“We were so glad to have you back as testing coordinator last spring!” A former colleague gushed at the happy hour yesterday.
“Thank you!” I replied. “It was really great to be back.”
“I know it must have been good for you, too,” he agreed. “I mean, after 65? If you don’t use your brain, you’re going to lose it. Cognitive decline is real.”
My baseball name is Scuffy McSlugger, read the sticker on one of the teachers' shirts at happy hour.
"What does that mean?" someone asked him. "Where do you even get a baseball name?"
"I have no idea," he laughed. "I just found this sticker on the ground as I was leaving school, and I thought it was funny!"
"Gryffindor!" I pointed to the Hogwarts regalia one of the neighborhood kids wore at the Halloween bonfire. "Me too! I'm just not wearing my robes."
"I'm sorry to tell you that I am Slytherin all the way," Heidi informed her as she leaned over to pet Lucy. The kid looked at Heidi disdainfully.
"Not Lucy, though," I assured her.
"What is she? Ravenclaw? Hufflepuff?" she asked.
"Close!" I laughed. "She's actually a Hufflepup!"
The kid groaned, shook her head, and walked away.
When the tour was over, we were released on our own recognizance to explore the galleries and gift shop on the basement level. There, we found a small room tucked into the corner with an exhibit called The Form and Function of American Freemasonry.
The information included there was a little more concrete and focused on four American leaders who were also Freemasons: George Washington, Ben Franklin, Andrew Jackson, and Harry Truman. Even so, the content was still rather opaque, and we understood that we really weren't supposed to understand what the heck was going on, at least not in any specific way.
One display did draw both our attention, though. In the center of the room was a glass case with two cube-shaped stones, one very rough and the other polished and smooth. They were ashlars, the term for stones cut to be laid in courses. The ashlar is the central allegory of Freemasonry: the rough stone represents an individual before entering the brotherhood.
Once a man is accepted, the masons work to refine and polish him so he may take his place in the living wall of brotherhood. The highest-ranking member of each lodge is the Worshipful Master, and he is charged with supervising the Craft using the tools of the trade: the gavel, chisel, square, and compass.
Now that metaphor was something a couple of retired English teachers could wrap their brains around.
The final stop on our tour was the observation deck at the top of the tower. "Before you enjoy the view, I do have to warn you that you may encounter two types of insects out there," our guide said. "The first are spotted lantern flies, and I encourage you to smush them on sight." He shook his head gravely with an ironic smile. "The second are wasps. They are drawn by the lantern flies." As he spoke, I could see a dozen wasps buzzing around the small window facing south. "There may be a nest up here, but fortunately? They are relatively docile." With that, he opened the eastern door and gestured to the walkway.
The day was clear, and the view was excellent. As I prowled the perimeter, I realized I could see every spot where the tower was visible, and I stayed out there even after everyone else had retreated inside.
Earlier this month, before we even planned our visit to the GWMT, I listened to an episode of the History Channel podcast History This Week titled "The Freemasons Get Away with Murder (Probably)." My primary interest in that particular episode was that the events described took place in Western New York, near where Heidi grew up.
The show told the story of Captain William Morgan's disappearance in 1826. He was a former Mason who threatened to publish a book exposing Freemasonry's secret rituals, handshakes, and oaths. Soon after, he was arrested on minor charges, bailed out by a group of Freemasons, and vanished. Some claimed that a body that washed up on the shores of Lake Ontario a year later was him, but it could not be definitively proven, so there were never any charges of murder, although the Freemasons were convicted of misdemeanor kidnapping.
Throughout the investigation and litigation, the Freemason brotherhood was accused of systematic obstruction of justice, jury-rigging, and non-cooperation with the law. The matter sparked an intense anti-Freemason backlash, and opposition to the society spread throughout the country. Freemasons lost almost half their membership in the next five years and barely survived by rebranding.
Before the Morgan affair, Freemasonry was an elite institution with immense backroom political influence. To survive, the group publicly pivoted to focus on public charity, community fundraising, and open social events. They even renamed their meeting spaces from the grand and mysterious "temple" to the more prosaic "hall."
And all to protect their secrets.
The tour took us up the elevator, which was actually an inclinator, ascending to the top level at a seven-and-a-half-degree angle. Although I didn't notice until the guide mentioned it, at each stop, the two elevator cars on either side of the building moved closer together, from 61 feet at the bottom to just 4.5 feet at the observation deck level.
Our first stop was a gallery with a lot of words about the Freemasons and several of their costumes and other regalia, too. The guide gave us a quick overview of who can be a Freemason (male, religious, upstanding) as well as the three levels of membership (apprentice, fellow craft, and master mason). Conspicuously missing were any specific details, and I noticed that the more I read, the less I understood. Even so, it was hard to formulate questions that fit within the scope of this casual tour, especially since my fundamental knowledge was so slight. Short of saying, "I don't get it," I quietly examined the artifacts and read their accompanying signs, but I didn't get it.
In addition to the three degrees of Freemasonry, master masons could also pursue optional degrees. These include the Shriners, the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite, the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and the Order of the Eastern Star (which women can join), and a few others, too. I have no idea what they do or how you join, but I did see some fancy dresses and little cars the Shriners drive in parades.
The next stop was all about George Washington, and I was on more familiar ground there. At the library on the next floor, our guide told us we could come back as registered researchers should we choose. "What type of materials are here?" I asked.
"Blah, blah, blah, I'm not a Mason," he answered.
After a stop in the chapel of the Knights Templar, where a couple of mannikins were decked out in chain mail and the familiar chivalric regalia often seen in movies. "Do they actually wear that when they're here?" I asked.
"Probably not the chain mail," he answered noncommittally.
