Two Brothers Meet On Historic Route 66

This is my favorite kind of story.  As Freemasons, I think we've all had that experience of meeting a stranger and discovering a Brother instead.  It's a great thing about our fraternity how a ring, a pin, a shirt, or a bumpersticker can bring two people together who may be different in every other way--but they have that one common experience that instantly makes them friends. 

I'd like to thank WB Ray Gordon of Pekin for sharing this story with me, and allowing me to share it here too.

"We took a drive on the Southern IL leg of Route 66 Bloomington to St. Louis on Saturday. We stopped at The Ariston Cafe in Litchfield. I was wearing a Masonic shirt that day, and as we walked in we were greeted by the owner Brother Nick Adam’s who said, “I see you’ve traveled some” then as I sit down he handed me a piece of paper folded in half. I opened it up and it read.

I see you’ve traveled some…

Wherever you may chance to be, wherever you may roam.
Far away in foreign lands, or just at Home Sweet Home;
It always gives you pleasure, it makes your heart strings hum.
Just to hear the words of cheer, “I see you’ve traveled some.”

When you get the brother’s greeting, and he takes you by the hand.
It thrills you with a feeling, which you cannot understand.
You feel that bond of brotherhood that tie that’s sure to come
When you hear him say in a friendly way,
“I see you’ve traveled some.”

And if you are a stranger in strange lands all alone,
If fate has left you stranded dead broke and far from home,
It thrills you-makes you dumb when he says with a grip of fellowship,
“I see you’ve traveled some.”

And when your final summons come to take a last long trip,
Adorned with Lambskin Apron White and gems of fellowship,
The tiler at the Golden Gate with square and rule and plumb,
Will size up your pin and say,
“I see you’ve traveled some.”

It always gives me pleasure when I am greeted by a brother in this manner.

~Ray Gordon