A Poem: The Knife and Fork Degree

The Knife and Fork Degree
by A. J. Disbrow

I don't attend the meetings,
for I've not the time to spare.

But every time they have a feast,
you'll surely find me there.

I cannot help with the degrees,
for I do not know the work.

But I can applaud the speaker,
and handle a knife and fork.

I'm so rusty in the ritual,
that it seems like Greek to me,

But practice has made me perfect,
in the Knife and Fork degree.


A Masonic Table Lodge
Benjamin Franklin Lodge No. 83, MN
A Brother sent this to me, and I'm not sure of its origin--all I had was the name of the author.  I hope Bro. A. J. Disbow doesn't mind my sharing it.  I thought it was pretty funny.  It's long been known that Masons like to eat, in fact, we have something called a "table lodge" that allows us on special occasions to eat while we have our meeting.  Well, in truth, table lodge or not, we eat about every time we meet, almost without exception.  Even if we're getting together on a Saturday to shampoo a carpet in the lodge, I guarantee somebody is going to ask about donuts. 

There is even an organization called High Twelve International that is basically a lunch club for Freemasons and their wives.  A group of us in Urbana-Champaign (home of the University of Illinois) are working on chartering a brand new chapter of this organization called Illini High Twelve.  We're very excited about how it's taken off in just a few months.  So I'm posting this as an ode to the (hopefully) charter members of the Illini High Twelve in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

~TEC

4 comments:

  1. And as child I was taken to many dinners, ox roasts etc.
    Now I'm living at: western Reserve Masonic Community, Medina, Ohio.

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  2. As a child, I was taken to many a dinner, ox roast etc.
    I now live at Western Reserve Masonic Community in Medina, Ohio.!!

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  3. On the evening I became a Master Mason and after the lodge was closed we adjourned and met again in the Lodge's refreshment area for pie, ice-cream and coffee. I was again called by the master to explain to me that I had not yet been invested with all the degrees of the lodge...the final degree was the Knife and Fork Degree....that was 44 years ago. Channel Lodge No.757, Stockton CA is no longer since it has turned in to Grand Lodge its Charter.... saying that the word is lost with the Knife and Fork Degree. Does any brother have the written script for that fun degree as I would like to present it to my lodge, Modesto Lodge No.206, Modesto, Ca?

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