Most Worshipful Grand Master, Brethren, Ladies and Guests Good Evening.

The title of tonight’s talk is, “Freemasonry and Memorial Day a Personal Connection”

This weekend marks the Memorial Day Holiday and many of us will be rushing about to leave town and head to the lakes, campgrounds and the like. The weekend to many marks the beginning of summer and since 1971 has been an official Federal Holiday extending into Monday.

After some research online, a little place called Camp Floyd in Fairfield, Utah and a trip I took in 2005. I realized a personal connection with this holiday and Freemasonry in general.

The concept of Memorializing our Honored Dead started after the Civil War in the South and carried into the North. In May of 1868 General John Logan National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order No. 11 which designated May 30th Memorial Day. Soldiers were to decorate tombs and graves of their fallen comrades with flowers in remembrance of these brave souls selfless acts. Since this time the tradition has carried on.

So where does the personal connection come in? In 2004 I had the honor of presiding, as Worshipful Master of Wasatch Lodge and we needed a fun activity. For those of you who know my friend and rather “mad” Brother Mike Moon the opportunity was obvious and thus was born the Camp Floyd Master Mason Degree. In 2005 the degree day was changed to Memorial Day weekend to be in conjunction with the Civil War Re-enactment folk, when we could all converge on Camp Floyd and dress up in period costume. This coming weekend marks the forth year this wonderful event will be held with lunch starting at 2pm and the degree to follow at 4pm. No doubt Brother Moon has been sewing with buffalo needles and chewing leather or performing some other randomly lost art in eager anticipation. We hope to see you there.

So actually until this morning this was the first time I realized Memorial Day went back to the time after the Civil War. It should be noted that the Confederate Veterans did not necessarily follow Memorial Day after the General Order but the South fell in line with the rest of the country after World War I.

The Holiday has evolved into a weekend where all past loved ones are remembered. My wife commented a few days ago how we should head up to the family plots and place flowers on the graves of her Grand Parents and tidy up the place a bit. This reminded me that this weekend as you drive around town here in Utah you would see the American Flag waving and more especially the small American Flags displayed with honor on the graves of those veterans we hold so dear.

How appropriate that we meet here tonight in Clearfield a place which has many members who have served our country and have chosen Gateway Lodge as their place to hang their hat.

In further thought I went back into my mind about my Paternal Grandfather whom I never knew. He passed away about a year before I was born and my only connection to him is the Masonic Fraternity. I believe Past Grand Master Steven Lancaster has a similar story. I think he has his Grandfather’s watch fob and I have my Grandfather’s ring that I am wearing tonight.

The connection with Memorial Day is this. When I was 5 years old my family moved from Boston to New Jersey. In my memory was a trip back home to see extended family. I remember Mom, Dad and my sisters loading into the van and traveling to a cemetery I had never been to before. I remember planting flowers and I also remember my father telling me this is where his father my Grandfather was buried. This is the only tangible memory I have until 1998 when I received this ring.

If we flash forward to 2005 my wife Audrey and I traveled to Boston to see her sister for Thanksgiving. Armed with only memories and some conversations with my Dad and my Aunt I devised a mission. I was going to find that cemetery and that gravestone. With the help of Google Earth and Yahoo maps and a clue from my Aunt that the tombstone was up by a fence on a hill, we were off for a cemetery near the hospital where I was born. We bundled up in the car and rode off to the nearby town where we found the cemetery. We drove in around a turn and up a hill. I stopped the car saw the fence and said this is the place. Somewhere in my head I remembered I was here before.

Now I must say there is nothing more sobering than on a bright clear cold day than to approach a tombstone with six-inch letters that spells out your own last name. Even more emotional is something I never remembered was that just over my family name was the square and compasses.

So a trip when I was five years old on a Memorial Day Weekend locked deep in my memory and a Fraternity I decided to join some twenty years later had once again converged and brought things in my life full circle.

I am sure and certain that many of you here tonight no matter what affiliation you have to the Masonic Family have these same thoughts, memories and connections. Is it not an awesome thing to be part of this Fraternity? It’s an intangible you just cannot explain to the outside world.

Thanks for listening and enjoy your Memorial Day weekend where we hope to see you at Camp Floyd or Lagoon.