Yeah, I was nervous. The only time I'd really spoken to this guy was when he called at the crack of dawn to re-schedule my interview. Realizing he had woken me, he proceeded to lecture me about how the early bird gets the worm, and that I had missed them all. Like, what the fuck did I want with a worm at 8:30 in the morning? I didn't have class until 12.The buick-lined car lot was almost as frightening as the inside of the building. Mahogany-paneled walls covered the lobby, which was filled with the sounds of Muzak and the footsteps of old, slightly drunk men. They walked in and out of one of the largest bars I've seen, staring critically at me, a 19-year old, sunken into their couch, under the severed head of a very large elk.
Yes, I was out of my element, and any second now Bob Bowman, Exalted Ruler of Elks Lodge #884, would pluck me off the couch and drag me into his office. But what the hell, I wanted to be out of my element, wanted to know what these men in their City on a Hill, which stands over the local cemetery, did in their spare time. And I found out.
What are the Elks all about?
We're mainly a charitable organization. There are 1.7 million members across the country, and our main function is to provide opportunities to kids. We give out $10 million in scholarships annually, and about the same to provide physical therapy and aid to crippled children.
We also like to help out in our local communities by cooking for disabled veterans, providing social activities for underprivileged children, teaching drug-awareness in schools, etc...
We're also a social club where men can come to meet other men with similar interests, and play cards, or work out in the gym, or just talk in the lounge. We're all here for different reasons. Some of us enjoy the ritual of a fraternal organization.
Why is it an all-male organization?
Historically and traditionally, it started as a male organization, and it remains that way. I don't know when the first resolution came before the Grand Lodge to admit women, but I know that it has in the last three years, and so far it has been voted down. But amongst ourselves, we say, 'Well, do you think it'll be five years, three years, eight years, but ultimately we will be forced to admit women.
Historically, from the beginning of recorded history, man went out hunting, all over the world. Even with the American Indians, the men went out and had their own teepees, and got together, and women were excluded. A couple of years ago I went to Kenya, and part of their culture is that young men are all by themselves for a while - quite a while.
I don't know... Men just want to have something of their own. I think it may be because of how we grew up. We grew up with football, Cowboys and Indians, and the fellas were fellas, and the girls were girls, and they didn't have anything to do with us and we with them. And as you get a little older, things change, and your interests change, and you can see the value of a woman and all of that, but when you're young you can't.
This is a question that goes on and can be argued forever - most men don't want to join women's clubs and vice verse. We have gals in Kiwanis service clubs, and they'll admit gals, but fraternal organizations will not, and I imagine they won't until the pressure is severe.
And you think that time is coming?
Yeah, that's just the way it is. The pendulum swings. And there are the old die-hards who say, 'Well, the day we admit women I'll sure be the first to leave,' well, I don't think that's going to happen either. But I can't imagine what a lady would want to do here, cause most of the time the women are here all the time, just not on Thursday night after 4:00. It's a men's organization for one evening. I'm not smart enough to know the reasons for that. But there's nothing so certain as change.
What's the ritual thing?
Ritual is a means of initiating new candidates, to tell them what the lodge is about. Each knight gives a speech. What we believe in is charity, justice, brotherly love, and fidelity. And each one of those represents a station in the lodge, and each has a charge to give to the new candidates. Brotherly love is represented by the antlers, justice by the Bible, because that's symbolic of the law, the American flag is symbolic to us of charity, and there's the star that shines above the altar, and that's symbolic of the fidelity that's necessary to be true to the precepts. And it has to do with love of life, and family and home and friend.
The officers are all in their tuxedos... It's kind-of hard to explain, and I imagine a man your age doesn't know much about ritual. It all depends on your family. If they're into Masonic work, then you know a lot about ritual. It's memorization - that's ritual. It's a set form. It doesn't vary, the words don't vary, you don't make them up. It's the same. It's similar in some ways to a Catholic mass or burial, that's ritual.
Is it a religious organization?
You're all asked if you believe in God, and if you don't believe in God, then you can't join. Beyond that, you can be any religion, any denomination. We don't investigate you on that, you only have to believe in God. Because how can you take the obligation? Who are you going to swear to if you don't believe in something? If you don't believe in God, you can't take the obligation, and if you can't take the obligation, you can't join.
It's like the nail. For the want of the nail, the shoe is lost, for the want of the shoe the horse, the want of the horse the knight, the want of the knight the battle, the want of the battle the war!
It's that kind of thing, you have to believe in God, and you have to be a male. Aside from that, well, you have to be sponsored by somebody.
How do you respond to charges of prejudice?
We don't have any political, sectarian, or personal prejudices or biases. You leave those outside the door. You come in here to do good for yourself and your country - like the boy scouts, only more adult (sometimes.)
What do you do besides charity?
People play cards - the big game here is called Pedro, and they have tournaments. We don't have outings. We have an RV club and they have outings for people with RVs, and they go camping, but we have a national and state and midterm convention that we go to. The midterm is in the middle of our lodge year, which goes from the middle of April to the end of March, and the midterm is in November. I'm sure some lodges go to Reno or stuff like that...
People come here and use it as a social club, to hang out. Some come for the meals, some for the meetings. We serve dinner on meeting nights and Friday nights - Thursday is for members, Friday for families. And we have special events about once a month - dinner dances, etc...
A lot of drinking go on here?
I remember years ago it used to be, 'Boy, there's an Elks convention coming to town - batten down the doors,' and years ago, there was activity after the meeting in the bar 'till midnight, guys just talking and talking, and playing cards. Now, at 10:30, you could shoot a cannon in there. The drinking has decreased monumentally, because people are really concerned about the tightening of the drunk driving laws, and I'm very happy about that. It's hard sometimes to keep people under control if they've been drinking too much, they get stubborn, and it's hard to tell if they've been drinking too much because they'll never admit that. We don't have those things any more, so when the Elks come to town, you don't have to batten down the hatches.
How many members do you have?
We have about 1600 members. It takes a lot to keep the thing going, and to make members want to stay members, because lapsation in member retention is one of the major problems that most organizations like us face. Except for the self-gratification of whatever lodge activities you like, there's no personal gain. Well, if you consider keeping your body healthy, and you're a member of the gym crew, that's something, which it is, actually.
Last initiation was a week ago Thurs, and we had probably 180 men here for dinner, 11 guys initiated, 46 total at the meeting. A small percentage come to the lodge meetings. A goodly number we never see after they get initiated. The gym is open 24 hours, and lots of law enforcement men work out after work, and some school teachers come at 4:00 in the morning before work. Some older men come in early morning.
But we never see 1600. I talked to a man last night who had been here 15 years, and had never been here since his initiation.
Some guys do it because they want to give, and they like what we do, so they pay their dues to help out. And they like the fact that they belong.
If we have a dinner dance and there's 250, that's a big crowd. That's only 100 Elks. Where are the other 1500. I don't know... watching the tube.
Do you help each other out in the business world?
You don't come up here to make a deal. In fact, in the obligation, you say you will not use your membership for business or commercial purposes. That's why you don't see, if you go into a shop, a big sign that says Elks member or something. We don't talk about [business] up here - it's prohibited.
I'm not saying that over lunch or something... I just had a lunch meeting up here, I'm also president of the Kiwanis this year - both of these things happened by accident, because I was exalted ruler here 18 years ago, we have a process where we go through the chairs, and it was by accident that I'm filling out another term.
So anyway, I had a group of my Kiwanis guys here at lunch, and we were talking about a couple of [Kiwanis committees,] and the things that we're doing, so if you consider that to be business, well then those things happen, and I'm sure that some real estate broker might have one of his buddies that he wants to sell a house to or, you know, some of those things, but that is not the reason we're here. There are other organizations that do that, if people want to get involved in that.
Do members belong to other lodges?
Yes, there's a lot of that. Some people like to be lodge members - they like the comradeship of other men. Of course, the Masonic lodge is different from ours, they're not quite as social - I belong to the Masons, so I know something about that, and my father was a Mason, but I don't have time to go to all the activities, but there are a lot of Masons that belong to the Elks.
Where does the money come from?
The Elks national lodge has an endowment that is constantly increased by yearly contributions from every lodge. Right now it's a little over $100 million, and the $10 million of interest goes entirely towards scholarships. We also charge dues - 100 dollars a month. A lot of the money we give to that comes from these little purple pigs[goes out and gets a purple pig.] Our members take these little critters home and put their change in 'em and bring them back and put it in the charity fund.
We have a few big barbecues, and we'll have about 400 in attendance, and that's a profit-making deal, and we have initiation fees.
And we fine at the meeting time. Everybody who has qualities matching those of an intiate has to put in a dollar (for example, shares the same profession, hobbies, age, etc...) We fine for whatever the exalted ruler can think of, so we'll maybe get 40 or 50 dollars a night. We meet every Thurs night, and initiate the last Thurs every month.
Epilogue
I like being here. I used to be a Volkswagon dealer from 1964 to '75, and I enjoy interacting with people. This is a place where you can do that, and you learn a lot about people if you hang out in the administration in this lodge.
There's 1600 people who all have different ideas about what should be done, right? I think keeping harmony in the organization is a challenge, but when it comes to charity, we're all interested in making it happen. But we believe in having fun along the way, and I think that's great.
Like the university up there. The primary purpose there is education, but you also learn a lot from interacting with friends, and coming into the community and raising hell, and all that stuff. It's part of growing up, and that goes on until you're in that cemetery across the street. They haven't any problems, none of those folks [in the cemetery.]