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Dear Webmaster, I have attached below a true story that I received via e-mail from a brother in the military just a few days ago. Brother Patrick was the Junior Deacon at Tallapoosa Lodge #126 until the Navy transferred him to Washington DC. He is currently in Pensacola, FL attending a computer school that is required for him to fill his new billet.

I was raised a year ago and one of the reasons I joined the Mason's is due to the friendships that I had with several persons in the community that were Mason's. I miss Brother Patrick and have kept in touch to ensure that he and his family were doing alright and to see if I could do anything for him from "home". I just wanted to pass this story along in the event you wanted to share it with the other Brother's here in Georgia.

This story makes me proud to be a Mason and I can only imagine that it will touch the hearts of other Mason's throughout Georgia. Fraternally, James Phillips Tallapoosa Lodge# 126

Brother Jim,

Thanks for everything. It's great to hear that the Lodge is doing so well! I really enjoyed all the time spent with you brothers and it's wonderful that new brothers are joining. I know I wasn't a part of Tallapoosa for that long, but the Lodge is a corner-stone of that town, and I am proud to be a part of it (even if it is currently in absence).

Even though I'm not there now, the brotherhood is still with me. Let me tell you a quick story that happened just recently:

I was driving down the road a few days ago and passed a young sailor walking in the cold in full dress-blues. I pulled over and asked him where he was going and if he needed a ride. He had drawn the short straw, and was on his way to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to pick up some doughnuts for himself and some friends. They told him to go straight out the gate and it was just down the road. He wasn't sure where it was, and neither was I, but I told him that I did know there was only one Krispy Kreme in Pensacola, so it couldn't be too hard to find. He jumped in and we started looking.

We had ourselves quite the little adventure. We drove around all the area surrounding the base and couldn't find it. I called Susan at home and had her look it up on the Internet, and we got an address. Then we got lost a few times because of my horrible sense of direction and vague knowledge of the geography of the city. We ended up downtown, we drove up Scenic Highway and saw the Gulf of Mexico and drove in slowly decreasing circles until we finally found the fabled Krispy Kreme. And whadda you know: the "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign was blinking when we pulled up!

The young sailor had just arrived in Pensacola two weeks earlier. It was the first time this 21 year old young man from Yuma, Arizona had been off the base, seen downtown Pensacola, and the second time he'd ever seen the ocean in his life. We sat outside Krispy Kreme and talked, and when I went to light up a cigarette, I offered him one. He accepted the smoke, and when he took my lighter (a Blue Masonic lighter that was a Christmas present from my father), he asked, "Are you a Mason?" I told him I was. He asked, "can you be in the military and still be a Mason?" I told him yes, that I was proof. I told him that many people in uniform are Masons, military and other uniforms, like police officers and fire fighters. He said he knew that many police and firemen were Masons because his father, a veteran of the Yuma Fire Department was a Mason. He said his father had often told him that he should join, that the Lodge needed good young men to keep the brotherhood alive. He said he thought that it was finally time for him to do something about it, and that he was going to start looking for a Lodge to join. I told him that if he was serious I could get him a petition, or he could ask his dad for one.

When we finally returned to the base to drop him off at his barracks, we had been driving for close to an hour. He thanked me for everything and asked if he could give me any money for the gas we had used. I told him: "No. Just tell your dad that you met a traveling man who took care of you. He'll know what I mean." I then gave him my number and told him to call me if he ever needed anything, because, I told him, "that's what Masons do... they take care of each other and each other's families."


(they SURE DO and they take care of other peoples' families TOO)

That's what we do. I'm proud to be a part of the Tallapoosa Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons #126 and proud to call you all my brothers. While I may be Traveling, the Lodge is still my home.

Fraternally,

Patrick Brown, MM, Tallapoosa Lodge #126, F&AM