This past weekend started out with the Superior Association Event, which began with lunch on a, you guessed it, riverboat, the Delta King. For a state that is mostly desert, I am getting on a lot of river boats this summer.
We had a lovely lunch in the boat, which is floating on the river as it goes through Old Sacramento and then we went over to the California Railroad Museum before shopping on the streets of Old Sacramento. The Railroad Museum, which I am told is the largest one in the world, was pretty amazing. They have a lot of fully restored train cars, including engines, dining cars, freight cars and a caboose or two. Some of them are bigger than others, but they are all LARGE! Which means that Westerns are ruined for me for ever because looking up at the size of some of these monsters, I can tell that you'd break a leg or an ankle jumping off the thing while it was standing still, let alone while it was moving. And running along the top in cowboy boots - I don't think so! Traditional cowboy boots of the era had leather soles, which are smooth and slick, so running along a moving train, that rattles and sways from side to side and is made of polished wood or metal, with a curve in it from the top peak down to where it meets the side of the train - not happening! Nice thought, try again! I don't know that you could run along the top of the thing in cowboy boots while it isn't moving. And jumping off, well, I suppose we all have to die sometime, but that's not the way I would choose. If you are lucky, you break something that kills you right away. But more often than not, it looks like you would just break something painful that wouldn't kill you, so you'd just get to lie there and suffer. Not a good idea at all! So train running and jumping is not only off my list of things to do in this lifetime (okay, it was never really on there in the first place. :-), but I don't think I will ever be able to suspend disbelief watching a Western again. Alas, another lovely illusion shattered by the experiences of going up the Grand Line.
The item that particularly caught my eye in the train museum was a golden spike, called the Lost Spike, that is a twin to the Last Spike that was driven in to finish the Transcontinental Railroad and a picture and painting that went along with it. The first fascinating thing is that the picture of the spike being driven doesn't have all the rich, important people standing in carefully placed positions as the spike goes it. It's got a bunch of tired railroad workers standing around while the thing got driven in place, with some important people mixed in the crowd. But the commissioned painting of the event has all the important people in lovely, perfect positions, more important people bigger and in front of course, and you can see everyone and they are all nice and shiny clean too. The painting is famous, the photo far less so, and that would be what one would expect since even in the 1800s, PR people evidently knew how to get the most bang for their buck.
The Lost Spike itself is on display and was evidently picked up by the museum only in 2005. There is a plaque explaining that the Last Spike was engraved hastily and had the wrong date on it (May 8) because that is the day that they thought it would go in, although it really went in on May 10, and the engraving on the Last Spike was not as neat and fancy as the Lost Spike because the Lost Spike was engraved after the fact and with all the time in the world. I particularly liked the inscription, common to both of them, "May God continue the unity of our Country, as this Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world. May 10, 1867.
After the Superior Event in San Francisco, I drove back to San Jose to attend an Emerald City Lights themed reception for our Grand Green Star Point Officer. The reception was done in a modified formal style, sort of like my own in that there were introductions but not escorting and no presentations. That shortened the program part to an hour which gave us time for a lovely half an hour of music and dance entertainment before going in for refreshments. The songs and dances were very nice and everyone enjoyed them.
After the reception, I engaged in an old tradition that I happen to like, that of offering hospitality to the Grand Family when they are in your area. This is a tradition that used to be more universal in Grand Families, but which has fallen off in more recent times. It used to be that when the Grand Family was in the local area of one of the Grand Officers, the local would have everyone over for a meal or drinks or just some social time. If your home was too small for everyone, you could also have them out at a local restaurant or bar. I know that with times being tougher, this added expense can be hard for some and with a schedule that is squeezed into weekends, times can also be hard to find, but I have always liked this tradition because it gives everyone some social down time when it is just the Family, to talk and enjoy each other's company without detracting from member time as would happen if the Family socialized at an event. Most of the Family was able to make it over to my house and I enjoyed having them. I think I've hooked a couple of them on my homemade fruit cordials. :-)
On Sunday, it was back up to Richmond for a Blue Christmas reception, which was done in the full, traditional style, with escort and presentations and everything. It was a lovely afternoon with the most amazing decorations. I don't know if I have ever seen so many blue Christmas decorations ever. I don't think I knew there were so many in existence. And they all looked great!
I couldn't help but notice though, that where the night before, the modified program was over, including speeches, in about an hour, followed by a half an hour of entertainment and then a social hour, the full, traditional style, took and hour and ten minutes to get through all the preliminaries and escort before the Worthy Patron took the gavel to start the speeches, and the speeches and presentations took us to a full two hours of program. While I feel very strongly that a reception is a very personal thing and, like a wedding, an honored member should have what they want, within reasonable boundaries of cost and decorum, I wonder as a general idea how much is added or subtracted by the member experience by these changes. Of course, since I can't sit for great lengths of time with pain, I am probably somewhat biased on this issue.
Next weekend, I am in Fresno for the AM/AP workshop.
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