Senior Brothers experience

I was speaking to a senior Brother the other day about the experiences he has had and heard in the years he has been in Freemasonry.

He told me the story of a friend of his (Robert) who was a Mason but has now passed away.

Robert was married with 3 daughters and a son with the son being the youngest.

Robert’s children were very keen on Drama and acting at school and were always asking dad to practise roles with them for upcoming auditions, which he was pleased to do as Mum was always busy and this way he spent time with his children.

One day one of the girls asked, Dad where are you going again tonight with your case and suit. He thought for a while and then said “to rehearsals”. Can we come she said. No I will explain later when I get home.

Well he did not know how to explain it to the children without going into detail. He did not want to lie to them or tell them the truth or it would be all over town and in those days it was not as open as it was today.

He thought for a while and the children kept pestering him to tell them what play he was in. It was then that he decided to teach them the stories of the rituals.

He thought, what harm could it do. As long as he did not break his obligations of signs, tokens and passwords etc, he could teach them history, morale lessons in life etc and to grow up being good honest adults.

He set up an old barn as a temple, had bales of hay for pedestals, drew the chequered squares on the floor and old pews for benches and seats.

He explained the play would be set around KS temple (which could be found in the bible) explained the characters and who was who in the scripts.

He said he would be director and to help with memorising skills nothing was to be written down.

They all took part in learning different roles in different acts and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it all.

This was great for Robert as he was SW in his Lodge so needed practise for the following year.

This went on for 6 years at every opportunity and was even carried out by the 4 children when Robert was at work during the school holidays. Dad would come home from work and one of the children would say, can we practise the 3^rd lecture tonight dad as we just get stuck on a few words.

Finally the children grew up and one by one left home. The girls got married and hardly ever mentioned the plays they re enacted with their father.

The son was the last to leave home and got a job at his fathers company.

One day he over heard his father talking about the Lodge meeting on Monday evening to a fellow colleague of his. Over the next few weeks he heard several mentions of this Lodge business on Mon evenings so decided to ask a friend of his at lunch one day.

His friend (who was also a Mason) explained that it was a Freemasons Lodge and briefly explained about it and said he was surprised that his Father had not told him about it.

That evening he asked his father if he could join the Freemasons at his Lodge.

Over the years Robert had managed to keep it from his son but now was the time to explain. He said he would talk to some people at Lodge at let him know.

Robert met up with His WM and explained that his son wanted to join the Lodge. This was great news to the WM who said about time, I wondered when you were going to ask him.

He then explained the plays they used re-enact in the barn when the children were young.

He said secret words that could not be used were substituted, made up with the names of disciples, other names from the bible or objects in the barn, so no secrets were given away from his obligations. The WM looked a bit astonished at first but said he would put it to the committee and get back to him.

At the next Lodge meeting Robert was told that his son would be most welcome to join the Lodge. He was proposed by His father, seconded by the WM and Initiated 3 days after his 21^st Birthday.

Although the son knew the ceremonies he thoroughly enjoyed all 3 of them (although allegedly prompted the Deacons when they forgot where they were) and was Raised to the Sublime degree of Master Mason 2 years later.

It was quite a surprise to the brethren during the early days of the son joining the Lodge. At rehearsals of the EA degrees when there was not many Brethren present he could fill any office that was vacant because he was word perfect in all offices. The same happened in the FC degree.

He eventually reached the East and was exemplary as WM as this was his favourite role in the earlier years in the barn at home.

I think this is an absolutely great story.

Do you think Robert was correct in teaching his children the rituals?

What are your thoughts on this as a Mason?

Would you teach your sons this way?

Do you think the son would teach his sons this way knowing what he knows?

Written by Peter Dowling.