The early political party called Masons were democratic and believed in separation of Church and State therefore earnrd the hatred of then catholic Church. The Catholic church took it all too seriously and began this campain to "expose" the Masons as agents of the devil. Even excommunicating any one who became a Mason.
Peaceful Pete,
Would you happen to know when this took place? My maternal Grandmother, her sister and two brothers were all involved in the movement. My two great-Uncles were Catholic. I know they were "active" because when we all used to go to my G'parent's cottage in VT each summer, they always went to Mass, along with my cousins.
One of these Uncles was a meat cutter in a grocery store and wasn't in his own business. My G'mother and her sister were Protestant (go figure--I never bothered to ask "why" when they were all alive!) They belonged to the Eastern Star and something I think was called Amaranth.
My Mother wanted me to join the Rainbow Girls, but she had difficulty getting me "in" because I didn't have a Mother or Father in the Masons, but I got in on the strength of my two Uncles down near Boston.
I didn't like the Rainbow Girls---at 15 I thought it was too dorky. The rituals were boring and I ended up giggling and fooling around with the others who thought the same! I remember if a girl got there late, there was a special ritual she had to go through to pass through the inner door. I used to think it was so funny, because only other Rainbow Girls knew where the room was and desired to get into it!!! All the secret signs, the thing we had to display on our arm, the green capes we had to wear and passwords were a bit much (I thought).
This was in the mid-fifties and I would have much rather been at the local teen hangout sipping a coke and playing the Jukebox with my friends.
Annie
