brother josh
Registered User
I have a long line of grandfathers ahead of me that belonged to our order when I joined I did it to find brotherhood and indeed I have found just that
Freemason Connect Mobile
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Brethren, we all have different stories. Why did you choose to petition Freemasonry?
Same here. The reason that I originally joined was because of the caliber of the men that I met that were Masons. Men well thought of in their communities and the kind of men that I respected. I wanted to be one of them.Why I continue to attend regularly is a different matter. I discovered that the personal interaction at lodge fills a need that I never knew I had before petitioning. I came for the activities. I return for the fellowship.
...Becoming a Mason has made me a better man, and my only regret is that I waited so long ...
Great story brother!I grew up in a small mining town in southern Arizona where my father worked as a millwright in the local mine.
When I was five years old, the mine that supported the small town went on strike and since this was all that there really was in this town for employment, my father moved our family, in a small camping trailer to Tempe until the strike concluded.
To support our family, my father (red haired, fair skinned man) went out in the Arizona sun each day to pick cotton from daylight til dark six days a week to keep our family afloat. I remember him coming home at night, burnt terribly by the sun and hands dry and bleeding from his day in the fields. This went on for nine months when the word came that the strike had finally been settled.
We returned home and found that part of the settlement was a back pay of all of the employees who had weathered the storm which was a good sum of money for us at the time.
My mom insisted that my father, due to his efforts take a portion of the money and buy for himself something that he had always wanted.
My dad insisted that this was unnecessary, but at the insistence of my mother he blurted out one night that the only thing that he had always wanted, but could never afford previously, was to become a Mason.
I remember him studying for hours out of a little black book, we knew nothing of what he was trying to learn, he became a Mason and still studied from the little black book, hour after hour every evening.
I remember very clearly, as about a seven year old, picking up the little black book while he was in another room to try to learn the secrets of what he was studying... It was just a block of letters, page after page. I didn't get it at all, was he trying to learn an abstract alphabet order... Didn't make any sense at all to me and so I asked and I was told " The answers to being a good man are in those letters, and if, when you grow up and become a good person, and you're interested still want to find out what it says, ask me and I will make sure you find out".
Time passed and before I was old enough to become a Mason, I moved to Wyoming where I knew no one who was a Mason and as the years passed, I became less interested.
I met a man who I was shooting black powder cannons with that I found out was also a Mason and told him my Dad was a Mason also. He took me under his wing and soon, I was filling out a petition.
My father had become much older by this point in my life, and struggled with the effects of years of smoking. I would go and see him, talk to him every week on the phone about Masonry and I learned what he promised that I would when I was young, how to be a good Man.
I was never able to sit with my father in lodge as he was too infirm to go a short time after I became a Mason, but I learned more from him about the craft in his everyday actions, than I have learned in my time in the lodge. My time in lodge has mainly just shined a larger light for me on just how good of a man he was and how much he had took this to heart, so I do all that I can every day of my life to try to become half as good of a Mason as he was.
My youngest son is now in the lodge, and I am hoping that someday he can look back at me, and think the same way as I do about my dad....
Curiosity and both grandfathers were members. I now hold lifetime membership in both states that they were members. It's has and still is a very rewarding fraternity. Countless memories made and friends mad any where I go. Enjoy traveling to other lodges, have reconnected with school classmates that are brothers also. I can't say enough good points on being a active member.Brethren, we all have different stories. Why did you choose to petition Freemasonry?
Let me begin by saying that my father was a master mason since before I was born. He had an older friend (who was also a lodge brother) whom I grew up around and always considered to be part of my family. Since I never had the chance to get to know either of my grandfathers, I looked to him as an honorary grandfather. He passed away some time ago (RIP), but I will never forget what he and my father meant to me. These gentlemen are/were the finest men I have ever met. They taught me everything I know about respect, honor, integrity, and brotherhood. They taught me how to live my life as an upright man; they are the reason I petitioned the lodge at the ripe old age of 23 and have never looked back.Brethren, we all have different stories. Why did you choose to petition Freemasonry?
Nice!They taught me everything I know about respect, honor, integrity, and brotherhood. They taught me how to live my life as an upright man; they are the reason I petitioned the lodge at the ripe old age of 23 and have never looked back.
My first exposure to Mason's (that I am aware of) happened not long after I graduated the Academy and was stationed at my detachment. To cut the story short, I became aware that many of the guys I trusted and respected the most were Mason's. I remember thinking... if this organization had such good people in it, it most certainly was something I'd be interested in exploring. My grandfather taught me about honor, loyalty, and sacrifice, but these guys showed me it in practice. I am who I am today thanks to those Masons.
Same here. Many of the men that I have really respected were Freemasons.To cut the story short, I became aware that many of the guys I trusted and respected the most were Mason's.
I graduated from the WV State Police Academy Corrections Program in 82.A State Academy (State Police)
nice! Is that in Institute as well?Same here. Many of the men that I have really respected were Freemasons.
I graduated from the WV State Police Academy Corrections Program in 82.
It was at the time my class finished up in Sept. 82. However, by the time of the next class Corrections had it's own academy up and going. My class was the last corrections class to go through the WV State Police Academy. The State Police Academy is located in Institute.nice! Is that in Institute as well?