IMHO, a good 1911 is the funnest damn thing to shoot in the world. Not to mention, extremely effective at its intended purpose if ever called upon.
I grew up around revolvers, and was 100% a revolver guy. I'd read about the problems automatics could have, jamming and the like, and I could never wrap my head around why anyone would go that route.
Then I met the guy who would become my father in law. And he was really, really, really into 1911's. Like a safe full of them into them. He put some good ones in my hands out in a wheat field in Eastern Oregon, and I was hooked!
Yeah, sad thing they murdered Red Man. I loved the name, the logo, the whole bit. Sign of the times I guess.
There is a great Mason who lives somewhere on the East Coast, I'm thinking maybe New Jersey but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, he rescues vintage Masonic jewelry, vast quantities of it. If I'm remembering correctly, his name is Howard Sobel and he is active on Facebook.
He rescues all of this old Masonic jewelry and then vends it at large Masonic conferences and the like. Super nice guy, great to deal with. One of our PGM's took me to his table at my first COGMNA, and in the years that followed I've managed to get some truly wonderful pieces from him. I haven't seen him at the last couple though. I'm not sure how much of his business is online vs in person.
Practical/Emotional? If it's Masonic, it's a GO. No difference. Emotions quite often equals practical and vice versa. I have a Masonic penny my father gave me. It's encased in a two
pound piece of brass. Sure, it's emotional. But it's also practical when I use it to teach a
new Mason a lesson in charity. Loved the story. Keep it up!
Rescuing Masonic furniture, ephemera of all sorts, books, is noble and should absolutely be done in order to keep it in circulation amongst Masons.
I've always been kind of surprised that Lodges don't have a collection of rings previously worn by Masons now passed on, so that when they raise a new Mason they can present him or her with the rings and let them choose one. This would enrich the Lodge and the new Mason with provenance and heredity of a piece of legacy ephemera.
In our modern pre-masticated consumerist - (and no longer production) - environment - buying stuff has come to fill emotional impulses. It's a dopamine-pump. It's a substitute for creating , and not just material things, either.
Sometimes it's for building self-identification - if I buy that thing then that reflects who I think I am - or want to be - inside, then I'll be *more* - inside. That gives dopamine.
Sometimes it's simply to sooth dysregulated nervous systems that we're not consciously aware of or barely consciously aware of. That also gives dopamine and probably other neuro-chemicals. It's a soothing action.
I'm not sure how it serves The Craft, to simply reduce it to creating "branded" stuff to be accumulated.
Speaking as an accumulator myself, I know that I'm trying to fill an empty spot, rooted in childhood emotional neglect and trauma. I've had to work for decades to learn self-soothing techniques that don't involve buying things. For me personally, building and tending a garden gave me the dopamine fix I needed and also contributed to our household well being with food and flowers. I felt a deep sense of accomplishment and personal identity. In the beginning I did have to buy things, but I strictly limited purchases, and got really good at scrounging and not buying anything new. This was years ago before thrifting got ruined by "flippers". By the time it was complete I had a whole potager garden with fruit trees, grape vines, perennial food crops, and some annuals. I did this in two houses we lived in and both sold well specifically because of the garden. It was a creative process that demanded I exert myself. That was what gave me the dopamine. I remember when I was girl, my mom forced me to take piano lesson, because she thought that it engendered brain development - and she was right. When I became better and better at it, I got dopamine from just playing - it was a meditative exercise. But the practice and self-discipline gave me dopamine as well.
I'm sure everyone here have similar things they can think of in their lives. Maybe you turn wood. Or you have a gun bench and repair guns. Or you restore furniture. What's your creative productive dopamine "thing" ?
If you think about it, all of us alive now are the multi-generational products of trauma survivours - we've had nearly three centuries of wars both within and without, punctuated by depressions. All of us alive today are the direct descendants of famine survivours, either those who came to our shores for relief, or, those within our own boundaries.
All of that is crisis - and engenders coping mechanisms that get passed down as well as inherited epigenetic trauma that has never been processed and purged from nervous systems.
We aren't good at conquest because we are simply copying what our parent - Great Britain did - and we never enter the temple of Mars (War) with the right mindset, much less help our warriors exit it, with the right tools.
There's a brilliant book by Karl Marlantes, who was a 3rd BN combat Marine in Vietnam, called "What It's Like To Go To War." He came back from Vietnam broken and healed himself in therapy, then became a Jungian analyst. The thesis of his book is that War is the Temple of Mars, and in older societies such as the ancient Greeks, we knew how to send people into that crucible in a Priestly manner, and then bring them home in a Priestly manner, so they aren't fractured permanently. (Other cultures knew how to do this too - Celts, Romans, American Indians, etc)
Personally, I think that makes it a matter of national security to do it right, especially if we want to have culture of conquest. ( I have no particular objection to conquest, as long as we're on the winning side and we don't such a ham-fisted job of it.)
But we didn't do things very well, IMPO, and the Industrial Revolution while wonderful, had a dark side. So, in order to keep people from rioting in the streets - a consumerist culture of self-soothing has been created. We're all hung over, drugged, and desperately trying to avoid facing the work of rooting out what really drives us, and we think of as Fate, but isn't.
Thank you, Kathleen, for this really well thought out comment. I appreciate you taking the time to post it here.
>>>Rescuing Masonic furniture, ephemera of all sorts, books, is noble and should absolutely >>>be done in order to keep it in circulation amongst Masons.
I agree, and I do it every chance I can.
>>>I've always been kind of surprised that Lodges don't have a collection of rings previously >>>worn by Masons now passed on, so that when they raise a new Mason they can present >>>him or her with the rings and let them choose one. This would enrich the Lodge and the >>>new Mason with provenance and heredity of a piece of legacy ephemera.
I also agree, this is a superb idea. But, I think it might actually be quietly happening more than would be realized. My Mother Lodge used to do this when I was Raised. Myself and other Brothers Raised at around the same time were all given jewelry previously owned by a Brother who had passed. I don't know if the Lodge still does that.
The Lodge in my current little City doesn't have much in the way of a collection of jewelry, but we did have a ring that we gave to a new Master Mason recently.
>>>Sometimes it's for building self-identification - if I buy that thing then that reflects who I >>>think I am - or want to be - inside, then I'll be *more* - inside. That gives dopamine.
Yes, I can see that.
>>>For me personally, building and tending a garden gave me the dopamine fix I needed and >>>also contributed to our household well being with food and flowers. I felt a deep sense of >>>accomplishment and personal identity. In the beginning I did have to buy things, but I >>>strictly limited purchases, and got really good at scrounging and not buying anything >>>new. This was years ago before thrifting got ruined by "flippers". By the time it was >>>complete I had a whole potager garden with fruit trees, grape vines, perennial food crops, >>>and some annuals. I did this in two houses we lived in and both sold well specifically >>>because of the garden. It was a creative process that demanded I exert myself. That was >>>what gave me the dopamine. I remember when I was girl, my mom forced me to take >>>piano lesson, because she thought that it engendered brain development - and she was >>>right. When I became better and better at it, I got dopamine from just playing - it was a >>>meditative exercise. But the practice and self-discipline gave me dopamine as well.
This sounds like a great project, and two awesome gardens!
>>>I'm sure everyone here have similar things they can think of in their lives. Maybe you turn >>>wood. Or you have a gun bench and repair guns. Or you restore furniture. What's your >>>creative productive dopamine "thing" ?
Yeah, I think that my writing is one of the things that does it for me. Heck, I had a really intense emotional reaction to something I was writing today that will end up being published next week.
>>>We aren't good at conquest because we are simply copying what our parent - Great >>>Britain did - and we never enter the temple of Mars (War) with the right mindset, much >>>less help our warriors exit it, with the right tools.
>>>There's a brilliant book by Karl Marlantes, who was a 3rd BN combat Marine in Vietnam, >>>called "What It's Like To Go To War." He came back from Vietnam broken and healed >>>himself in therapy, then became a Jungian analyst. The thesis of his book is that War is >>>the Temple of Mars, and in older societies such as the ancient Greeks, we knew how to >>>send people into that crucible in a Priestly manner, and then bring them home in a >>>Priestly manner, so they aren't fractured permanently. (Other cultures knew how to do this >>>too - Celts, Romans, American Indians, etc)
This is fascinating to contemplate, but a perspective I've not encountered before. Thank you for sharing it.
>>>But we didn't do things very well, IMPO, and the Industrial Revolution while wonderful, >>>had a dark side. So, in order to keep people from rioting in the streets - a consumerist >>>culture of self-soothing has been created. We're all hung over, drugged, and desperately >>>trying to avoid facing the work of rooting out what really drives us, and we think of as >>>Fate, but isn't.
Agreed, and the Information Revolution, or whatever has been happening since Apple made owning a personal computer cool back in the '80's will also have a dark side. We are seeing that now.
“the Information Revolution, or whatever has been happening since Apple made owning a personal computer cool back in the '80's will also have a dark side. We are seeing that now.” Yes exactly. and we need to make strong pro-active moves to taking back out privacy and our control of these technologies.
Wonderful article Cameron. I am a non-fiction junkie and a Masonic stuff collector. Curiously, due to my employment with the old phone company in our area, I spent a ton of time attending technical and management training sessions in Everett. Everett and Snohomish were both tremendous sources of stuff that I was interested in. I think you may have missed a few treasures while at your old home stomping grounds. Your writings often resurrect old memories when on the hunt, and killing weekend time, in those areas. Thank you for this. I wish I had a connection with you back then. My next serious treasure is a really good functional Time Machine.
I do love antiquing in Snohomish! Luckily here in Centralia we also have pretty good antique stores, but not as many as there. It would have been fun to join you treasure hunting!
As for the time machine, yep, I've often fantasized about whom I'd want to go back to see and talk with!
P.G.M. Bailey, your comments about books, belt buckles, and tobacco hit home. I pull out my dad's 1968 WV Masonic Grand Lodge Blue Book (history book) daily to find the names of friend's dads, if they were Masons? I have numerous Masonic pins & belt buckles.
Then again, I have had too many high schools friends and relatives pass away from use of tobacco (I quit smoking when I was 12 years old)! Hmmm...
Ive been a mason for 30 years now . When my father in law passed to the GLA my mother in law gave me everything Masonic my father in law had. His Masonic certificate is in English and Latin.
That is wonderful to have your father in laws Masonic things passed down to you. As I write this I can see in a display case the fez worn by the man who inspired me to become a Mason. He died when I was a little kid, but his children made sure that it got to me before they themselves passed away.
Yes, the cigarettes will certainly kill you dead. I'm glad that you were able to quit.
I'm an odd duck. I smoke cigarettes situationally. I smoke if my youngest daughter who smokes is visiting. I smoke when I'm at one specific Lodge (where everyone else smokes.) And I smoke if I'm in Mexico. It ends up being a couple of packs a year at most. But darn, I do love a good cigarette. (And by good here, I don't mean Camel. Those things are nasty!)
I spent quite a few years really into cigars, but that is much less of an interest now. I do though adore a fine English tobacco in a fine English pipe, that's a really rare treat though. Our State continues to place more and more restrictions on pipe tobacco, making it harder and harder to buy the good stuff, so maybe 10 or 12 years ago I bought a lifetime supply.
I don't worry about the dip tobacco killing me. The fears surrounding it are very seriously overblown in my view:
I must admit that when I took a girl on a date to a club named "Green Parrot" in my home town, a would buy a 5-pack of Cherry Blend Tiparillo's. I did not inhale, and mostly chewed on the wooden tips. But it "looked like" I was smoking?
This extends into stuff in general. At my age, I'm beginning to wonder just what will happen to my prized collections of "stuff" that only I appreciate. I don't have much family left, just my daughter and a half brother who I rarely see or hear from. I have a really nice collection of beer steins from Germany (for example) that my daughter bought for me (and I bought for myself) as well as a couple of usable (not decorative) steins. They are all proudly in a display case gathering dust. So what do I do with them? It's several thousand dollars worth of steins (those things are expensive!) that I'd hate to see go to goodwill, and my daughter doesn't have the space for them. But that is a question for down the road. Meanwhile I still enjoy admiring them.
And that's not to mention my Masonic trinkets. Or my Harley-Davidson Poker Chips. Or my challenge coins. Or my shadow box from my Military days. On and on.
My greatest Masonic treasure is my book collection. It's matched by another Mason I know, his collection is also awesome. We've sort of worked out a deal. Whichever one of us croaks first, our collection goes to the other guy.
I figure that all the other Masonic stuff can go to my daughters or granddaughters, and what they don't want can go to my Lodge to be given to new Masons who might need or want it.
Just a quick comment on the fresh tobacco you bought. When I was a kid we would get primitive cigars called a cheroot, which were basically a tobacco leaf twisted into a cylinder while it was still green enough to take a twist. I think some people sell a cheroot that is less natural.. All I want to tell you is those were very potent. As a friend said, "one puff and I saw god!" Those leaves depending on how they are cured might 'light you up!'
I don't think that will happen with my home cooked dip. Oral tobacco does not have that really fast, strong hit that you get when you smoke. It doesn't matter, you could put in half a can of dip and you just aren't going to get that hit like you do with a cigarette first thing in the morning. The strong nicotine impact just isn't there.
Indeed, as I understand it, I'll have to change the PH of the tobacco during the creation process in order to free up enough nicotine to be absorbed orally. It is my understanding that this is why dip (Copenhagen, Skoal, Grizzly, Kodiak and all the rest) got popular while more traditional forms (loose leaf, rope, plug) declined to near nothingness on the open market.
Because the manufacturers of dip altered the PH of the tobacco during processing thereby making more free nicotine available. The older forms didn't do this, so while the leaves may have contained plenty of nicotine, very little of it was ever absorbed into the body.
I will though use care as I'm aware that nicotine is a very powerful poison at high enough levels.
I never smoked a cheroot, but back when I was a kid we did snag a Swisher Sweet once in a great while.
As a non-Mason I love reading your articles here, AND reading the comments; great insights that I value.
As to the can holster? I wonder if it would work for Zyn cans? As someone who quit tobacco 5.5 years ago (smoked cigs for 40 years - eaesh!), I still very much enjoy nicotine; I'm sure one of those holsters would do the trick for my pouch-cans as well.
It's been quite a while, but I do keep up with your writings and continue to subscribe to Emeth. Always a good read. Any man who carries with "the Lord's caliber (.45)" is a man after my own heart. I believe, in the way of acquisition, we often acquire based on experiences or as a means to memorialize something meaningful. Most things come attached with a cool story or some memory we wish to hold, like a photo. Occasionally, we acquire because of a shared experience which certainly describes Masonry. Along with all of that, sometimes I just pick up things but I think are cool looking. Shiny coins and trinkets from far away places are my balywick. I also love my custom made table/ humidor I bought when money was far more scarce nearly 25 years ago. That represents, for me, a progression of sorts in my career and life. Dollar cigars have graduated to fancy Cubans (allegedly) and other high end smokes. That along with a far evolved Scotch arsenal. Cuddy Sark no more!! Practically, we need very little and that's a fact. That said, we collect for many reasons ... comfort, prestige, or even for security. But for many, it's largely to remember our history or pass along the story of our lives.
>>>we often acquire based on experiences or as a means to memorialize something >>>meaningful
This makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you. Thinking about a lot of my 'treasures' your words ring true, they are strongly associated with great memories, great events.
A 1911…a man after my own heart.
It’s funny, I read “Red Man“ and was thinking…”not anymore!”
Regarding buying Masonic things, I’m in the process of trying to rescue a few 14k pieces from the jeweler’s melting pot, so I understand completely.
IMHO, a good 1911 is the funnest damn thing to shoot in the world. Not to mention, extremely effective at its intended purpose if ever called upon.
I grew up around revolvers, and was 100% a revolver guy. I'd read about the problems automatics could have, jamming and the like, and I could never wrap my head around why anyone would go that route.
Then I met the guy who would become my father in law. And he was really, really, really into 1911's. Like a safe full of them into them. He put some good ones in my hands out in a wheat field in Eastern Oregon, and I was hooked!
Yeah, sad thing they murdered Red Man. I loved the name, the logo, the whole bit. Sign of the times I guess.
There is a great Mason who lives somewhere on the East Coast, I'm thinking maybe New Jersey but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, he rescues vintage Masonic jewelry, vast quantities of it. If I'm remembering correctly, his name is Howard Sobel and he is active on Facebook.
He rescues all of this old Masonic jewelry and then vends it at large Masonic conferences and the like. Super nice guy, great to deal with. One of our PGM's took me to his table at my first COGMNA, and in the years that followed I've managed to get some truly wonderful pieces from him. I haven't seen him at the last couple though. I'm not sure how much of his business is online vs in person.
Practical/Emotional? If it's Masonic, it's a GO. No difference. Emotions quite often equals practical and vice versa. I have a Masonic penny my father gave me. It's encased in a two
pound piece of brass. Sure, it's emotional. But it's also practical when I use it to teach a
new Mason a lesson in charity. Loved the story. Keep it up!
Thank you Brother. The Penny sounds awesome! Someday you'll have to come to my place, I'll hook you up with a fine cigar and show you my collection.
Rescuing Masonic furniture, ephemera of all sorts, books, is noble and should absolutely be done in order to keep it in circulation amongst Masons.
I've always been kind of surprised that Lodges don't have a collection of rings previously worn by Masons now passed on, so that when they raise a new Mason they can present him or her with the rings and let them choose one. This would enrich the Lodge and the new Mason with provenance and heredity of a piece of legacy ephemera.
In our modern pre-masticated consumerist - (and no longer production) - environment - buying stuff has come to fill emotional impulses. It's a dopamine-pump. It's a substitute for creating , and not just material things, either.
Sometimes it's for building self-identification - if I buy that thing then that reflects who I think I am - or want to be - inside, then I'll be *more* - inside. That gives dopamine.
Sometimes it's simply to sooth dysregulated nervous systems that we're not consciously aware of or barely consciously aware of. That also gives dopamine and probably other neuro-chemicals. It's a soothing action.
I'm not sure how it serves The Craft, to simply reduce it to creating "branded" stuff to be accumulated.
Speaking as an accumulator myself, I know that I'm trying to fill an empty spot, rooted in childhood emotional neglect and trauma. I've had to work for decades to learn self-soothing techniques that don't involve buying things. For me personally, building and tending a garden gave me the dopamine fix I needed and also contributed to our household well being with food and flowers. I felt a deep sense of accomplishment and personal identity. In the beginning I did have to buy things, but I strictly limited purchases, and got really good at scrounging and not buying anything new. This was years ago before thrifting got ruined by "flippers". By the time it was complete I had a whole potager garden with fruit trees, grape vines, perennial food crops, and some annuals. I did this in two houses we lived in and both sold well specifically because of the garden. It was a creative process that demanded I exert myself. That was what gave me the dopamine. I remember when I was girl, my mom forced me to take piano lesson, because she thought that it engendered brain development - and she was right. When I became better and better at it, I got dopamine from just playing - it was a meditative exercise. But the practice and self-discipline gave me dopamine as well.
I'm sure everyone here have similar things they can think of in their lives. Maybe you turn wood. Or you have a gun bench and repair guns. Or you restore furniture. What's your creative productive dopamine "thing" ?
If you think about it, all of us alive now are the multi-generational products of trauma survivours - we've had nearly three centuries of wars both within and without, punctuated by depressions. All of us alive today are the direct descendants of famine survivours, either those who came to our shores for relief, or, those within our own boundaries.
All of that is crisis - and engenders coping mechanisms that get passed down as well as inherited epigenetic trauma that has never been processed and purged from nervous systems.
We aren't good at conquest because we are simply copying what our parent - Great Britain did - and we never enter the temple of Mars (War) with the right mindset, much less help our warriors exit it, with the right tools.
There's a brilliant book by Karl Marlantes, who was a 3rd BN combat Marine in Vietnam, called "What It's Like To Go To War." He came back from Vietnam broken and healed himself in therapy, then became a Jungian analyst. The thesis of his book is that War is the Temple of Mars, and in older societies such as the ancient Greeks, we knew how to send people into that crucible in a Priestly manner, and then bring them home in a Priestly manner, so they aren't fractured permanently. (Other cultures knew how to do this too - Celts, Romans, American Indians, etc)
Personally, I think that makes it a matter of national security to do it right, especially if we want to have culture of conquest. ( I have no particular objection to conquest, as long as we're on the winning side and we don't such a ham-fisted job of it.)
But we didn't do things very well, IMPO, and the Industrial Revolution while wonderful, had a dark side. So, in order to keep people from rioting in the streets - a consumerist culture of self-soothing has been created. We're all hung over, drugged, and desperately trying to avoid facing the work of rooting out what really drives us, and we think of as Fate, but isn't.
Thank you, Kathleen, for this really well thought out comment. I appreciate you taking the time to post it here.
>>>Rescuing Masonic furniture, ephemera of all sorts, books, is noble and should absolutely >>>be done in order to keep it in circulation amongst Masons.
I agree, and I do it every chance I can.
>>>I've always been kind of surprised that Lodges don't have a collection of rings previously >>>worn by Masons now passed on, so that when they raise a new Mason they can present >>>him or her with the rings and let them choose one. This would enrich the Lodge and the >>>new Mason with provenance and heredity of a piece of legacy ephemera.
I also agree, this is a superb idea. But, I think it might actually be quietly happening more than would be realized. My Mother Lodge used to do this when I was Raised. Myself and other Brothers Raised at around the same time were all given jewelry previously owned by a Brother who had passed. I don't know if the Lodge still does that.
The Lodge in my current little City doesn't have much in the way of a collection of jewelry, but we did have a ring that we gave to a new Master Mason recently.
>>>Sometimes it's for building self-identification - if I buy that thing then that reflects who I >>>think I am - or want to be - inside, then I'll be *more* - inside. That gives dopamine.
Yes, I can see that.
>>>For me personally, building and tending a garden gave me the dopamine fix I needed and >>>also contributed to our household well being with food and flowers. I felt a deep sense of >>>accomplishment and personal identity. In the beginning I did have to buy things, but I >>>strictly limited purchases, and got really good at scrounging and not buying anything >>>new. This was years ago before thrifting got ruined by "flippers". By the time it was >>>complete I had a whole potager garden with fruit trees, grape vines, perennial food crops, >>>and some annuals. I did this in two houses we lived in and both sold well specifically >>>because of the garden. It was a creative process that demanded I exert myself. That was >>>what gave me the dopamine. I remember when I was girl, my mom forced me to take >>>piano lesson, because she thought that it engendered brain development - and she was >>>right. When I became better and better at it, I got dopamine from just playing - it was a >>>meditative exercise. But the practice and self-discipline gave me dopamine as well.
This sounds like a great project, and two awesome gardens!
>>>I'm sure everyone here have similar things they can think of in their lives. Maybe you turn >>>wood. Or you have a gun bench and repair guns. Or you restore furniture. What's your >>>creative productive dopamine "thing" ?
Yeah, I think that my writing is one of the things that does it for me. Heck, I had a really intense emotional reaction to something I was writing today that will end up being published next week.
>>>We aren't good at conquest because we are simply copying what our parent - Great >>>Britain did - and we never enter the temple of Mars (War) with the right mindset, much >>>less help our warriors exit it, with the right tools.
>>>There's a brilliant book by Karl Marlantes, who was a 3rd BN combat Marine in Vietnam, >>>called "What It's Like To Go To War." He came back from Vietnam broken and healed >>>himself in therapy, then became a Jungian analyst. The thesis of his book is that War is >>>the Temple of Mars, and in older societies such as the ancient Greeks, we knew how to >>>send people into that crucible in a Priestly manner, and then bring them home in a >>>Priestly manner, so they aren't fractured permanently. (Other cultures knew how to do this >>>too - Celts, Romans, American Indians, etc)
This is fascinating to contemplate, but a perspective I've not encountered before. Thank you for sharing it.
>>>But we didn't do things very well, IMPO, and the Industrial Revolution while wonderful, >>>had a dark side. So, in order to keep people from rioting in the streets - a consumerist >>>culture of self-soothing has been created. We're all hung over, drugged, and desperately >>>trying to avoid facing the work of rooting out what really drives us, and we think of as >>>Fate, but isn't.
Agreed, and the Information Revolution, or whatever has been happening since Apple made owning a personal computer cool back in the '80's will also have a dark side. We are seeing that now.
“the Information Revolution, or whatever has been happening since Apple made owning a personal computer cool back in the '80's will also have a dark side. We are seeing that now.” Yes exactly. and we need to make strong pro-active moves to taking back out privacy and our control of these technologies.
Agreed.
Wonderful article Cameron. I am a non-fiction junkie and a Masonic stuff collector. Curiously, due to my employment with the old phone company in our area, I spent a ton of time attending technical and management training sessions in Everett. Everett and Snohomish were both tremendous sources of stuff that I was interested in. I think you may have missed a few treasures while at your old home stomping grounds. Your writings often resurrect old memories when on the hunt, and killing weekend time, in those areas. Thank you for this. I wish I had a connection with you back then. My next serious treasure is a really good functional Time Machine.
I do love antiquing in Snohomish! Luckily here in Centralia we also have pretty good antique stores, but not as many as there. It would have been fun to join you treasure hunting!
As for the time machine, yep, I've often fantasized about whom I'd want to go back to see and talk with!
P.G.M. Bailey, your comments about books, belt buckles, and tobacco hit home. I pull out my dad's 1968 WV Masonic Grand Lodge Blue Book (history book) daily to find the names of friend's dads, if they were Masons? I have numerous Masonic pins & belt buckles.
Then again, I have had too many high schools friends and relatives pass away from use of tobacco (I quit smoking when I was 12 years old)! Hmmm...
Ive been a mason for 30 years now . When my father in law passed to the GLA my mother in law gave me everything Masonic my father in law had. His Masonic certificate is in English and Latin.
That is wonderful to have your father in laws Masonic things passed down to you. As I write this I can see in a display case the fez worn by the man who inspired me to become a Mason. He died when I was a little kid, but his children made sure that it got to me before they themselves passed away.
Yes, the cigarettes will certainly kill you dead. I'm glad that you were able to quit.
I'm an odd duck. I smoke cigarettes situationally. I smoke if my youngest daughter who smokes is visiting. I smoke when I'm at one specific Lodge (where everyone else smokes.) And I smoke if I'm in Mexico. It ends up being a couple of packs a year at most. But darn, I do love a good cigarette. (And by good here, I don't mean Camel. Those things are nasty!)
I spent quite a few years really into cigars, but that is much less of an interest now. I do though adore a fine English tobacco in a fine English pipe, that's a really rare treat though. Our State continues to place more and more restrictions on pipe tobacco, making it harder and harder to buy the good stuff, so maybe 10 or 12 years ago I bought a lifetime supply.
I don't worry about the dip tobacco killing me. The fears surrounding it are very seriously overblown in my view:
https://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/
I must admit that when I took a girl on a date to a club named "Green Parrot" in my home town, a would buy a 5-pack of Cherry Blend Tiparillo's. I did not inhale, and mostly chewed on the wooden tips. But it "looked like" I was smoking?
I remember plastic tipped Tiparillo's, but never tried a wooden tipped one!
Maybe the tips were plastic, but just looked like wood?
If my memory serves, there were wood ones too. Probably the wooden ones were more expensive!
This extends into stuff in general. At my age, I'm beginning to wonder just what will happen to my prized collections of "stuff" that only I appreciate. I don't have much family left, just my daughter and a half brother who I rarely see or hear from. I have a really nice collection of beer steins from Germany (for example) that my daughter bought for me (and I bought for myself) as well as a couple of usable (not decorative) steins. They are all proudly in a display case gathering dust. So what do I do with them? It's several thousand dollars worth of steins (those things are expensive!) that I'd hate to see go to goodwill, and my daughter doesn't have the space for them. But that is a question for down the road. Meanwhile I still enjoy admiring them.
And that's not to mention my Masonic trinkets. Or my Harley-Davidson Poker Chips. Or my challenge coins. Or my shadow box from my Military days. On and on.
Something I'll need to ponder on some more.
My greatest Masonic treasure is my book collection. It's matched by another Mason I know, his collection is also awesome. We've sort of worked out a deal. Whichever one of us croaks first, our collection goes to the other guy.
I figure that all the other Masonic stuff can go to my daughters or granddaughters, and what they don't want can go to my Lodge to be given to new Masons who might need or want it.
Just a quick comment on the fresh tobacco you bought. When I was a kid we would get primitive cigars called a cheroot, which were basically a tobacco leaf twisted into a cylinder while it was still green enough to take a twist. I think some people sell a cheroot that is less natural.. All I want to tell you is those were very potent. As a friend said, "one puff and I saw god!" Those leaves depending on how they are cured might 'light you up!'
I don't think that will happen with my home cooked dip. Oral tobacco does not have that really fast, strong hit that you get when you smoke. It doesn't matter, you could put in half a can of dip and you just aren't going to get that hit like you do with a cigarette first thing in the morning. The strong nicotine impact just isn't there.
Indeed, as I understand it, I'll have to change the PH of the tobacco during the creation process in order to free up enough nicotine to be absorbed orally. It is my understanding that this is why dip (Copenhagen, Skoal, Grizzly, Kodiak and all the rest) got popular while more traditional forms (loose leaf, rope, plug) declined to near nothingness on the open market.
Because the manufacturers of dip altered the PH of the tobacco during processing thereby making more free nicotine available. The older forms didn't do this, so while the leaves may have contained plenty of nicotine, very little of it was ever absorbed into the body.
I will though use care as I'm aware that nicotine is a very powerful poison at high enough levels.
I never smoked a cheroot, but back when I was a kid we did snag a Swisher Sweet once in a great while.
Ig we could put pictures here i would show you his portrait as disctrict chaplain.
I don't know why Substack won't add that feature. It is a terrible limitation, easily fixed.
You can post a photo over in the Chat section though:
https://emeth.substack.com/chat
As a non-Mason I love reading your articles here, AND reading the comments; great insights that I value.
As to the can holster? I wonder if it would work for Zyn cans? As someone who quit tobacco 5.5 years ago (smoked cigs for 40 years - eaesh!), I still very much enjoy nicotine; I'm sure one of those holsters would do the trick for my pouch-cans as well.
Thanks for the idea! *salute
Oh yeah, they would certainly work for Zyn cans. Same size I believe, and many of them are advertised for Zyn. Etsy has a huge selection.
This is the one I'm having made, with a couple differences:
-Instead of the top strap getting wider around the snap, I'm keeping it narrow.
-Instead of a concho, and with the narrower strap, there will be enough room to have my name tooled into the leather.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1089076086/leather-snuff-can-holster?ref=items-pagination-1&frs=1&crt=1&sts=1&logging_key=243fe55e28d70280b272f5d96138fd9cf1c99491%3A1089076086
Good Morning MW Cam!
It's been quite a while, but I do keep up with your writings and continue to subscribe to Emeth. Always a good read. Any man who carries with "the Lord's caliber (.45)" is a man after my own heart. I believe, in the way of acquisition, we often acquire based on experiences or as a means to memorialize something meaningful. Most things come attached with a cool story or some memory we wish to hold, like a photo. Occasionally, we acquire because of a shared experience which certainly describes Masonry. Along with all of that, sometimes I just pick up things but I think are cool looking. Shiny coins and trinkets from far away places are my balywick. I also love my custom made table/ humidor I bought when money was far more scarce nearly 25 years ago. That represents, for me, a progression of sorts in my career and life. Dollar cigars have graduated to fancy Cubans (allegedly) and other high end smokes. That along with a far evolved Scotch arsenal. Cuddy Sark no more!! Practically, we need very little and that's a fact. That said, we collect for many reasons ... comfort, prestige, or even for security. But for many, it's largely to remember our history or pass along the story of our lives.
>>>we often acquire based on experiences or as a means to memorialize something >>>meaningful
This makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you. Thinking about a lot of my 'treasures' your words ring true, they are strongly associated with great memories, great events.