Freemasons and Their Hats

WM Todd E. Creason
wearing his old hat

One of the greatest honors a Mason can receive is to be elected Worshipful Master of their Blue Lodge (Craft Lodge, Symbolic Lodge, etc.)  It's called by several names but basically, you're the chief-smoke in the lodge where you live.  And of course, the Master of the lodge is the only guy in the lodge that wears a hat.  My four-year-old asked me after my installation why I wore a hat.  I told her "because I sit in the East, and the sun gets in my eyes."

Masters give some thought to the hat they wear.  Some go traditional and wear a top hat, while others wear a more western hat or go with a nice fedora.  Some get the priviledge of wearing a hat belonging to a previous Master.  Some wear a hat belonging to their father or grandfather.  But there's not question about it.  Masons like hats.  No, that's not completely accurate--Masons LOVE hats! 

The Knights Templar chapeau

Hats and Freemasonry have gone together from the very beginning, and it seems like every appendant body has its own hat tradition.  You've got the traditional chapeau worn by members of the Knights Templar.



Illustrious Ernest Borgnine
wearing the white cap of a
33rd Degree

The Scottish Rite wear hats too--caps in a variety of colors each indicating a different thing.  The coveted white cap representing the fraternity's highest honor--the 33rd Degree. 

Harry S. Truman wearing his Shrine Fez

Of all the Masonic hats and caps, the Shriner Fez is probably the most famous.  You can't really call it a parade if the Shriners aren't there.  They are the most visible of all the Freemason appendant bodies, and their philanthropic work in the Shriner's Hospitals the most well known. 



Of course, there are other hats too.  I got to wear a Roman helmet once.  I liked that part in the degree, but I only took it because I got to wear the helmet.



WB Raymond Van Buskirk
(1916 - 2010)

My hat is pretty ordinary, but it's also very special.  It's a very old hat, a black stingy brim fedora, that belonged to a very old man named Raymond Van Buskirk.  In 1949, he was Master of Ogden Lodge.  Raymond was my neighbor since I was a little kid, and like a grandfather to me.  He signed both my petition for Ogden Lodge, and my petition when I joined the Scottish Rite.  He gave me his hat to wear at my installation.  He passed away in December, and his daughters told me to keep the hat.  Since December, I've worn it every meeting, and will continue to do so until I leave the East in a couple months.  Then I'll put it up in my closet, as he did, and perhaps one day a grandson or nephew can wear it in the East as I did.

Now as a Mason, you may live to be a very old man, but as you can see from the picture, even an old Past Master like Raymond, sixty years out of the East, never got over his love of goofy hats--it's part of our Masonic DNA.  That hat can only be described one way--that is a humdinger.  And this is the same man that once said to me, "did you buy that hat, or did you lose a bet?"

TEC

First Novel Quickly Goes International

It's been kind of fun to watch as over the last month and a half, One Last Shot has continued to turn up in the most unlikely of places.  Most recently--in Sweden?  Without a doubt, I think making the electronic versions available has helped with the distribution.  You can now purchase it at any of the online sellers and mortar and brick stores stores listed below (although you'll most likely have to order it in a store unless you're very lucky). 

There is one obvious bookseller missing from the list--Borders.  They won't carry it in their stores, and they won't list it on their website.  And they won't change their mind.  So try this.  If you happen to be in a Borders store (I don't know why you would be since they don't carry any of my books) ask for the book, and when they tell you they don't carry it, say "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was a quality bookseller.  I'll just go over and buy it at Barnes & Noble--I just saw it there.  They have better coffee anyway."  Then just walk out.  You can do it two or three times a day if you want.  I appreciate it.

You know what else would be fun?  I'm having a little promotional contest.  If you're the first person to buy a copy of my book from all the websites below, I'll send you a special autographed limited edition.  You snooze you lose, so get out that credit card, and get started as soon as possible.

Here's the list of retailers as it stands now:

Available From These On-line Booksellers (United States unless otherwise noted)

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca (Canada)

Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)

Amazon.fr (France)

Amazon.de (Germany)

Alibris.com

Abebooks.com (United States and United Kingdom)

Textbooksrus.com

Biblio.com

Booksamillion.com

Deastore.com (Italy)

Efollett.com (not available in stores, but can be ordered in-store)

Powells.com (not available in stores, but can be ordered in-store)

Textbook.com

Buy.com

Adlibris.com (Sweden)

And From These Retail Stores in the United States

Barnes & Noble (selected stores, available for order in-store, and available for order on website bn.com)

Books-A-Million (selected stores, available for order in-store, and available for order on website booksamillion.com)

Wal-Mart (selected stores, and available for order on website walmart.com)


~TEC

Deciding On The Next Project: Fiction? Or Non-Fiction?

I'm very surprised at how well my recent novel One Last Shot has been doing, considering I've done very little to promote it.  It just keeps popping up places, and I've been getting a lot of positive email about it.  I've been toying with the idea of writing another novel based on the same characters ever since I finished the first one.  But I'd also been toying with the idea of writing the third and final installment of the Famous American Freemasons series.  Due to the overwhelmingly positive response on the novel, I've decided to go with that.

It's shaping up to be a busy year, but in the free moments between my full time job, taking classes, being a husband, a father, and a Freemason (and the editor of a fine monthly lodge newsletter), I'm going to write another novel this year. 

~TEC

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

If you live in Illinois, and are looking for a great place to take a day trip (especially on a rainy Sunday in February), check out the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.  We had a great time there on Sunday, and I was a little concerned our four-year-old wouldn't get much out of it, but she had a blast. 

This isn't like any other museum I've been too.  It's very interactive.  There are the more traditional displays, and scenes from Lincoln's life depicted with wax models.  But there are other ways the museum has found to take visitors back to Lincoln's age.  I particularly enjoyed the whispering hallway.  Lincoln wasn't popular with many, and as you pass down this corridor with the walls covered with political cartoons of the day, you hear what many people were whispering about Lincoln during his time.

The ghosts in the library presentation was excellent too--a lesson in history taught in part by holographic ghosts from the past.  Katie liked that.  She also enjoyed the thunderous presentation in the Union Theater "Lincoln's Eye's" which included rumbling seat, lightning, exploding cannons, and the smell of gunsmoke. 

There's a lot of history in Springfield, and a lot to see at the Lincoln Museum and many other sites in and around Springfield--the Old Capital Building, Lincoln's Home, Lincoln's Tomb, Law Office, etc. 

I've visited Springfield many times (at least twice a year), but I think the last time I took a look around as a tourist before Sunday, was back when I was a Cub Scout. 

It's worth a trip.

TEC