Which on the face of it would seem to be a good thing. After all, Lorain was a hotbed of fraternal organizations and for decades beginning in the early 1900s, many men enjoyed memberships in several of them. "It's not what you know – it's who you know," was one of Grandpa's sayings that Mom often repeated, and he believed it. That's why he was an Elk as well as a Mason.
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| Grandpa and some fellow Elks. He's second from left (with the cigarette holder) |
Grandpa worked at the Lorain Journal as a Linotype operator when it was located on Seventh Street, and he had to walk by the Lorain Elks Lodge on Sixth Street to get home. And since Grandpa (as Mom used to say) was a 'hale fellow well met," he used to stop there for a few drinks and songs with the boys. Unfortunately what was supposed to be a short visit used to last several hours. And many times, Grandma had to send Mom over to the Elks to go fetch her father for dinner. Years later, Mom still remembered the loud boisterous singing going on there.
Anyway, Grandpa was no doubt proud that his beloved Elks erected a memorial to the members who died in the Great War. This small photo and caption appeared in the Lorain Journal on May 18, 1926.
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| Photo courtesy of Paul Saint John |
We've driven past that big, old dome any number of times on Lake Shore. It sits in the distance to the west beyond a bunch of boat docks. A pretty fancy-dancy place from the look of it. You can take a "virtual tour" here: https://www.elks.org/memorial/memorialTour.cfm
ReplyDeleteThe dance orchestra I was in used to play at a nearby Elks (which was nothing like the dome). I was once scolded for fixing the electrical plug on an extension cord for the rhythm guitarist's amp before a show and was told, in no uncertain terms, to cease and desist because I wasn't in the electrician's union. True enough. But since it was *our* electrical cord, union rules did not apply!