Brethren,
The Masonic year is moving fast, and before we know it Move Up Night will be here [7 May]. We have a fine group of young men getting ready to have the Degrees conferred upon them. The Entered Apprentice Degree, will be on 16 April and the Fellow Craft Degree on 18 June. We will have our Master Mason Degree this summer; the date and time will be announced on this page and in the Word. Brothers, advertisements are out for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, 7 April. Those of you who will help please come 1 ½ hours before the program starts. [First race starts at 9:30 am]
Check out the upcoming events page on this website, and, speaking of sites, please give us feedback about our website. Brother Kevin Razawich is the Webmaster and will update this site once a week. When you see Brother Razawich acknowledge his job well done. Help out our site by sending our link to your favorite visited sites and ask them to post it. If any of you want to do Masonic reading go to our History page and
click onto the OMDHS link. This is the Onondaga and Oswego Masonic Districts Historical Societies website hosted by our very own Secretary. From the home page of this site you can wander to an endless library of Masonic materials. Our secretary has put in many hours in developing the materials for this site. Use it for your Masonic Education, and keep coming back as he will be having plenty of updates.
What I am about to write was not my original plan. As you all should know by now we had a very special Brother lay down his Working Tools; W.’. Floyd A. Proper, our Overseer of the Work (see the Broken Column page). W.’. Floyd knew what it was to be a Freemason. He assisted in all aspect of the Degrees. At 78 years of age he wanted to and did confer the Master Mason Degree upon the largest class that I had ever seen performed at our Lodge. I was awestruck to see such a conferral perform by a Brother who had not done it in over a decade. W.’. Floyd offered wise counsel to his Lodge leaders in a positive and constructed way. He always made you feel welcome and encouraged what you were trying to accomplish. He showed up for rehearsals and guided you in the proper floor work. He was never lost to share a joke or two during fellowship. W.’. Floyd had this boyish smile that would light up a room. That smile was the first thing I noticed when he was walking through calf-deep snow to show up for a Masonic service for a Brother who didn’t belong to our Lodge; a Brother he didn’t know. The family of a visiting Brother had requested the Memorial service, and W.’. Floyd came to assist. He was recovering from knee surgery when he made this journey. The village had not cleared the snow off the walks, and when I tried to discourage him from walking on the sidewalk, for fear of him falling, he lifted his cane and with a big smile said, “That is what this is for.” I will always treasure that smile. W.’. Floyd showed me there are no boundaries between generations of men practicing our Craft. He most definitely was always practicing, he, Master the Craft. Brother Norman Vincent Peale once stated, “Live your life and forget your age.” W.’. Floyd I believe did just that.
I will order the altar draped until the end of the Masonic year in honor of one of our Lodge’s finest.
Robert Bowles
Master