Lodge Leadership Tools - Hawthorne-Fortitude Masonic Lodge No ...

“Bro. Big Boy & Bro. Tiny”By Bro. Tom EvansMasonic “Scribbins”Here I go again with time on my hands, thinking about the past andthe outdoors. The Bluebonnets are blooming. Thunder stormsrolled through early this morning, bringing rain. Being April Fool’sday, what a better day to tell stories of time on and around the water.My Grandpa was a 36 year Mason and Scottish Rite Mason. He wasknown as “Big Boy”, although he was actually a big “man”, 6’ 4”,probably 270#. In his youth he was a “rounder” or “boomer” whichwere old railroad terms for going from one boom or business increaseto another. His first job with a railroad was when he washired to provide venison for the work crews laying the rails from SanAntonio to Larado. They gave him a Model 1894 Winchester, fourmules and a horse. He had to furnish is own saddle. Each morninghe would leave the camp in search of meat for the crew.In the early 1930s he became a Houston police officer walking a beat.That’s where the old term for a police officer “flat foot” came from.He worked his way up to the homicide “squad”. He was a personalsecurity guard for President Roosevelt when he visited Houston. He bought one of the first .357 Magnums, aSmith & Wesson Registered Model, Reg. no. 1588. They were supposed to be only for the FBI and BrotherHoover received Reg. No 1. I have that gun in my safe along with one of his old ticket books. Brother Tiny,my Dad said that Grandpa “danced a jig” when he told him that he had petition the Lodge. He died at age57, when I was only 7.Grandpa gave me a Plueger Summit No.993L , spooled with braided line mounted on a 4 ft Barney and Berrysteel rod. For those of you not old enough to remember Howdy Doody, Sky King and the Lone Ranger onthe radio, the reel, although level wind, had no drag and free spooled. The braided line had to be dried onthe clothes line after “goin’ fishin’” Grandpa hand carved a practice plug and never complained while fixingmany a backlash for me. That combo, line and all, is on my wall as I type these words.Grandpa liked to fish salt water, especially wade fishing, even though he lived in Smithville, 150 miles from thesaline and sand. He had a homemade plywood float/boat like thing that would carry live bait on one side,tackle box in the center and Grandma’s prepared lunch on the other side. It was painted battleship gray. Hewould pull it as he waded. For me it was a great toy to play on, dreaming that I was fishing.(Continued on page 26)25 ON THE WEB AT WWW.TWTMAG.COM 25