The District FC Degree
Well, we pulled it off.
On Saturday, March 29, a dozen and half officers from the eight different lodges of District 5 managed to put together a very nice FC degree in the auditorium of the Masonic Health Care Center in Wallingford.
Anyone who has ever seen the bedlam which accompanies a normal degree rehearsal can only imagine what our single rehearsal was like the week before the degree. Well, that's not fair - since half the people didn't show up, the confusion in the temple wasn't anything like it could have been, I'm sure.
On Saturday morning, several of the brothers met at Friendship and piled the officer's stations, jewels, aprons, and the movable set of stairs into RWB Gary Arseneau's and Senior Steward Kyle Charette's pickup trucks. WB Ted Hasty, the poor guy who coordinated this event was already at the auditorium, moving the chairs and rearranging the room. By 10:45 am, everything was in position.
Which was perfect timing for my arrival at 10:55.
Apparently, WB Ted was a bit antsy about the event, and got there very early just to make sure that things were going to work out. He's obviously my Bizarro world twin: he shows up as early as I tend to show up late. Oh, and I think that Ted has a reaction to the red kryptonite.
After the room was set up we were treated to lunch in the MHA cafeteria. I declined, owing to a traumatic lunchroom incident in my childhood involving spaghetti, soy meatloaf, and canned wildebeest - the details of which are best left to the imagination. But shortly afterwards, several of us took a small tour of the Ashlar Village facility, just up the hill from the hospital. Ashlar Village is a small community having a mixture of independent and assisted living buildings. We took a look into the newly remodeled main building. "Newly remodeled" is perhaps not the best term, and for the last several years it seems to be under a new plan called "constant remodeling." I think that the facility changes every month. One of the highlights, though, was the small lodge room that has been built on one of the basement areas. It hasn't been used for any official purpose, however as you can see from the pictures it's had some unofficial uses.
By the time we got back, other people started showing up: officers from other lodges, several interested onlookers, and eventually, a few brothers from the hospital itself. Personally, I was a little disappointed at the turnout - only eight brothers from the hospital and nearby Ashlar Village ended up visiting. But that disappointment was mitigated by learning that one brother had not been to a lodge in over 40 years, and another had been hoping to see a degree for several years, but had no way to travel. Four of our guests were in wheelchairs, one had a walker, and another had a cane. One brother happened to pass by me heading down the hall and called out "What part are you doing, sonny?" I slowed down to talk to him and keep him company on the walk down. After assuring him that I really did not need to borrow his ritual book (why do some of the old timers read the books while following the degree? Self-appointed quality control inspectors?) he told me not to walk with him because he was shuffling along rather slowly and he didn't want to hold me up. "I'm pretty sure I'll make it by one-thirty!" he called after me as he inched along the hallway.
Click here to see the rest of the photos
The degree itself was a pleasant affair, made interesting because we had one candidate from Sequin-Level and one from Unity. Being a Fellowcraft degree, Friendship brought along their stairs. Yes, we have a set of spiral stairs that appear to have been built in the 50s; they disassemble for storage, so we were able to fit them into the back of a pickup and haul them down. Some of the visitors who had never been to Friendship spent some time testing them for strength; but we've never had a problem. I fear, however, that we'll need to make some minor repairs, simply because age and knocking around in a closet every few months is taking it's toll on them.
The officers performed admirably and the candidates had a very nice degree, made even more memorable by the fact that parts were done by officers from eight different lodges. Even the "Staircase Lecture" was broken up into several parts to allow the lodges to take a more active role.
On the way home, most of us wondered why we didn't do this kind of thing every year. By the time several of us had driven back to Friendship to help unload the furniture, we'd resolved to have another District degree for the residents of the hospital for next year.