LODGE NEWS

The crawfish boil was a success as always but there sure were many who committed to be there that just didn’t show up. We ended up giving 150 pounds to Mick’s Irish Pub! Two years ago we ran out, last year was just right and this year… Oh well, if you weren’t there you missed some of the best boiled crawfish, potatoes, corn and sausage we have ever had. Bro. Robert Rapp boiled them on site for the first time so they were piping hot when served. To show our appreciation to Bro. Rapp, W.M. Holmes and the lodge presented him with a Harley Davidson t-shirt that I purchased in Okinawa while visiting there. Bro Rapp has made sure we have had the best crawfish at the best price for many years now. It was especially rewarding to see a couple of our widows there, Mrs. Betty Cozel and Mrs. Thelma Kueck were both seen with plates of our favorite crustaceans. Mrs. Cozel said she had a wonderful time and really appreciates the lodge’s newsletter which she reads front to back every month. It was old times for Thelma Kueck who, for a while, was helping Bro. Eldred Gilmore hold court at his familiar position.

The Grandmasters relay runners stopped at Germania on their trek across our state on May 28. The building and drinks were provided by us, food by W. Bro. Joe Pacaccio of Albert Pike Lodge. Over $650 was raised for Special Olympics at this one stop! The runners stop at any lodge in Louisiana that invites them. Our custodian Ken Cox took the runners out past the cemeteries and I took the walkers out for a short walk. There were about 30 people present for a most rewarding program. The food was splendid and the fellowship exceptional, peace, harmony and a feeling of achievement prevailing.

SICK AND DISTRESSED

I was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on May 3. I was knocked down at 60 miles per hour by a hit and run driver in Alabama . At this writing I am about 95% healed. My bike is destroyed but by the grace of God I only had a broken ring finger, bruises, stitches, some road burns and scrapes. I think my riding days are over but there are thousands of other bikers! Please look for them whenever you are behind the wheel of a car – THEN LOOK AGAIN! While I was recovering and feeling a little depressed about the whole situation I received a call about Bro. Eldred Gilmore’s granddaughter who was hit by a four time DWI convicted driver. Renee’ Levy is in East Jefferson Hospital with a broken ankle, fractured vertebras and cuts. Renee’s accident was on Saturday the 14 th...On Tuesday the 17 th I got a call from the W.M. of Indivisible Friends #404 telling me that Brother, Secretary and friend Frank Wilson fell while trimming a tree in his back yard and broke his neck. He had two disks replaced in his neck and has to wear a halo for 10 weeks or more. He is now able to walk but is in a tremendous amount of pain. He is at West Jefferson Hospital and can be reached at 504-348-5478. A day later I got another call from Dayton Ohio that my 35 year friend and Brother, Al Bir, is in ICU with internal bleeding and is in bad shape. I appreciate life more than ever, I know how fragile it is and how lucky I am . Please keep all in your thoughts and prayers.

Bro. Bill Shotts lost his wife, Patricia, on May 7, In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Pat's name to the Doull Eagle Club (School Library), 2520 S. Utica St. Denver , CO 80219 . To leave a special message for the family visit WWW.newcomerfamily.com . Bro. Bill is from New Orleans and recently became a plural member of Germania Lodge. Both Bill and his son Tom are members of Denver Lodge # 5, who have been our hosts on our trips to Denver . Brother Bill is a devout Mason and a traveler of mythic proportions, having visited lodges all around the world. His son Tom, is Past Master of Denver Lodge # 5, 2004, and was awarded the Colorado Master of the Year by the Colorado Grand Lodge for his service to the fraternity. I am sure they would be comforted by a message to the site above.

Bro. Jack Zollinger’s mother also passed away on April 25, she was 91 years old and a life long resident of New Orleans . She volunteered in many civic organizations and was a member of the Order of Easter Star. She also taught dancing and was a member of several dance companies including Shubert’s in New York .

Officers and members send their deepest condolences to Brothers Jack and Bill.

~kkueck

JOINT MEETINGS IN JUNE AND JULY

Don’tforget that the first meetings in June and July will be held away from Germania. Wed., June 8 will be at Level Lodge, 1801 Clearview Pkwy at 7:30 p.m. They have a special program planned for us that includes a Masonic play. Wednesday, July 13 will be at Indivisible Friends #404, 7:30 p.m. in Gretna, #39 Fairfield. We have been having a joint meeting with Indivisible Friends for years now and look forward to the great fellowship. ___

NEW MEMBER (number 103!)

We welcome W. Bro. Bobby Brandstetter to Germania. He was elected to plural membership at the May 25 meeting. Bro. Bobby has been coming to Germania for quite some time now, has assisted us with refreshments and is a big supporter of Germanfest. Bro. Bobby is a Past Master of Perfect Union #1 and a member of Etoile Polaire #1. Bro. Bobby enjoys the camaraderie at our lodge and the way we conduct degrees.

Masonic Birthdays this Month

(sorry, forgot May Birthdays last month)

MASONIC BIRTHDAYS FOR MAY

Eldred Gilmore H.P.M. 5/06/1959 - 46 yrs
Adolfo Bello P.M. 5/10/1966 - 39 yrs
Donald Veasey P.M. 5/28/1969 - 36 yrs
Bill Shotts 5/23/1975 - 30 yrs
Aubrey Freeman 5/25/1983 - 22 yrs
Eric Bethancourt 5/09/1987 - 17yrs
Michael Williams 5/25/2002 - 3 yrs
Curtis Leon Rawlins 5/26/2004 - 1 yr

MASONIC BIRTHDAYS for JUNE

Wendell G. Leibe 06/08/1949 - 56 yrs
Paul D. Snow 06/08/1949 - 56 yrs
Raymond D. Slotness 06/24/1953 - 52 yrs
Emile W. Heuer P.M. 06/23/1954 - 51 yrs
Kenny Roberts P.M. 06/23/1972 - 33 yrs
Patrick J. Cox P.M. 06/12/1974 - 31 yrs
Glen D. Schexnayder 06/08/1975 - 30 yrs
Arnold G. Finch 06/26/1985 - 20 yrs
Wayne M. Plaisance 06/25/2003 - 2 yrs
John L. Markley 06/09/2004 - 1 yr
Robert “Chase” Cockrell 06/23/2004 - 1 yr

TRESTLE BOARD

♦Wednesday, June 8 – 7:30 p.m. Joint meeting with/at Level Lodge 1801 Clearview.

♦Wednesday, June 15 – 7:00 p.m. Special Communication double F.C. degree

♦Wednesday, June 22 – 7:00 p.m. Joint meeting with Level Lodge at Germania degree night. Master Mason degree.

♦Thursday, June 30 – 7:30 p.m. 16 th District meeting hosted by Galilieo-Mazzini @ Germania .

♦ Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 p.m. Joint meeting with/at Indivisible Friends Lodge, Gretna La.

Wednesday, July 27, 7:00 p.m. Joint meeting with Indivivible Friends Lodge at Germania . Degree night.

♦Wednesday, September 28 – 7:00 official visit Worthy Grand Matron

♦Sat. Nov. 12 - Germanfest

DUES!

Hurrah! 2004 dues are finally all paid without the loss of one brother for NPD! Well, that is if you don’t include one whose where abouts have been unknown for three years now. If any one is in contact with Bro. Mike Von Rosen please contact me or tell him to call me. He was last heard from while working in Washington State headed for another job in Arizona. That brings us to 2005. We have 14 not paid, not bad for this time of the year, but they were due before December 31, 2004 so please send them in now. Check and see if you have a 2005 dues card, if you don’t chances are you haven’t paid. If there is a problem give an officer a call.

NEW SHIRTS

Finally the new Germania Lodge #46 shirts are in and they are very impressive. There are plenty of golf shirts of different sizes and colors, with and without pockets. We also ordered oxford shirts but they were sold out immediately. They are striking! If you want an oxford we can order them after we get an order for 10 or more. The golf shirts are $18 and the oxfords are $20. Call me or come to a meeting to get them or place an order.

A NEW ORLEANS SUMMER TIME RHYMING PRAYER
sent in by Bro. Dan Mehn

Bless this house, oh Lord, we cry. Please keep it cool in mid-July. Bless the walls where termites dine, while ants and roaches march in time. Bless our yard where spiders pass fire ant castles in the grass. Bless the garage, a home to please Carpenter beetles, ticks and fleas. Bless the love bugs, two by two, the gnats and mosquitoes that feed on you. Millions of creatures that fly or crawl, in N'awlins, Lord, you've put them all!! But this is home, and here we'll stay, so thank you Lord, for insect spray. So-soll-es-sine (so-mote-it-be)

Exhibit Traces Influence of Freemasonry - By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 18, 3:36 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Some of the most famous buildings in Washington ,including the White House, are deeply marked by Freemasonry, the brotherhood that goes back to the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages, says a new exhibit. The show is called "The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry and the architecture of Washington D.C. " It opened to the public Wednesday.
Peter Waddell, 49, a history painter born in New Zealand , contributed 21 pictures to the show. Now an American citizen, he puts emphasis on George Washington, shown as he dons his ritual Masonic apron on the way to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1792. Washington and 14 of his successors have been Freemasons, down through Lyndon Johnson. Among the artifacts on view are a narrow white coffin strap, painted with Masonic symbols, used to lower Washington 's body into the tomb at Mount Vernon.
Today's Freemasons owe their origin to associations of workmen who built cathedrals in Britain 700 years ago, though some believe in a connection with the mines where King Solomon took material for his Temple more than 2,000 years before that. Over the centuries the nature of Freemasonry changed. British lodges began to accept members who were not stonemasons. By the 1700s many lodges were called "speculative" — that is, they dealt in ideas rather than stone. Members included people who were anything but workmen: the Marquis de Lafayette, Washington's aide and French statesman; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musician; Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the German poet, scientist and statesman; King Frederick the Great of Prussia and four brothers of Napoleon.
On July 4, 1848 , President James K. Polk, a Mason, presided over the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument , with the widows of Alexander Hamilton and President James Madison in attendance. Using the same Masonic trowel that Washington had used at the Capitol, Benjamin Brown French as Grand Master of Masons in Washington and clerk of the House of Representatives presented the symbolic Masonic tools and defined the meaning of the symbols to Freemason Robert Mills, the architect. "The square, level and plumb are the working tools you are to use in the erection of this monument," he said. "You, as a Freemason, know to what they morally elude: the plumb(line) admonishes to walk upright in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the square of virtue, and remembering that we are
traveling on the level of time..."
Despite definitions, Freemasonry has met serious antipathy, embodied in a hostile edict from the Vatican in 1738. In the early 1800s there was an anti-Masonic Party in the United States , which won seven electoral votes and elected a governor in Vermont . The movement faded by 1836.In the 20th century the governments of Benito Mussolini in Italy , Adolf Hitler in Germany , Francisco Franco in Spain and East European regimes under Nazi influence actively persecuted Freemasons along with Jews, often linking the two.
In the 1950s, the structure of the White House was found so weak that it was unsafe for the tenants, President Harry Truman and his family.The house was gutted, leaving only the outside walls, and rebuilt. Truman, who held high office in Masonry, explored the framework. He found several of the original stones with marks made by Freemasons among the construction workers, had them inscribed and sent them to Masonic lodges around the country.
"Congress put a stop to that," Waddell noted. James Hoban, the original architect of the White House, was a Mason, and stonecutters he brought from Scotland formed a Masonic lodge of their own, naming him as charter member.
The exhibit is housed in a historic building, The Octagon, one of the oldest houses in Washington , where the treaty was signed ending the War of 1812. President Madison and his wife Dolley stayed there after British forces burned much of Washington , including the White House. The exhibit and a series of lectures have been organized by the American Architectural Foundation and the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the District of Columbia . The show will be on view through Dec. 31. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children and seniors.