The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:
Eastern Star
I joined Eastern Star after coming to Union because the funny bunch “girls” were all members. My mom was a member when she was a young career girl, and she gave me her 8-sided Eastern Star pin which is very different from the jeweled round pins of today. Mom told me, when I asked her opinion about joining the organization, that I might like it, and that she had enjoyed it. Every one of the women whose lives are commemorated in Eastern Star are Bible heroines: Ada, Martha, Esther, and Ruth. I need to look up Electa, the fifth heroine, because I can’t remember anything about her in the Bible.
The only way to join this organization is through a male relative who was at some time in the Masonic Organization. My Dad was once a Mason, so I used his name. But the secretary of the Union chapter, told me one day that she had received the papers back on Dad, from Canada, and that he “was not in good standing,” meaning that he owed dues at the time he left the organization, during the Depression. So, I said “then let’s submit my Grandfather Massey’s name,” who had been a Mason in Toronto. She did, and it was with the same result!
So, my darling husband told me that he would be the “male relative,” and he would go through the long memory work required for joining the Masons, patiently assisted by a leader in both organizations. Dave did all this, and he doesn’t consider memorizing to be his best talent; it was time-consuming and not easy. Although he wasn’t a very active member, his membership allowed me to join. Dave’s efforts were “above and beyond.” Thanks, Dave!
Dave isn’t an enthusiastic “joiner,” although he was in Rotary Club for several years; they had dinner meetings every Thursday evening, so all of us wives enjoyed these no-cooking Thursdays. We both became members of the Senior Friends, a national group with a local chapter in Lewisburg. Two of their activities which we’ve taken advantage of are annual free flu shots, and a couple years of Water Aerobics classes at the Osteopathic College in Lewisburg. I think we lost some of our fitness benefits from the exercise because we’d always go to Shoney’s breakfast buffet after our class and eat too much!
To be continued…
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
In one respect, our marriage was a mutually supportive enterprise. For many years, Elaine used her secretarial skills in my behalf, typing my copious writings from handwritten rough drafts. I could never type accurately enough (hunt and peck) to do it myself.
The advent of personal computers and word processors was mighty welcome! I could bumble and stumble an epistle, then unbumble and unstumble it. Eureka!