Otto & Milt

Towering Masons, for me

It was ‘Post Potty Training,’ so I must have been somewhere around two or three years old. Apparently I climbed out of bed and decided that it was time for breakfast.

But, my parents were asleep.

I do remember, my bedroom window overlooked the neighbor’s house. I must have looked outside and noticed somehow that they were up.

So, I put on my rubber boots, and strung a rosary around my neck (nothing else at all, there are photos I’m afraid) and wandered, naked, over to the neighbors where I walked inside and sat down for breakfast.

Photo by S Turby on Unsplash

The neighbors were about the age of my grandparents, but had no grandchildren of their own. From that day forward, they were a third set of grandparents for me. My parent’s grew really tight with them, and my wandering over for breakfast became a daily thing.

Milt and Shirley, or as I called them, Grandma and Grandpa J.

Milt owned a radiator shop, and a couple of parking lots, in Seattle. Shirley, by that time was retired.

As time went on, and I grew older, I learned that Milt was a Mason. I don’t recall seeing his Masonic stuff, but I sure remember his Shrine stuff. He was super proud to be a Shriner, indeed he kept his fez prominently displayed behind glass in his living room.

Alas, his fez is now displayed behind glass in my living room.

Milt died young. Really young. I remember that the doctors believed that the chemicals used in his shop probably destroyed his lungs.

I remember his funeral. Milt wasn't a poor man. I remember the extremely fancy gold colored vault cover that was adorned with Masonic symbolism before it was buried in the ground. I remember my father pulling Shirley away from Milt’s casket so that it could be lowered into the ground.

But, I was still really young.

Far too young to know anything at all about Freemasonry, or the Shriners.

I did recognize the Masonic symbolism at Milt’s funeral, so clearly I must have seen that in his home. But that isn’t important to the story. I also remember the Shrine Circus, and more than that, all of the effort that he used to put into the Shrine Circus, fixing and building things for it in his home workshop. But that isn’t really important to the story either.

What is important to the story is that I remember the extreme pride he took in being a Mason. How he would speak about our Craft with reverence. I don’t remember anything he said, but I certainly do remember the pride and honor with which he spoke of it.

And he is why I’m a Freemason today. Because of the reverence with which he held Freemasonry.

Shirley sold the business when Milt died, believing that it had killed the only true love of her life.

Somehow, between Milt’s funeral, and the sale of the business, I snagged a couple of ‘trucker hats’ from it. Ugly hats emblazoned with advertising. I have no idea how they came into my possession, probably Shirley was just cleaning all the business stuff out of her house, but they came to me, one blue, one red. And I’ve always been an enthusiastic wearer of hats.

I would have been somewhere less than eleven years old.

I’m a 100% genuine old fart now, but those two hats have remained with me till today. Both unworn and pretty much as they were when first made. In fact they are sitting in my dining room as I type these words.

They are emblazoned with the words “Otto’s Radiator, Seattle.”

Milt purchased his radiator shop from the fellow who started it, Otto Rinderhagen, long before I wandered, naked, over to Milt’s house for breakfast.

Otto was a Mason too. Everyone is dead now, so I can not ask, but I presume that Otto is the reason Milt became a Mason. When Otto owned the business, Milt was his right hand man, and of course his chosen successor, so it would only make sense for Milt to follow his mentor into Freemasonry.

Otto was a member of University Lodge in Seattle, receiving his degrees there in the 1940’s. But important for this post, Otto was a member of the Scottish Rite, and one of the men who helped get the massive Scottish Rite Scholarship Foundation of Washington rockin’ and rollin’ long ago.

This foundation was started in 1958, and last year awarded scholarships and fellowships in the amount of 396,000.00 dollars. That’s a tremendous impact for students here in Washington State.

Because of his efforts for the foundation, one of those scholarships is given in Otto’s name. Indeed we will award that scholarship this upcoming weekend at the Foundation’s annual meeting.

If you would like more information about the foundation, or to help its good work with a donation, you can learn all you’d like to know by hitting the button below:

I don’t retain any memories of Otto, but he outlived Milt by about a decade. I am however quite certain that I would have known him at least a bit, as a young child. Alas, there is no one to ask, for everyone is dead now.

But, that’s sort of the way things are, lots of memories from our youngest age don’t remain with us later. My great grandfather also died when I was quite young, and I only have a single short memory of him. That great grandfather is my only Masonic ancestor, and alas, I have no memory of his being a Freemason. All I have is a copy of his Masonic record.

Lots of Masons are Masons because their fathers and grandfathers were Masons. There are an awful lot of Lewis Jewels out there, that men wear with pride to show their family’s generational involvement with Freemasonry.

I don’t have that in my blood family. I didn’t become a Mason because some ancestor of mine was a Mason. Indeed I didn’t even know that my great grandfather was a Mason until well after I was Initiated, Passed, and Raised.

But I do have that in my chosen family. In the family that I chose when I was two or three years old and my parents were sleeping. Otto, Milt, Me. Three generations, if you will, skipping of course and unfortunately the baby boomer generation, as has been the case in so many Masonic families.

Last night my soon to be son-in-law was at a meeting of his Lodge. So, I guess that adds another generation to the string. A string reaching back through time and forward into the future. How cool is that? How very meaningful is that?

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If you happen to be on the hunt for some more of the good stuff, everything I wrote last week can be found on my LinkTree.