residents of the community in which the Lodge is located." And finally, CMC Section 809.530.E states that a Lodge may not "use any of its funds to subsidize, directly or indirectly, any organization, except Masonic Youth Orders or as otherwise provided in this Code." That means no money may be given, either directly or indirectly, to support Prince Hall activities. This, by the way, is exactly why we don't support a scholarship in Mountain View High School, even though it and Los Altos High School are in the same High School District. Many of our members who are not residents of Los Altos tend to think of the Lodge as a "Silicon Valley Organization", and as such it's responsibilities lie with the whole area. That's not so at all. When our out-of-town members come to lodge, they should become Los Altans in terms of their thinking about how the Lodge relates to the community. I wouldn't dream of joining Palo Alto Lodge, for example, and then suggesting to them that they ought to send some of their money to help causes in, say, Fremont.
Dan
Dan McDaniel, PM
LODGE & EASTERN STAR PICNIC SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 2007 11:00 till ??? ORTEGA PARK 636 Harrow Way Sunnyvale, CA Food, Fun, Fellowship Kids Play Area, Horse Shoe Pits Tri Tip, Ribs, Chicken, Sausage Corn on the cob, Salads, Deserts Beverages
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