Shriners Band Bus - Parade

I have enjoyed playing with the Hartford Shriners Band this year. They
are a basic, old-fashioned fun band, and the people are super friendly. We mostly
are too old to want to march, so we have this wonderful Band Bus for parades.

In the old days, only Shriners and Masons were allowed to play in Shriners
bands:


I am just an associate member. I guess as a subtle recruiting tool, and because
band memberships have declined over the years, (maybe losing out to driving
those crazy little cars) they have allowed outsiders to play in the band. I
know little about Masons or Shriners, but one thing that I really respect about
them is that they fanatically avoid direct recruitment of new members, they
want new people to see their good works and deeds, and ask to join on their
own will. I have the impression they want me to join, but unfortunately I don't
think that would ever work out. I can't rule it out, but I have been a non-joiner
and a loner too long to change, I fear.

I generally have a negative attitude to societies, fraternities, and exclusivity
that has been borne out my whole life. Starting with the "Order of the Arrow",
a quasi Boy Scouts fraternity with secret passwords and pseudo indian rituals,
that insulted me as a young scout by "tapping" me in two years after "Howie"
and others in our troup, only because of popularity, even though I was more
qualified, and more involved in scouting.

In college, I think 1964 was the height of the "Must be in a Fraternity to be worthy in the world" stupidity, and I saw good people unfairly treated as if they were scum because they, by the judgment of the already anointed "brothers",they were not good enough to be invited inside the group. My room mate was a very clever, unique, talented fellow, maybe too individualistic for the greeks. He was absolutely crushed by cruel rejection after three rounds of acceptance notes and interviews by a fraternity he thought was great. Luckily,even though rejected by the system myself, I had developed an independence that realized the folly of it all, and rejected one group that I could have joined, and didn't take it so personally. I recognized it for what it was. It was for insecure people to form an artificial way to feel wanted, at the expense of others. I'm not saying that is evil, some people need this; just not my way of doing things.

Well, the Masons and the shriners over the years claim not to be really a secret society, since memberships are public, activities are well publicized, and their outstanding charity, public help and philanthropy are so much a part of their public side as to make them a public group. However, the hazing and memorizing of all those 32 levels of pseudo-Islamic rituals, secret signs and all that put them into the secret society category, it seems to me. I have heard that these rituals are at least partially optional these days, because they were not finding young and new members who wanted to go through all that, but I really don't know. I have been reluctant to even ask about the details, because being an associate member seems the right place to be at the moment.