Ep. 100: Jim Boyer

Welcome back to At Refreshment
In this episode: We have guest Jim Boyer from Indiana! Bro. Boyer is a member of the Grotto and the Shrine! Time does the parades for both organizations with a great amount of enthusiasm. Join us for our fist in-person recording in close to a year!

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The  At Refreshment Masonic Video Podcast is a lighthearted and educational series focused on
the world of Freemasonry. The hosts, who are Masons themselves aim to dispel myths about the fraternity while offering a glimpse into their rituals and traditions. They create a casual, fun atmosphere by sharing drinks and humorous discussions about Masonic life, often recorded in laid-back settings like after lodge meetings.
 The podcast blends comedy with education, making it accessible to both Masons and those curious about the fraternity. Episodes feature special guests from Masonic circles often diving into personal experiences and community contributions of members. The podcast highlights that Freemasons are regular people working to improve themselves and their communities.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Like if there's not a group of guys somewhere with like if you're not part of their long range planning that hurts.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Now what is the Lewis jewel?

SPEAKER_05 0:13

It's goes to generations. So like I and this is my understanding of it, I haven't really dug into it, but you get a duel and it I believe it sells your your heritage back.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Oh nice. Okay. You know, where do all these kind of like fake like you know rivalries come from? Because I was thinking I was like, well, some guys like the shrine, some guys like the grotto.

SPEAKER_06 0:32

But then I was thinking to myself, Who does the better parade? The shrine or the grotto?

SPEAKER_05 0:38

My son Nathan is fourth generation that we know of. We I've not been able to find out anything past my grandfather.

SPEAKER_06 1:00

Eight, five, four, three, welcome everyone, to the morning edition of the Every Fresh from Masonic Video Podcast. I am your whiskey loving host, Wesley Rooter. And I am here with Marty and Eric. And we have a special guest for everybody's special guest on here, so yeah. Um, please, Jim, introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_05 1:31

My name is Jim Boyer. I'm from Montecolo, Indiana. I'm a member of Maru Grotto, Orac Shrine, Marat Shrine, Roll Center Masonic Lodge, and uh dual member with Libanus Lodge in Montecolo.

SPEAKER_06 1:44

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Thank you in Indianapolis. Welcome to the show, Jim. Other things, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 1:49

So um, Marty, um. Okay. I know it's uh you you have a game plan, and I don't want to overrun that game plan. What is it?

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Well, my game plan here is really for us today, just to kind of get to know Jim and see what makes him tick. Uh, Jim has been someone I've ran into on several of my travels, grotto association stuff, going out to visit Maru, seeing all the great things he does. He's an interesting cat. And one of the reasons I say that is I feel like he he's better at giving equal time and effort to uh both of his fezes, because he you know, parades with that, which you know, a lot of guys kind of get picky choosy with which fez they like more. And I was actually debating that on the way here because I want to think of the things I want to talk about, Jim, because I know he's super active with the shrine, super active with the grotto. But I was like, you know, where do all these kind of like fake like you know rivalries come from? Because I was thinking I was like, well, some guys like the shrine, some guys like the grotto. But then I was thinking to myself, the Green Bay Packers have done nothing to me in this world. But if someone mentions it, I'm like, fuck that, bears, and I don't even know what that is. So maybe we're just tribalist humans. But honestly, I'd like to turn the floor just to kind of Jim. Jim, why did you become a Mason, brother? Start us at the very beginning of Jim's Masonic journey.

SPEAKER_06 2:58

Yeah, can you make sense out of that gibberish?

SPEAKER_05 3:01

1987. Um, my dad was having his birthday party, and I knew he was a Mason. I didn't know what it was. I knew my grandfather was. Yeah. Okay. Uh my dad, my grandfather was a Mason in Noblesville, Indiana. My dad was a member in Monasolo at Libanus Lodge, and uh they were having a birthday party, and I knew all the guys that were there were in lodge with him because I'd seen him in a suit and tie going to a lodge function, and I said, uh, what is this? What tell me more about it? And everybody was like, Oh shit. And they all took off out the cars, and I come back and I got like a four petitions sitting in front of me for different lodges.

SPEAKER_06 3:46

How old were you at this time?

SPEAKER_05 3:47

I was in my twenties, uh, probably 27, 28, something like that. And I chose one that was close to where I lived at in a little town called Burnettsville, Indiana. And Burnettsville was a lodge that was mainly, when I say older gentlemen, I'm talking '60s, seventies, eighties. Oh wow. Okay. And it was an old lodge that had a set of stairs that was like climbing a ladder to get up to. And what I loved about this lodge was at that time they had what was called the master's carpet. You could do the entire degree work off of this master's carpet. And the old guys come in there and they took the Tyler sword and they were pointing out things as we went through the degrees and the explaining it to me. And then in 1995, at that time, Vernetzville had two meetings a month. And in 1995, we were down to probably we were struggling to get enough people to make a meeting. Okay. So we ended up um going up to Royal Center and consolidating our lodge with Royal Center in AI. I became master at Royal Center in 1997, and then um I didn't join Shrine until about 12 years ago, 13 years ago. And Grotto just about four years ago. When was your first dependent body that would have been the Scottish Right? Would be my first one, and that was because my dad was a in line at the Indianapolis Scottish Right. And uh they sold their building in Indianapolis, right? Honestly, I don't believe they have.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

I don't know. Someone told me that or became like a hotel or something, or maybe. No, it's still there.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

It's still there, okay. Have you ever been to Detroit one? Yes, yes, I have been to Detroit. Detroit and Indianapolis were built about the same time, same architecture, absolutely a gorgeous building. Okay. Um we did a lot of things. Dad and I would go down to the Scottish Rite a lot because he was in the uh uh council, uh Soraya Council, Princes of Jerusalem lined. So went down there quite a bit, spent a lot of time down there. I got away from Scottish Rite after about 10 years and stepped away from it for a while and just finally got back into it because the virtual master at Libanus was going in, so I took him down and I got more involved again with that.

SPEAKER_06 6:13

Um before you go any further, did your father raise you?

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Yes. That's awesome. Yes, he did. My son Nathan is fourth generation that we know of. We I've not been able to find out anything past my grandfather.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

And the thing that hurts there is you probably won't, because there's bad bookkeeping now. Right. When we have everyone booking, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's um, oh god, who the the the one uh the one politician from Hamilton? I don't know why I just thought of this. And why I'm basing all my national national history on a a play I watch on Disney Plus.

SPEAKER_06 6:48

Alexander Hamilton.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

No, he no, but they know he was a brother. Um, but there's a lot of those but there's a lot of those guys that we only are romantically winged because we can't find the paperwork, but it's believed because of this or this guy he knew. I mean, so who really knows what's in all of our trees, but fourth generation proven, you're all Lewis Jewel people, right? Right.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

It's amazing, and we've never signed up for it.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Why not?

SPEAKER_05 7:08

Um, my son and I were just discussing it the other day. We're gonna try to get it, get it going. I gotta find it.

SPEAKER_06 7:14

Do they have that in Illinois, the Lewis Jewel?

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Uh I think you have to go. Oh god, I don't know. I know it exists, I know people do it, but I don't know if you have to hit up the Grand Ledge of Pennsylvania what it is.

SPEAKER_06 7:24

Because I I don't recall anybody from our state receiving it from our state. Now, what is the Lewis jewel?

SPEAKER_05 7:31

It goes to generations. So, like, I and this is my understanding of I haven't really dug into it, but you get a jewel and it I believe it tells your your heritage back.

SPEAKER_06 7:44

Oh, nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:45

Now, like Daniel from No Ruz, he's traced his all the way back like 14 generations of Masons.

unknown 7:53

What?

SPEAKER_05 7:54

Clear back to almost the time of Georgia Washington. That's not four, that's like six generations ago. I he just said 14 as well.

SPEAKER_06 8:02

Well, consumption took a lot of people, so it goes back not all generations lasted, you know, 90 years.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah. Some generations only lasted 20 years, Marty.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Daniel, come on this show and explain how we got 14 lifelines in 250 years. I need to hear about that.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

But yeah, Daniel was telling me that his family goes back quite a long way. He's a big country, or I wouldn't oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

All right, so you're getting in, you're getting involved with the Scottish Right, your dad raised you. So some guys joined this fraternity and they're not super active. When did you or or what moment caught you that you knew this is something that you're really gonna do and you're still doing? You started in 1987. You're coming on 40 years.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

I was raised in 89, so I'm at 20. 37. Be 37 this November.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

Yeah, I was gonna say I was born in 86. I know I got 40 creeping on me.

SPEAKER_05 8:57

November 20th, uh, I'll be will be my 37th Masonic birthday. Um, Nathan, my son, is at 20. Is he really? Yeah. Oh wow. He was one of the first ones to go in at when they changed it to 18 years old. Yeah. And he's uh other than when he had to work, he stayed pretty active. I've stayed active in it over the years, and I I blame a lot of that on uh some of the guys I hung around with because they'd be like, Hey, what are you doing? Come on, we're going, and we take off. And uh the bad part about that was when you get to a lodge you'd never been to, they're like, uh, we're gonna go on up, and somebody says, uh, can you vouch for this guy? Who, him? We picked him up on the road. And they'd make me work my way in. And then the second zinger would, after we were getting done, we'd stop for ice cream somewhere. And if you didn't get out of the car fast enough, you were the one buying. There were several times I had to buy a lot of ice cream. But yeah, it was uh it was a lot of fun doing the traveling and and going to different lodges and doing things at our lodge. And uh we've got an active lodge, a very active lodge.

SPEAKER_06 10:05

And now that's that one that's the lodge in Montecello, or is that no?

SPEAKER_05 10:08

That's in Royal Center. Now I'm a dual member with the one in Monticelo.

SPEAKER_06 10:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 10:11

Where is Royal Center exactly for all of us that don't know the Indiana layout? Um it would be about 35 minutes from Monticello to the northeast. Okay. Uh Logansport, Indiana is just north of Logansport, Indiana. It's a little town, and I I don't know the entire history. I know they used to have a building downtown, and then in 81, 82, 83, somewhere in there, they built a new single-story building because they wanted to quit having to walk up the stairs because some of the guys were getting a little old to be going up and downstairs. So that worked out pretty good for them. The building's paid off, everything's going good. We've purchased a little more land and put a second building in next door to do our we do a pork chop uh dinner every year. Okay. We've got the whole back section set up with a canopy off of an RV where we can go out there and grill the pork chops. Got a nice kitchen area to work out of. Usually do a pretty good fundraiser every spring and every fall with it.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Okay. Now, when you say fundraiser, is that a fundraiser for Masonic charities or to keep the organization itself shut?

SPEAKER_05 11:16

It helps us pay our bills at the lodge.

SPEAKER_06 11:18

So that you put the invitation out to the community or the surrounding lodges, and and it stays busy the entire three hours we're open. Where do you guys get the pork?

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Uh, we used to get it from a place in Logosport. They closed down a packing house, and we're now getting it from Save a Lot.

SPEAKER_06 11:35

I was gonna say you're just using the expired meat. No, no, perfect.

SPEAKER_05 11:38

Save save a lot down in uh Delphi, Indiana.

SPEAKER_06 11:41

Have you ever thought about just you know getting like 36 pounds of spaghetti, just keeping it at the lodge, and just you know, that way it's good to go whenever you need it.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Honestly, we've never he's oh he overbought out a spaghetti beer recently.

SPEAKER_05 11:53

I I could remember once in maybe the last six months where we've had spaghetti. It was baked spaghetti like two months ago, and that's the only spaghetti we've had.

SPEAKER_06 12:02

So no, we're we have spaghetti for a while.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Yeah, we're still using that old money trick.

SPEAKER_06 12:07

So I oh gosh, yeah. I overdid it with hot dogs one year. If we were selling hot dogs, and uh every meal until they were gone. We had to give away hot dogs, there were so many. I I bought way too many hot dogs. Um, I think we only needed like 200. I ended up buying like 500. That's easy to do. Yeah, um, but I did buy all the buns that go with you can free buns. You freeze buns, it's fine.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

All right, so you guys do these big pork job dinners.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Now, is this when you became the purveyor of big cutlery?

SPEAKER_05 12:41

No, that wasn't until I got into the grotto.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

Okay, because most people on social media know you know you for your large shining metal utensils. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_05 12:51

My spoon, which I didn't bring today, I should have brought it, and I apologize to everybody.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

I'm sure Wes could populate the screen with all photos of Spoonie right now.

SPEAKER_05 12:58

Yeah, and we also now have the fork, which has been traveling around through Darius Grotto, through Chicago, down to it's now in Evansville.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Legitimately through Chicago. It's legitimately made its way through.

SPEAKER_06 13:14

The last time I took it, it wasn't legitimate.

unknown 13:16

No.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

What? No, we're still living in uh fork gate from uh here Fort Cavery. Sorry, just for all the people at home know, Jim started this amazing program with this uh traveling fork of followers.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

It was Steve Myers.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

Oh, Steve Myers started this uh well yeah, we'll give the Steve's like the wizard of Oz. He's like the man behind the curtain on everything. He is he's the reason why I became Ingrato. Oh, all right. We're gonna get to that's because we love that. But right now, here's what happened. So uh Darius Dieris, however you pronounce it, from Chestern, Indiana had the fork, and their uh monarch, shout out Jason, or was just left it, the fork sitting somewhere, and then maybe someone from this podcast and uh and some illicit friends were able to take the fork and then it made itself back to uh Illinois clandestinely. And uh now there were some people that were a little upset with this process, but then if I remember properly, Mark Victoria, grand captain of the guard, Grotto's International, was involved in this caper. So I was like, oh if you take it to the top, you're gonna find the real culprit. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:28

I I just asked, I'm like, Mark, I know they just got a pack, but should I take it? He's like, Yes. Yeah, it's there, go pull it. You know how Mark is. You know how Mark is Yeah, yeah. Okay. My favorite, my favorite part was we were all huddled around it in the elevator, so nobody saw it when we came up. Well, no, well, the thing was is what what was it? We were all in the in the hotel room, right? Yep, and I don't know what happened. Steve and a couple other guys turned their back, and I'm like, Mark, should I take it? It didn't take much. That was it. I just know at that installation there was a lot of people going, hey, where'd the fork go? Hey, who saw the fork? Who was the last person with the fork? It may or may not have been put through a blow-up doll of a special kind. We're going sounds that far out. No, no, no. It didn't happen. Oh, it never happened.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

It did make it to a lion's den. Dear Lord, yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Parcel it made it to a church and a bookstore and then it got returned safely. It's like an insane era. But and that was during the amazing installation of officers former Regto, right? Which is so far has kind of become the tradition to host it in Monacetto at how do I pronounce that lodge? Libanus.

SPEAKER_05 15:38

Libanus lodge.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Like the forest of Libanus, so yeah, which is a beautiful lodge, actually, a perfect size lodge, in my opinion. I don't because when you're saying like they built it without stairs, dude. I hate that half our lodges are labyrinths of old poorly constructed staircases. And I'm like, and my legs and knees are fine. Like, I mean I didn't feel bad for the old dudes, but wait.

SPEAKER_06 15:55

What was built without staircase? The libanus lodge.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

Yeah, it's you were there. It's it's a beautiful dining hall is nice, good enough kitchen, uh, lodge room that felt intimate. It's basically if you're like, what are you looking for out of a lodge? Like, if I could build a lodge today, besides like putting like uh like a doomsday bunker underneath it for me, like that's yeah, what I'd have. But it's a great one. So, yeah, and then we always we go out there, people stay at the best western, and then you always set up that great meal at Angler's proper port, which is always fun. It's such a good time, and then you know, occasionally uh some podcast people steal forks, and we're still paying for those sins today.

SPEAKER_06 16:32

I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have the blessing of the Iraqi.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

So were you saying it's really Grauser National's fault?

SPEAKER_05 16:38

Yep, yeah, yeah, just blame yeah, I'm gonna throw Daniel under the bus. At the last Midwest, the fork was brought in, and uh personally my fault, but Daniel's like, I want to take that fork back to Evansville. I said, All right. So I don't remember if it was Steve Hensy had it or who had it exactly. But I said something about bring it in here and put it with the spoon on the display stand. So they brought it in, they set it up, and Daniel and I are sitting at the table in there, and they had the comedians and all that going on. Daniel's like, hey, I want to get that fork. It's right there. I said, I got a plan, just cool out.

SPEAKER_06 17:19

There was a tongue war for that fork.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

Yeah, well, that was previous to getting put on the stand. So we're sitting there and I I said, open the window behind you and see if there's a screen in that window. So he gets up and he opens the windows, yeah, there's a screen, you can't get it out of the way. And he goes, So what do you what is your plan? I said, Everybody in there is gonna be busy watching these comedians. I said, give it a few minutes, and I said, You figure out how to get it out of here. Now, Daniel's not a small boy by stature.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

No, no, no. He pretty much looks like I'm giving you a bear hug.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

He tucked that fork in and got up and walked out of the room with it, walked through that entire room full of people. I want to say there was probably a couple guys from Sahara Grotto that noticed him, but they never said anything. Out the door, long way around to the parking lot, and puts it in his secretary's car in the back in the trunk and hides it. So it is now in the possession of Evansville.

SPEAKER_06 18:20

I this is a funner way to do it. I think this is how it should be done. I think you can take it by showing up, okay, but if you can get it through thievery.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, there should be a it almost feels more legitimate because you took the fork physically.

SPEAKER_05 18:37

Go on Evansville on No Ruz's Facebook page, and he's got a picture on there of him and Don, and they're dressed in like SWAT gear. They've got their fezes on. Let's put this picture up. And it is No Ru's strategic operations team or something like that on the front of it. And uh they were sneaking it like through the tunnels or something.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

It is, I I think it's it's it's almost fun to have everyone wonder who got the fork. Right.

SPEAKER_06 19:06

But I think as long as somebody knows where the fork is, it can't just be taken and then hidden away. No, no, it it is taken, it is hidden away, and when it is taken from the place when it started, wherever the event is, once you successfully get it away, you have to put us a picture of who's gotten it. So who's so we have who's got it?

SPEAKER_05 19:27

Now, I will give a shade uh shout out to Jason at Darius. Uh Brian and I went up there just a few weeks ago for their is Brian their district? Yes. Okay, Brian had to go up for their di to be the do their Supreme Council district council district deputy thing, and I went with him. And uh Jason presented a framed picture about so big to us, and it's got fork in a suit, spoon in a dress, and they're holding a spork wrapped in swallowing clothes. So I've got that. I'll be bringing that to the next Midwest thing to show off. Send us all these pictures so we can put it on the side.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I just want to know when the knife of destiny is cabinet. We need to complete the side.

SPEAKER_06 20:09

Like I said, we need a butter knife and all the spork.

SPEAKER_05 20:11

We're trying to find one.

SPEAKER_06 20:12

A chilled salad fork would be nice.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Steve, find us find us a big knife.

SPEAKER_06 20:16

We need a butter knife for knife.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

I'm not on Amazon, just type it in giant butter knife.

SPEAKER_06 20:24

Giant butter knife, giant butter knife for sale. Oh, then probably on Timu, right?

SPEAKER_05 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:29

So, Jim, when did you join the Grotto? Was it recently?

SPEAKER_05 20:32

I believe it was about four years ago. Okay. Um, I had become friends with Steve Myers on Facebook. As we all have. Yeah. And I was chatting with him on there one evening and he goes, hey, I gotta cut it short, I gotta go to Grotto. I'm like, what the hell's Grotto? He goes, What do you mean what the hell's grotto? You've never heard of it? I go, no. He says, Next month, meet me at the shrine club in Lafayette. That's where we meet at. So I went down there and I pull up, nobody's there. I'm like, okay, I didn't start. He sounds like something Steve would set up. He's punking me. So I'm sitting in the back, and another guy pulls up from Sahara Grotto, and we're sitting there, and I go, What time's a meeting? He goes, Oh, it's not for like another hour, hour and a half. I'm like, he goes, they're supposed to be eating somewhere. So I texted Steve real quick and he goes, Oh, we're out at uh city barbecue. So this dude and I loaded up. We went out there to city barbecue and introduced me to all these guys, and there was several from Sahara Gato, and they were trying to help Maru get back on its feet because they were down to in the teens as far as members.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Yeah, Maru's got a long, wild story with the old building, changes of guard.

SPEAKER_05 21:48

It's it's it's it was a lot over the years. Yeah. So got to introduce and went back to the shrine club after dinner and and talked some more, and I filled out my petition at that point. And I've been I think I've missed one meeting in all those four years. Wow. And then I got thrown in as sentinel and then moved up to Master of Ceremonies and now I'm Chief Justice. Next year I'll be the monarch.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

And then like January 2nd, 2027, we'll be there to install you.

SPEAKER_06 22:17

Yes. No, you're like, are you are you gonna come to our installation? I'm like, What it again? You guys are doing this again all of a sudden so quick. Yeah, what happened?

SPEAKER_05 22:26

And absolutely love you guys coming down because it is a party. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:31

Oh, it's a good time. We have a good time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

I think the best part is I never know what you're gonna bring in. I mean, one year there was a blow-up doll. It's just it is it happened.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

For it was like an educational blow-up doll. It taught you Spanish and Italian, it was a learning tool. Yes. It was. I God, we've done a lot of weird stuff over the years.

SPEAKER_06 22:54

And the sheer fact that we have was that the first year we did Road Profits? It might have been. We did the first car cast. Yeah, because it was.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

That was the first time because you know it's getting harder and harder to get all the time.

SPEAKER_06 23:05

That was me, you, and Mark. Oh, that was me.

SPEAKER_04 23:09

No, no, the first year. You weren't the first year of us last year. Yeah, the Road Prophet's one. Yeah, that was the uh first car cast. First car cast, yeah. And that's because you know it's getting harder and harder to get us all together. I mean, you know, like today. Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, Brock actually was here, but I think he had to go get formula for his brand new, super healthy and amazing baby and his lovely wife.

SPEAKER_06 23:29

And uh Brock, if if Courtney's beating you, just bunk twice. That's okay. You know, you know the sign, brother. Yeah, so he was supposed to be here. I like how he does it, that we both do it. Like we're in trouble.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

No, yeah, but that was so we actually, yeah, you know, this installation, besides all the fun we've had four controversies, starting a new way to record this show. There's a lot of things, it's kind of funny when you look at the nucleus of something and the Maru Grotto installation in Montecello, Indiana has spun off so many different things now. Yeah, that's kind of crazy if you actually think about it. What then my first time for Midwest was Chicago. Oh, Guy's Convention. Oh Lord. Yeah, that one. Uh that was a great time. I love hosting stuff in the Spring Hill Suites because we don't have to leave the building. Yeah. And uh, and you know, and sometimes you do, and you know, sometimes paying hotel prices, but it all worked out there, it was nice. Oh, it was great. And we have fun. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm gonna do my uh my convention there. So I'll see.

SPEAKER_05 24:26

That was when I met Guy and uh absolutely fell in love with this with him and D. And Guy was like, uh, hey, I gotta go man, he says, I'll be back. I said, All right. So, like, I don't know, one o'clock, something like that in the morning. Guy's not back yet, and everybody's kind of walked out of the hospitality room, and I thought, oh, I'll just pick up everything, clean it up, shut the lights off, shut the door. Next morning I go down after breakfast, and I'm like, Doors unlocked. I open it up, get everything lit up, ready to go. Start fixing people drinks as they come in. Guy walks in the door and he goes, What are you doing? I go, um, helping you. And he goes, Okay. And we sat and talked for a little bit. And he said, Uh, you closed up last night? I go, Oh, yeah, that'd be me. He goes, Well, I came back to clean up like about two o'clock, and he said, The room's absolutely clean, lights are off, everything's looking good. And he goes, I go, Yeah, I got you, man. So I opened and closed for him the whole time we were up there in Chicago. Oh, he's like, and we've become tight, I think, since then. I I absolutely love that guy.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

Guy's a pure character. We know him in the show one day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:38

He would be funny. You don't know Guy? I know a bunch of guys, but Guy Carbano? Guy Guy Carbano. Oh, Guy Carbano. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

I'm like, former Midwest Grato president. Like the most famous Mason in Chicago.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

He is. Yeah, I know, but we all know a guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:59

I don't know if he's talking about another guy from Indiana, another guy or another guy. No, that was Guy Carbano.

unknown 26:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Well then after that fact. So all I know is Jim and I have been uh uh profits about the same amount of time. Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

Yeah, you were smart.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Yeah, you were forced to sign the model. We we threw you a petition.

SPEAKER_05 26:21

And what I liked about with Steve, we got together after that and we started going to Blue Lodges and signing people up and getting we built the numbers up. I believe it was like four point uh like seven hundred percent. Our first year.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Oh, growth, yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 26:38

Of growth. We had like almost 80 people after our first year. That's how I got my pin with a diamond in it. Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

I've actually never got it.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

I've only got a Ruby pin. Yeah, I which one which where's mine at? Yeah, it's on the side there. Yeah, that was where I got that pin, was for signing up. Like 10. I think it was 10. Well, what convention did you get that at? I came in the mail to me. Okay, so you can that year you didn't go to international. What the hell was that?

SPEAKER_04 27:04

No, because they would present them there, but if you can't pick them up, they mail them out.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

My first one was Columbus last year.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

Was it really? Columbus was a very cool time. My first one was Branson in 2019. Oh, that would have been 18. I Branson is a weird town. I I had a lot of fun, but Brans is Branson. Never been there, so I don't know. It's cool to see. It's like uh it's like a weird Christian Vegas.

SPEAKER_06 27:25

Yeah. I was just gonna say, I heard it's like the new Vegas, but yeah, yeah, but there are you're the only one I've heard that has presented it like that.

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Well, it's they got a lot of great shows, a lot of good attractions.

SPEAKER_06 27:38

I mean, the winery is it's like Vegas for LDS.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

No, there isn't no, that's not oh man, they have Elvis, but they don't have that. They have Elvis, but they do have Elvis. I I don't know if they have LDS.

SPEAKER_06 27:50

They tried doing that in Big Love.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

LDL, that sounds like, but so no, but Ranson's a weird town, like it's cool, like, but there's a little bit more morality, things close at certain times, you know, certain places serve hooch. The shows don't serve hooch. You cannot get liquor at some of the shows, which is the weirdest thing out of it. Well, that sounds Mormon. Well, no, here, but no, no, no one told me. I wasn't lying to you, West. No, no one told me this. And the first time we went there as a family, we had a great time, but we had dinner at this uh place called Level 2 Steakhouse, which is a great steakhouse for there go. And I had three martinis at dinner because I wasn't driving, and three martinis makes a man feel a certain way, and then I wanted that. I then we were going to go to some like multi-tribute style acts, it's all about the shows, right? And we get there, and it's like and it was a real cool mix of like there was like a Frank Sinatra person of this person, but there was like an Adele, like a like like welcome to the side. You know what I'm talking about when the sky falls. I don't know if she even did that song, but either way, Adele, like you know, she's a big girl, but now she's a little girl, I know she was a big girl.

SPEAKER_06 28:49

So the impersonator was it big Liddell or Thin Liddell?

SPEAKER_04 28:53

Oh, it's big Adele, but you'd want Big Adele, and uh I actually Adele, wherever you're at, honey, I know it's good for the well now.

SPEAKER_06 28:59

You see the thin Adele, it's not the same thing. You feel like you're going retro and no, no one wants Thinadel.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

Like that's like Santa, like that wears like glasses. No one wants that. Oh wait, Santa does wear glasses. Yes, it's like Santa and uh wait a minute.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

I don't think Coke presents him. No, Coke and Coke is a true arbiter.

SPEAKER_05 29:17

Coke did have uh one with him in the little tiny glasses.

SPEAKER_06 29:20

This is my show, don't prove me wrong. Oh yeah, oh yeah? Well then why does Pepsi have the polar bears then?

SPEAKER_05 29:26

I have never figured that out. Pepsi has polar bears now?

SPEAKER_06 29:29

They're actually transparent and not white. That was the Super Bowl uh ad that the the polar bears prefer Pepsi now. Yeah, that was Pepsi's commercial.

SPEAKER_05 29:38

I think they've had polar bears for a long time.

SPEAKER_06 29:39

No Pepsi Pepsi stole the polar bears for now they have to use it after a certain time, otherwise they they lose like some sort of rights or something. There's so the there's this whole legal thing with certain things. I know about it because Mormon stuff and everything. So wait, all right.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

Well, either way. So bad, but but so either way, so I had to find out that the shows in Branson's making noises were more uh conservative, and they didn't serve uh hoots. So I had to do uh three martinis sober up to an Adele tribute act, and that was painful.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Something beeped.

SPEAKER_06 30:20

Was it that one? Yeah, that's kind of weird. Oh, how long do we have an old cameras right now? Uh the internal battery has died out, so they've been going past 30 minutes, so we're good.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

Okay, cool. So yeah, so that was that, but that was brands. That's so I didn't realize when we were in Columbus together that was your first big convention. Yeah, because I had missed a couple too just uh due to life, and that's when I was uh really trying to prove my mustard to get elected to the Grand Royal Arts chapter line. So for a couple years I had to pull a little bit back on going to certain events, that's why I really wanted to plant my flag. And but then yeah, but Columbus was my big return too, which was a great time. Corb's convention was so awesome. I did not get to go to that one.

SPEAKER_05 31:04

I'd like to because I guess when we were at Columbus was Corb's was it last year?

SPEAKER_06 31:09

See, yeah, I skipped Corb's because you know we had this plan to go to Victor Mann's, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:15

He oh, yeah, New Orleans. I missed that one.

SPEAKER_06 31:18

Right, but but he changed the date. Remember, like, oh, it's in June, and then he switched to July or something. I remember that at all. You don't remember? No, but yeah, yeah. I I forget a lot of things. If you had to go to a Supreme, you're good, dude. If you want to go, I mean it's in Pittsburgh this year, right? Oh, Erie, Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

I don't know how close is Erie to Pittsburgh, like one corner of the state versus the other. Oh, okay. There's quite a bit of difference.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

So I know um we're driving up there, we're stopping a day in uh Cleveland for because I want to go see the Cleveland aquarium and go see the lake and some of the German markets and stuff. Because like right now, it's like going to all this stuff. I I feel so bad if I don't plan family time with it because I'm literally telling my wife, like, hey, we have like three long weekends this year. It's uh Grand York, right, Grand Lodge, and Grand Grotto, baby. Oh, and oh, I'm somehow have to shoehorn high 12 international in. And you're not far from Niagara Falls, so you can do a little romantic thing there for uh there ooh, I look I do love Niagara, they're doing a session in Niagara Falls. I think Bob Glace's session is gonna be Niagara Falls.

SPEAKER_06 32:17

Yeah, it's not that far away. 27, I think. Yeah. Well, we talked to John Seforza. Frank, yeah. Frank Seforza.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

No, that would be that would be 2028. Because uh 2027 would be Marty Haley in Texas.

SPEAKER_06 32:32

Because I asked them like, well, were they gonna do it New York style or do something like based around the uh Niagara Falls? They said they're doing it New York style.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

By the way, either way, I'm gonna have a nice song. Probably my mom to that one because she loves the falls. I might try to make two weeks of it go to the Canada side too. In my defense, Canada was great.

SPEAKER_05 32:47

Yeah, I was awful hungover last year at Columbus.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Just saying.

SPEAKER_05 32:51

I think everybody I think that's the usual story.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Oh, you know what was weird about Columbus is I never knew Columbus was kind of a problematic area. And so there was the Waffle House by the hotel, yeah. And one of the dinners I just didn't have a ticket to because I try to go off campus at least once during these things, and for granted work right too. Um, and we're like, let's go to Waffle House for dinner. And then we went there, I think it was the barbecue night. Then we went there and we ate, and I'm like, oh, they're like, we close at eight. I'm like, your waffle house, you don't close. It's like the gimmick. And they're like, uh no, we close it. I was like, oh I'm just talking to them. Oh, do you have like a staffing issue? Like, oh, you can't get a night cook, and she's like, No, someone got murdered, and the cop told us we have to close down. I was like, Oh, Jesus, how many waffle back to the safety of the hotel, please?

SPEAKER_06 33:37

Is that like the place um that movie, that B movie, that famous B movie, horror movie where uh the town closes after sunset or something like that? The town that dreaded sundown? Yeah, that's a good flick.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Yeah, wasn't that based on the Texar Cana murders with the hood with the hooded guy? That was real though.

SPEAKER_06 33:53

Yeah, it was it's a real thing, yeah. But you know, the movie goes off and you know, elaborates a lot.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

But you know what's realer than movies we've seen? Jim Boyer. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Jim. You got yourself into Grotto. Yes, you're having fun, you're traveling with Steve Myers, you have a great history with the Blue Lodge, Scottish Right, uh, between with your son, it's four generations. But it feels like grotto lit up a little fire in you.

SPEAKER_05 34:21

It did. I have made more more friends from absolutely east to west coast border to border, including a couple over the border. Uh I met Oscar at Supreme last year. Oh, okay. Where's she uh where's she from again? He was out of somewhere in Mexico. Yeah, but he I think he was out of California grotto.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Yeah, there's some crossover there, though. And I always feel bad when I talk about the grand jurisdictions of Mexico, because Mexico has many states, it's a very diverse place. And sometimes, you know, maybe it's just the ignorant United States person I could be that I'm just like, oh, Mexico, but Mexico is so very that's like the Grand Lodge of Indiana versus Illinois, like me and you're like, No, it's a very different thing. You know, and I hate to be like Mexico is just Mexico, but yeah, so many great guys.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

Yeah, and he is a purveyor of fine tequila. Oh, really? He pulled out the biggest flask I have ever seen in my life, and I introduced him to um Vance because Vance had his mead there. Oh, yeah. And we were mixing tequila with the mead and making something new, and it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 35:28

And I said it's called a dirty sombrero.

SPEAKER_05 35:30

I okay, I'll go with that. Sure. And Oscar was walking by and I said, Hey, try this. And he goes, What is it? I said, It Mr. Vance here has made this fine mead, and I said, We mixed it with a little tequila. So he takes a little bit of a sip and then he reaches in his suit and pulls out this flask. I swear to God, the thing was like this long, unscrews it, pours more tequila in it. Oh, that's better. Try this. Your problem is there's just not enough tequila in it. I believe that was the night I lost Brian, Mullins.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

Yeah, well, I mean, you lost we lost Brian that night because he went to bed early, took his vitamins, Brian's still alive, we just went for the day.

SPEAKER_05 36:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Brian's still alive.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

He is still alive. We found him, we got him put to bed. But uh, and then I introduced him to Pineapple, my father, and I said, uh, this guy has pineapples. I said, the two of you should get together and make something with pineapples.

SPEAKER_04 36:33

I don't know if they ever talked or not. But so see, I love this. So you're just going around this whole amazing convention, and you're like, he has lemons and you have A to make lemonade. Yes. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

That is not how you make lemonade.

SPEAKER_04 36:46

Yeah, after I said that, complete regret, no one has aid. But you know what I meant by that.

SPEAKER_05 36:52

You have lemons, I have ice, let's make lemonade.

SPEAKER_06 36:54

You have coffee, I have Bailey's, you know. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Yeah, so he's just making fronts. You're like just connecting all these people together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Like what do you want to do with the Ludafisk?

SPEAKER_04 37:04

So no, and you're good for grotto. And I believe this year, uh, even though you're from Indiana, you're actually your first year as an officer in the Illinois State Grotto Association.

SPEAKER_05 37:15

As a matter of fact, we voted us in that same day, and then I was installed as the sergeant at arms for Illinois State.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

Yeah, which the Illinois Association, while it represents the great state of Illinois, it's the rules and the bylaws are anyone that vote any state that touches it can. Because I mean, frankly, Illinois is a weird place, and Chicago is an all-encompassing thing and a strange thing in the north. Northwestern Indiana is almost a Chicago suburb. Yeah, it just is. And then we have the beauty of you know, Mohasin Grotto. Well, that merged with Zal, that I believe was in Rock Island or Moline. And then they moved into Davenport, and that's how we kind of kept them because Davenport's a border town, right? And then we have Artemon Grotto, which is an association, you know, an hour up, you know, north from you know, Illinois. But realistically, everything south of Milwaukee feels like a Chicago supper sometimes, too. Don't tell Wisconsin I said that they'll get very mad. Love your cheese castle.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

I'm sure I'll hear about it from the guys from Time for Fellowship. Oh, it's fine.

SPEAKER_04 38:10

Oh, sorry, Time for Fellowship, guys. I love your show. But um, but no, it's so it's coming together. It's actually uh it's great that Maru is involved, especially because the Illinois Association is a part of your doing your installation of officers for years and just really the way we work together and have fun. And I think it's great. And I think we need these uh these times to really, you know, reach across the line and kind of we're 29 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 38:36

Yeah, I know. We were fine. Over.

SPEAKER_04 38:38

So that's kind of cool. So yeah, Maru got brought into the association. You're uh you're sergeant at arms now. Yes. I heard there's a strong rumor after you get a purple tassel, you may be running for one of the VP spots.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

I'm not going to deny or confirm either way. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

So wait, it is this next installation your installation that we're gonna be doing, yeah. Yeah, January 2nd, 2027. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 39:00

Cool. I'll make sure I'm off. Yeah. Usually work Saturdays? I'll be off and from, huh? Usually I'm working Saturdays now. Are you? Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. Six days a week now? No, the Saturdays I'm off. I work, I work, I'm off on Thursday.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

So that's rough though, because I never get two days off in a row.

SPEAKER_06 39:20

No, not every Saturday. I'm just I have to plan it out. I'm in rotation with two other people. Okay. So it's one person on every weekend.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

All right. Well, people shop him in arts on Saturdays. Yeah, that happens. Oh, and for uh legal reasons I can't say he works on art. No, we had a lot of great times, and President Vance had a very cool convention. Yes. The uh brewery tour uh President Vance is this former president of the junior junior past. Uh, because now Evan took it over. But TripTech Brewery in Champagne actually made us a Grotto Veer. Evan uh from Abbas Grout is the president now.

SPEAKER_06 39:56

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Great guy. So, but yeah, they did that. We uh got so it's actually strange. My favorite part of the whole Illinois convention, and I'll see if you agree with this. Did you go to the basketball tour now? Or did you miss it? No, we did not. Oh, you said that okay. So we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the training facility for the University of Illinois basketball team. Oh, okay. The uh the coach is actually a brother and a grotto member. He's a brother from Kansas, I want to say. However, with Illinois Grotto pretty much almost being a campus entity, he did join, and we got this behind the scenes tour of the basketball facility. I mean, I don't really watch basketball. I mean, I don't know. I mean, when the bulls are hot, I do, or you know, but I'm like this is the 90s, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Every time I still walk into a sports store, it looks like last year, but it wasn't. Yeah, I know. I was a youth then, but it was so cool to look at their facility and all the sports stuff and everything, and it it just felt really cool. We we went to a Papa Dell's for the banquet, which is like the like the pizza place, like the college pizza place. We had a good bartender, too.

SPEAKER_06 41:01

You should try and get the uh the alinee to wear well, since it's the same colors for Alini and Grotto and the fighting alumni, get them to wear socks with the small grotto symbol on it. You feel it?

SPEAKER_04 41:13

Yep, I'm sure Nike or whoever's providing the socks for the sports team would love to co-sponsor us on that one. But uh, yeah, that was so cool. Van's had a really cool convention, and I'm so happy you got brought in. My friend Charles Robertson is the chaplain now, uh past most excellent past grand high priest, one of my mentors. That's actually how I knew I was an old timer, and like I has been in the association. I you know, I'm secretary, I don't know what the hell's going on. And because out of nowhere, I'm like, all right, so what's the plan this year for officers? And I was like, all right, Evan's like, well, I'm gonna appoint uh Jim Boyer to sergeant at arms as long as you know the vote to let Maruin goes and Charles Robertson's gonna be this. And we're thinking about having uh Andre Smith run for the bottom of the elected line. And I was like, Oh, awesome! All three are my best friends, and I have no idea what's going on. I don't I don't feel out of the loop at all.

SPEAKER_06 42:03

Well, they figure you should know all this. I mean, you're the secretary. You're the secretary. Marty, you're involved in everything. Here's what I know about Marty Krillin. If he doesn't know what's going on, we're in trouble.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

Yeah, exactly. I had no idea what was going on that day. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 42:16

We're in trouble. But it was everything's falling apart.

SPEAKER_05 42:19

See, and Ryan was the one that called me on that. He goes, uh, we're gonna join. Well, we had talked about joining at our meeting before that, and I was like, Oh, yeah, we all voted okay, let's do it. So we sent the application in and let him know. And I think it was like a week or two later, Brian calls me, he goes, Hey, I think you're gonna be asked to be the sergeant in arms for the Illinois Grotto Association. I'm like, squeeze me. He goes, Yeah, where'd that come from? Oh, I was on a phone call with blah blah blah blah blah blah. I volunteered you. Yeah, so I think that's how that happened. And I was like, all right, whatever. I I enjoy grotto AS. This is a I'll do it if they ask me. Yeah, you know what?

SPEAKER_04 43:00

Surprise Masonic jobs aren't always followed. And I'm the king of handing them out, but do we do do any of us really want to live in a world where people don't think about us? Like, if there's not a group of guys somewhere with like if you're not part of their long-range planning, that hurts. A little bit, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, we're all tired, we're all at too many places, we're all putting too many miles in the car, but we want to be involved, we want to work hard for each other, and we want to do a great thing and love each other, man. That's the that's the goal of this.

SPEAKER_05 43:28

So you say the miles thing. I sat down yesterday and I've been keeping track of all the places I've gone for.

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Blue Lodge Shrine, don't keep those gas receipts, you're gonna feel different.

SPEAKER_05 43:37

2200 miles I've done since January 1st. Holloway, 2200. 2200 miles.

SPEAKER_06 43:44

Those are rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers in there.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

Hey, I'm working on it, man.

SPEAKER_06 43:48

What do you what kind of car do you drive?

SPEAKER_05 43:51

Uh 2016 Tahoe no. There is no way you're getting a large man in a little Prius.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

I bet you can fit you in a smart car.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

My lady has a Mercedes GLA 250 and it's a grill and a go-kart. I can get in and out of my little shriner cart better than I can get in and out of her cart. She has to absolutely I have to go like this so she can shut the door. And when I'm sitting in the seat, I have to open the blind for the sunroof to put my head through. Yeah, you're f you're fairly tall, gentlemen. From the butt up, I'm only I'm only five foot ten. Are you?

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Yeah. Well your energy says six foot five. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Well so when you so when you uh parade with a shrine, what kind of go-karts do you guys use?

SPEAKER_05 44:38

We have a our group has a 32 Ford um Model T. No, not the Model T. It's more like a little coop with up the top on it. Okay, cool. Uh there is seven of us in our group, and then uh the president has a John Deere Gator that they go, they lead us. They've got a little card on the back. So if one of us breaks down, says Roadster Wrecker on it, and we can attach it to that to get it out of the way. We bought them three years ago from Cincinnati. Uh their group was going, where it's all older gentlemen, and they decided to go with the I guess they were like a dune buggy kind of slide into. Oh yeah. So we bought them and everybody clipped in a little bit of money, and we each got one, and they have a blast with them. They're absolutely a ball to draw. How many parades do you do in a year? We generally do about six or seven.

SPEAKER_04 45:35

Okay, now and is this unit with the orac and it is with Mara.

SPEAKER_05 45:39

It's with Maraud, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:41

Now I'm not familiar how parades work. So let's say somebody gets a lot of people. No, no, no, no, no. Immediately you. What I mean is if somebody's like, hey, we'd like to have a parade on our street or block or whatever, and they contact you. What what is involved with that and does it cost anything?

SPEAKER_05 46:00

Generally, it doesn't cost us anything other than if we can hand out candy or not. Well, pay stipends, I believe. We run up to Meraville and buy candy at is it Albanese? Yeah. We buy candy up there to hand out. I think we can hand out at two parades. There's some that they don't allow any candy unless you're walking. And I'm too fat to walk, so that ain't gonna work. But we do um our first one is in Woolkut, which is just east or west of Montesal. Yeah, we drove through it. Yeah, we drove through a good thing. Oh, yeah. Um, that'll be our first parade, and it goes down through the city and then through the park, and we don't hand out any candy for that. We just make a presence and let everybody know what we kind of do when we get to the announcement stand, they'll tell these guys do this for the hospitals. And yeah, we have a golf outing every year with our uh it's called the White County Trian Club. We live in White County, Indiana, and uh that one golf outing, usually we make enough money to take care of four hospitals and then we try to do one local charity as far as that.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

So when you say take care of hospitals, do you to the transferred fund, or what do you guys do?

SPEAKER_05 47:10

We do we're kind of weird about that. Um our president, this is his 20th year as being president of our club, and he calls the four hospitals that surround Indiana, which would be Chicago, Dayton, Lexington, and St. Louis. What kind of special project you got? Okay. What have you got going on? Um the last check I brought up to Chicago was for half of what it cost to get a the pool lift. We gave$4,000 to Chicago. It's called a Hoyer lift. I forever get the trade name. Right. It's what they use to get the kids in and out of the pool. Um St. Louis was for what they call hand camp, which is the kids that have orthopedic. Ah okay. Oh wow. They they help them with that. Um when I went down there two years ago, I got to meet one of the young kids, and he was down there to get his new prosthetic put on, and he was going to go to hand camp that afternoon. And I I gotta tell you what, until you take a tour like that, it's tough watching these kids do the things they do with limited limbs, with pieces missing, with legs shorter than the other. Um, but it's also amazing to see when I was at St. Louis that year, there was a young girl that had um one leg was considerably shorter than the other. And they had made a prosthetic where her foot sat in it at about the knee level. And you wouldn't have known if you didn't see it that she was had a prosthetic on. She was running and jumping and doing her thing. It's like this is what I do this for. This is why I go out and do the parades, this is why we do the the golf outing. So I mean it it it gets you right there.

SPEAKER_06 49:03

It's amazing what they do with pro uh prosthetics, especially nowadays. And when you said, you know, the the hand camp, the hand training, I'm okay. So you know, they're trying to get the dexterity, strength, and everything back. And I don't know if you guys have seen it, but on the TV, there's been the um I think she's a teenage girl with this bionic hand that spins around and does everything, but she had to go and do something similar to what you're talking about, hand camp, because she had to learn the nerves. Her fingers aren't there, but her head still feels like they're there. But now she's got to get this thing firing. It's not just as simple as throwing it on, and now I can move it and do everything.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

They the Shriners have done a uh one hell of a job of helping these kids to have a normal life, and that just I mean tell you, it's when you walk through these things and you see the different things they do. Um, I'm not, I think it was Lexington. We walk through a room, they've got this huge room, and I don't know how many cameras they had around there. And the child will get into this, I don't want to call it a cage, but it's like a a scaffolding thing, and they walk around the room, and these cameras all measure how how big a step they take. Yeah, their gait, their everything to do with that, so they can get the correct appendage to do what they want to do.

SPEAKER_06 50:23

Because they're their their stride and the way their foot used to land, maybe center, off to the left, off to the right. It really and I mean you don't think about it, but it does really matter.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

The room has got tape on the floor where they or paint on the floor where they can walk around and they follow this path, and these cameras are mounted up high, in the middle, down low, and they measure everything about what this child has got to go through to step and to walk and to see them afterwards.

SPEAKER_06 50:50

To formulate a plan to help, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:51

Yeah. And to see these kids walking, and I like I said, you don't know they've even got a prosthetic on. They're they're no it's normal for them, and it's it's just like you know, we help do this, we help this hospital do this, and it it tugs at the heartstrings pretty hard when you see that. Grotto, we do the humanitarian foundation for the the uh dentistry, and that is huge. I mean, I never realized how huge it was until I started reading up on it, and it's like damn. And I'm supposed to go down. I joined Tall Cedars when they first started in Indianapolis. And after a couple years, I don't know what happened, but my dad and I both had been charter members for it back then when it came in, and we had gotten away from it. I don't know if they kind of shut down for a while, not enough participation, whatever. But I found out they do have another tall cedar started down there. I'm going down Wednesday to find out about that. And they have a humanitarian foundation, and I'm not quite sure what all it's about, but most of the district. Yeah, actually, uh we actually had somebody on the show.

SPEAKER_04 51:59

Yeah, Jim Marion, when he was the Supreme Tall Cedar, he kind of came on, and theirs is for MS and they have a very interesting history.

SPEAKER_05 52:06

I just met Jim uh at our Grand Lodge or no Founders Day and talked to him a little bit because that's how I found out about Indianapolis having the yeah, Jim Jim Marion's a really good dude.

SPEAKER_04 52:16

Uh shout out to his uh lovely wife Sandy, who runs in Sonic Beehive, has taken over the Grand Royal Arts store. Um, great people, and they they do a lot of interesting stuff with their foundation. And as much as it was cool when they're part of the Jerry Lee Lewis, the telethons and all that, they have so much more freedom now. Actually, Wes, maybe tag that episode for people that want to go back and learn about it because Jim talked a ton about that.

SPEAKER_06 52:37

Yeah, the Grand Tall Cedar, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:39

That was the first time I ever seen it. Was when I was a young kid watching Jerry Lewis, and they were on there with their little green fezz on, and I'm like, what the hell was that? That's kind of neat. And then ended up my dad called me one day and he goes, Hey, we're joining tall cedars.

SPEAKER_04 52:53

That's amazing. So you actually got to see the tall cedars on the telephones back in the day, yeah. That is so cool.

SPEAKER_05 52:58

They'd come out. I of course back then you only had three channels, so you didn't have much of a chance to watch anything else when I was a kid. No, tall cedars at the telephone. That was about as good as I got. Yeah, you'd watch Jerry Lewis telephone, and these guys come out with little green fezz in their head, and I'm like, that's kind of neat. You call theirs pyramids? I believe it is. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:17

They're they're I've got one somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 53:19

I don't even know what happened to it. It's been since the 90s since I've had it.

SPEAKER_06 53:22

So, one more controversial question before we get to the end of the show. Who does the better parades? The shrine or the grotto?

SPEAKER_05 53:34

Honestly, I'm gonna say it's a 50-50 mix. I think they all do it. It depends on what it depends on where you're going for your parade, right? Yeah, it it depends on what you know. I mean, as far as the shriners, they have the shriners, I would say, are more recognizable. Well, they have a vast array of different groups, right? I mean, you go up to Iowa, they've got what I think it's called the Wheat Whackers. These guys have made little combines, and they're cool as hell. Look it up on Tin Lizzie if you got to go back quite a ways before you see it on Facebook, and they've got these little combines they're riding around on in a parade, but you've got the tin Lizys, you've got the roadsters, you've got the prowlers, you've got I think there's some Dodge Chargers out there.

SPEAKER_06 54:16

Well, you've even got the Marauders, the pirates. Uh you know, there's tons of cars.

SPEAKER_05 54:20

I think they're Corvettes, they're the air guards and Corvettes. Um I call them the speed racer cars because they look like this the old Mach 5 from the Speed Racers, which actually would be cool. I mean, I get why they want to use Corvettes, but uh, they should do speed racers, that was so cool. And you go down to Indianapolis and they've got the Indy 500 club, yeah, and they've got all old indie cars.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

You've got um I think the 57s out of ours.

SPEAKER_05 54:44

Yeah, yeah. Johnson County down there has got quarter midgets. They've got some guys that's got quarter midgets and have those in the parades. They've got uh uh looks like a little Peterbelt wrecker truck that they use to in the parades. But it I mean it's just there's so many different groups just in Indiana for crying out loud. I mean, you just can't believe all the different Logansport, which is west or east of us, they have the uh three-wheel patrol. They've got these little three-wheel carts that are pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

And you've also got like grotto clown units and yeah, all types of different.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

You've got I don't believe Indianapolis has the horse patrol anymore, but that was huge back in the day.

SPEAKER_06 55:26

Yeah, we have the black horse here in uh at Medina.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

I don't think I read of that.

SPEAKER_06 55:30

Did they?

SPEAKER_04 55:31

I have no idea, buddy. Um all I know is horses are getting harder and harder to keep. Yeah, and the prices with them, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:40

The original black horse was out of Culver, Indiana. The ones that do the presidential uh funerals, that's out of Culver, Indiana. They have uh a military academy there, and you can drive out there and they've you can see them in the fields. They're beautiful horses, absolutely gorgeous horses.

SPEAKER_06 55:59

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_04 56:01

Yeah, actually, this year too, it's gonna be the the first ever to celebrate America 250. It's gonna be the debut of the Cheel Grottle float. Yep, anchored by uh DJ Flash, alumni of the show, who's gonna be uh I mean what what do you say he liked to spin when he was on the show, like dirty ghetto trap or something?

SPEAKER_06 56:18

Yeah, ghetto trap, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:19

And I don't think we'll be spinning much ghetto trap. I don't think that's the uh I was like just give me some uh give me some techno remixes, some patriotic stuff. But yeah, dude, honestly, as long as everyone's out there having fun and doing good work, doing good like a kid rock. Just play some kid rock, I'm a good so shout out uh RJ Johnson and Darren Lanners. I did a non-Masonic podcast with them, it was a supernatural podcast. We're talking about Mothman, and I believe we came up with a theory that the reason Michigan doesn't have Mothman sightings is Mothman is a natural enemy of Kid Rock. Kid Rock. I've heard you say that before. Oh man, yeah, so no good times. And actually, speaking of all the help you guys do, you guys are always doing a good t-shirt promotion. Yes, benefit things. I think you got that on me right now.

SPEAKER_05 57:03

All right, let me stand up and show the autism shirt off.

SPEAKER_04 57:06

Make sure your pants are where they need to be.

SPEAKER_05 57:08

Yeah, they are very good.

SPEAKER_04 57:09

Oh beautiful. So that's the standard, you know, Mocana with that lantern on in the front, and this is your autism a weirder shirt with money going back to the humanitarian foundation.

SPEAKER_05 57:19

And um, Brian said this last weekend or two weekends ago that if we do enough, he's gonna give some to the humanitarian foundation and also to the uh an autism group. Nice, nice. So buy your shirts. How much are those? Um with shipping and everything. I think this was like 42.

SPEAKER_06 57:38

Do I have to contact Brian Mullins for that shirt?

SPEAKER_05 57:41

Um, go on. I put it on a whole bunch of different Facebook.

SPEAKER_06 57:45

I can contact you though.

SPEAKER_05 57:46

Yeah, it's on my page on Facebook.

SPEAKER_06 57:49

If I can avoid talking to Brian Mullins, I will. We'll try and put the information.

SPEAKER_05 57:53

It's on Maru's Facebook page. I put it on as many different it's a T public thing, all right?

SPEAKER_04 57:58

Right. Yeah. So it's awesome. And actually, I watched, I gotta buy one of these, so I bought other shirts you guys have done. It's you guys always have nice stuff. Yeah. It's always for a great cause. Good quality shirts. Yeah, they really are.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

And it's a good quality shirt. I was like, damn, I like this. It's comfortable. It's hard to find a shirt to fit somebody of my stature.

SPEAKER_04 58:17

Yeah, I get that. Because they never make shirts long enough.

SPEAKER_05 58:20

No. And then it's like it's wide enough, but never long enough.

SPEAKER_04 58:22

Yeah, but I'm like, tighten it up on the body so I don't look like a blimp, and then you know, give me a little bit of a shortcut.

SPEAKER_05 58:27

It's like suit suit jackets are the opposite. They're always long enough, they just never are wide enough.

SPEAKER_04 58:33

Yes, I've had I've I have one or two jackets. You're like a tyrannosaurus.

SPEAKER_06 58:37

It's all part of a failing system, it's all downhill. Any final thoughts or any shout-outs?

SPEAKER_04 58:45

Oh man, a shout out to uh you know, mine would be to the whole Illinois State Grotto Association team. We just came off that convention. Mark can't be with us here today because he's at the board of governors in Ohio uh doing the long-range planning for grotto. Uh, shout out, I just had an amazing uh Royal Arts chapter day yesterday where we exalted eight people. Uh, then my was that my father-in-law's VFW after spaghetti. You were amazing. Yeah, just honestly, people are out parading, people are having fun. Just everybody keep it up.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

Let's have the fellowship. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

Yeah, it's currently April. I have no idea when this episode's coming out. Let's have the greatest summer ever. Summer 2026 is the one. Don't buy the hype, don't listen to the media, love your neighbor, and let's get it the summer. It's hot Marty summer. It is hot Marty summer. No, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 59:32

That was a picture in my mind that just went, oh shit.

SPEAKER_06 59:36

No, yeah. Shout out to shout out to uh, you know, the the movers and the shakers, guys actually making it happen.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

To the movers and the shakers.

SPEAKER_06 59:45

The guys actually making it happen, guys actually out there doing fellowship. Yeah. Uh well, save the best for last. Uh, shout out to uh the guys from Time for Fellowship and for Brock, because I know they had fun yesterday in Wisconsin at the Scottish Russian. Shout out Brock, he left us. I know he was tired. That's what that's why I'm giving him a shout out because he was a pussy and he had to leave. So uh shout out to you guys. Brock, we love you. We're glad you love you for the formula. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

So glad you brought the formula home.

unknown 1:00:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:14

I'm I'm gonna keep talking. You guys want to talk over?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:16

Don't forget, Brock.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:19

Let us know. Let us know if Courtney's enough beating him.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:22

If I gotta drive back up from Indiana to give him a hand, you know, we can also get Daniel since they've got the uh no Ruzz uh strategic operations team. We can get him in here.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:34

Any shouts out, Jim?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:37

Um to my two shrines I'm a member of, Marat and Orak, to Maru Grotto and all my brothers at the Grotto, to Royal Center and Libanus. God love you guys, and to my kids and my son. Love y'all. Thank you. Love you, buddy. Cheers, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Oh, that's all right. There you go. Illusions empty.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:02

There was a little bit in there, not much.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:05

Well, everyone, that is our show. It has been close to a year since we have done an in-person recording. I know I've had a good time doing this. I know you guys have as well. I love doing in-person again. We're not gonna stop these things, but they're just gonna be far and few in between. So um, hey everyone, thanks for watching. If you haven't, please like and subscribe. Leave a comment below, let us know what we're doing right or wrong. Everyone loves us, let us know what we're doing wrong. So if you're doing something wrong, just keep using it. Whatever. Just comment. Uh thanks for watching, everyone.