When I first ran across Pythian postcards a few years ago, I'd never heard of them before. It turns out that the Pythians were one of those fraternal organizations of days gone by. Well, it turns out that they are current, too. According to Wikipedia: "The order has over two thousand lodges in the United States and around the world, with a total membership of over 50,000 in 2003. Some lodges meet in structures referred to as Pythian Castles."
Has anyone ever known a Pythian? This ties into something I've wondered about. How are these fraternal organizations doing? Seems I know plenty of people whose fathers were Masons, or Knights of Columbus, or Moose, or some similar lodge/organization, but I know no-one of my generation who belongs to anything like this. Are these organizations falling by the wayside? I haven't seen the numbers, but I suspect that interest in such organizations might be vanishing fast. As numerous as the Pythian lodges are supposed to be, I've only found them mentioned in a very old historic context.
A few of my grandparents were Masons (or the female version, Order of the Eastern Star). But I did not inherit the Mason gene, I guess. Is anyone reading this involved in any of these organizations? And were your parents or grandparents?
4 comments:
I believe my maternal grandfather was a Mason, but he was, of course, hush-hush about it. Well, he wasn't much of a talker anyway....
I have a great curiousity about these fraternal orders though. I'd love to hear some inside scoop.
Fascinating! I've never heard of them and I love stuff like this. I have been to Humbolt, one of the castles listed and if it's the place I am thinking of, a wonderful old building... but I do not know if that is the right building.
I come from a long line of DAR, Eastern Star, Job's Daughters and Masons. My ex-mother-in-law thought they were Satanic. That always made me laugh.
I think many of these groups were founded when there was not much for adults to do. With so much more offered in the world these days, they seem to be dying or have become a place to drink and smooze. Less purpose and principal far more social.
I had a guy working for me who was/is a member of Knights of Pythias. Him and his brothers are members, all 3 under 30 years old. They met in kind of a run-down upstairs office in one of the old downtown buildings. Nothing like what's on the postcard. I attended his wedding there. As far as I could tell, nothing about the wedding had anything to do with the KoP, but their meeting hall was kind of interesting. They had 2 big halls separated by big double doors and a smaller room with a display case that had some midieval looking dusty stuff.
Not something I'd be interested in, but maybe I just don't know enough.
My grandfather was a Shriner. He encouraged me to join, but I follow Groucho's old rule.
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