I did the entire Cub Scouting thing with all the gold and silver arrows underneath my 3 badges and then did the Webelos and Ordr of the Arrow transition to Boy Scouts. I made it as far as First Class Scout but at age 14, a friend of my Dad's suggested I would enjoy DeMolay. This fellow was a Mason and my Dad was not. The only affiliation of any sort my Dad ever had in his entire life was that he was a railroader.....not much else mattered to him. In any case, his friend sponsored me because he knew I was good at and enjoyed public speaking.

At the time I knew diddly squat about the Masonic history. My best friend was Catholic and he knew even less about that relationship than I did. What I did see was that DeMolay was an entry into some new things and gave me a chance to excel in things I was good at. I have a great memory (or did then!), loved the public speaking angle along with the ritual and ceremony that meetings entailed. We got to wear tuxes and the satin Cape was pretty jazzy!   Better yet, I didn't have to sleep out in the woods wearing smelly, dirty clothes, in a mildewed and damp sleeping bags, with the mosquitoes, snakes, and in a tent with other young men gassed up on beans.

I moved through the ranks quickly and attained the appropriate awards as well. When I was 17 I was the Master Councillor of my chapter. One of the few public ceremonies was something referrerd to as "The Rose Ceremony" and from age 16, I became known for my presentation of this to the point that I was "performing" this 15 minute tribute to Motherhood two to three times a week all over Ohio and even into Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan.

It was later that I learned the history and the prejudice and felt some shame in my own involvement but it did give me a lot of great experiences in speaking that I would use later. I also rationalized away the history and so did my best friend because we remained so....even today.

Pat Patterson
Order of DeMolay
P.M.C./R.D./Chevalier
Dumbass as Well