May 16, 2025 • 39 mins
We sit down with Gerald Rhoads – decorated Army pilot, retired businessman, and Past Grand Master – to explore the principles of compassion, selfless service, and the true value of history.
“The purpose of studying and liking history is so that you can learn the lessons of the past, to make decisions in the present, and plan for the future.”
A native of Youngstown, OH, our esteemed Brother shares vivid memories of flying helicopters in Vietnam (a total of 712 medevac missions), a love of education and learning, and the pursuit of a well-spent life.
“On a tombstone, it might say 1901 – 1989. The 1901 means nothing. The 1989 means nothing. It’s how you spent the DASH…that’s what counts.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today's guest was raised atMeander Lodge number 7 6 5 in
(00:04):
February, 1972.
Meander Lodge being in the stateof Ohio.
He later affiliated at HiramLodge, number 2 87 in Lindstrom.
That was in 1988, serving asWorshipful Master in 1993, again
in 1999, a handful more times in2002, 2005, 2008.
(00:28):
We will have to hear more aboutthat.
Five, five times total in theEast.
Welcome Jerry Rhodes.
Thank you.
Pleased to be here.
It's very selfless to say theleast, that it's one thing to be
master.
Once or twice.
You did five rounds.
Enjoyed it, enjoyed every trip.
You have done so much MasonGrand Lodge Education Officer in
(00:52):
19 95, 96 Grand Master from2004, 2005.
Before we get into some of thoseadditional details, where are
you originally from?
Youngstown, Ohio.
Right on the Pennsylvaniaborder.
I grew up there.
I went to college there.
Where'd you go to school?
Youngstown University.
(01:12):
Then I transferred to Pitt inPittsburgh, graduated.
Then after I returned from theArmy, I made use of the v the VA
bill, the GI bill, and went backto Youngstown.
Got an additional degree.
What were your degrees inbusiness and science?
I was a licensed mortician.
No kidding.
No.
There's something I did not knowabout you.
(01:33):
Were you ever practicing in the,in that field?
I worked in that business for 11years, uh, with timeout, be for
the Army four years, but, uh,since, uh, about ninth grade, I
just always wanted to be amortician.
So put the blinders on boardahead and next thing you know, I
was licensed.
growing up, any siblings?
(01:54):
One sister younger.
And what did your parents do?
What's your dad do for a career?
My dad was in data processingbefore there were computers.
What did that look like in thosedays?
Well, they didn't call'emcomputers.
They called them businessmachines.
And they were very large, veryloud, disorders, calculators,
(02:14):
printers, huge machines.
And he just kind of graduallyprogressed right with the
industry.
Did that for 44 years.
I bet it would be difficult forhim to be able to comprehend how
tiny these microchips are bytoday's standards.
Well, he never used a, a laptopever.
(02:37):
And he said when he retired,anybody who mentioned the word
computer in his presence wouldprobably be skinned.
Well, message Steve Dad.
Yes.
And then did you sign up formilitary service?
Were you drafted?
What were the, what was thattimeline for you?
I was basically a draft dodger.
I didn't object at all tomilitary service, but I didn't
(03:00):
want to be drafted.
If you get drafted, you justtake two years of your life away
from home, do exactly what theytell you to do wherever they
tell you to do it.
Uh, and I thought that such awaste.
So I, I enlisted because I wassure I was gonna get drafted
anyway.
And what year was that?
Enlisted in 67.
(03:22):
Did you have a choice of whatyou wanted to go into?
Well, I picked up every brochurethe Army recruiter had, and the
only one that interested me wasthe aviation.
And the deal at the time was youcould take the admission test
for flight school, uh, beforesigning up.
(03:43):
So you knew whether or not youwere gonna get in.
So I took the test and passed ita real brain drain.
I'll tell you, it was a reallyeight hour exam.
Wow.
And Started out in helicoptersthe first day, which is opposite
of what the civilians do.
They get a airplane license andthen transition.
That's what I assumed.
Okay.
But, uh, we, oh, I started inhelicopters very first day.
(04:07):
Was flight school fast trackedbecause of Vietnam, because of
things going on in the world?
No, it took a year, six monthsin Texas and then six months in
Georgia at, at the advancedschool.
And then from there, I, I hadrequested medevac because I did
ambulance work before I went inthe army.
So I requested, uh, to flymedevac.
(04:27):
So I had to go take medicaltraining too.
What was the attrition rate likein advanced flight school and
then having in that?
Aspect of having to have themedical the attrition rate in
flight school was, uh, therewere some that couldn't handle
the academics and they justflunked out.
There were some that couldn't,couldn't fly, uh, that were just
afraid of it.
(04:48):
It's helicopters are ratherdifficult to, uh, to handle and
some of'em just never got overthe fear.
And were most of the ones whodidn't make it dropped out.
How soon after graduating didyou get deployed?
Uh, as soon as I graduated fromflight school, I went to Texas
for the medical trainingStandard medics course.
(05:10):
So eight weeks later I was on myway to Vietnam.
That's unusual for aviation toobecause, uh, usually the, when
you graduate from flight school,air Force or Navy, you get
assigned to a unit in the UnitedStates for additional training
and, and just accumulatinghours, becoming comfortable in
(05:31):
the cockpit.
And, but, uh, no, we get, mywhole class went to Vietnam
except for one guy.
He had already been there forone tour as an infantryman, so
they sent him to Germany how doyou feel about sharing a little
more insight on you're not onlypiloting a helicopter, but
(05:53):
you're a medevac.
Time is of the essence oninnumerable levels.
True.
It's, uh, it's a very stressfuloccupation.
I thought I was better preparedfor it than most of the guys
because I'd done the work in theambulance.
But, uh, in looking back at it,I was not any better prepared
(06:16):
than they were.
Uh, it's psychologicallystressful just seeing guys shot
up in bad, in bad shape dayafter day after day, and kinda
wears on.
You And you're trying to getthem from where they are injured
to a place of first aid and careand doing so without incident
(06:40):
within an hour.
The goal was to get'em from itwherever they were wounded to
the MASH unit and the surgeonwithin one hour.
Most of the time we made it.
Sometimes the distancesinvolved.
Just made it take a littlelonger.
I'd say 80% of the time thewounded were in Mash Hospital
(07:04):
within an hour of being wounded.
How fast were you expected to beturning around and back up in
the air?
It all depended on when the nextphone call came.
Sometimes it was, we didn't evenshut down.
Uh, we could fly four or fivemissions in a day.
In a day.
And we also flew at night, whichvery few of the other
(07:25):
helicopters did.
Can't hardly tell a guy, youcan't come and get him because
it's raining.
Right?
He's bleeding, you know, heneeds us.
how long did you serve in thatcapacity?
One year through 712 missions.
And we did fly at night quite abit.
(07:47):
How, what was that like?
Well, the advantage is if you doit enough, you get real good at
it.
Most of the helicopter pilots inVietnam didn't do it enough to
get good at it.
So consequently, they werepretty nervous about it.
Yeah.
I got to the point where Iactually preferred it.
How come?
The air was smoother at night.
And there's no better place inthe world to hide than in the
dark.
(08:07):
So I could turn all my lightsoff'cause nobody else was
flying.
That was my next question.
The novice question.
Could you go into lightdiscipline and turn everything
off in the dead of night?
Yes.
Turn off all the externallights.
The, uh, we turned the cockpitlights down, uh, so we could
still see'em, but they, they'rered, they didn't show up to the
(08:28):
ground at all.
So we, we could be up there,they could hear us and sometimes
they shot, just shot at thenoise.
but very seldom with any effect.
It that goes up there.
And you know, I've been outflying, I see tracers going
straight up in the air, quarterof a mile off to the left or
right.
(08:48):
And I know they're shooting atme'cause there's nobody else up.
But they're not even close.
It's laughable.
Only once did I get hit atnight.
Really?
Yeah.
Just a lucky shot.
Where did, where was contact?
It uh, machine gunners kind ofstitched up the belly of the
helicopter.
There was a dozen holes acrossthe, the bullets came in, hit
(09:09):
the fuel cells and actuallydropped down onto the fuselage.
Obviously you made it to safety,but that had to be dicey.
Well, it's, it is.
You can't see the damage, so youwonder just how bad it is.
But they came in and hit thefuel cells and, and just dropped
off.
(09:31):
it goes without saying, thankyou for your service to our
country, first and foremost.
Most welcome.
Very rewarding.
So how does someone do that fora year?
Stress, seeing what you, everyday, seeing what you saw.
How do you go back to civilianlife after that kind of a day,
(09:54):
at a time?
I do probably the only criticismI had of the Army.
I was much in favor of it, but,uh, the army and overall.
But when I came back, nobody,nobody even said, how do you
feel?
Are you okay?
I came back, had a couple ofweeks off, got right down to the
(10:15):
advanced flight school again asa classroom instructor.
Got on with my life.
Some guys needed some help withthat right away.
Uh, with me, it was, it, it kindof came back a lot of years
later, you get, you're prettynervous when you get back.
It's, I'd call it hyper alert Istill don't like to sit with my
(10:40):
back to the drawer.
I wanna see who's coming andgoing.
It's just a habit, you know,it's, if my back's to the door,
I'm just a little bit nervous.
Understood.
I don't know if that'll ever goaway.
So you come back, did you resumeschooling or work at the time,
or how did what?
What was your Initially I wentback to the funeral business and
(11:04):
that's what got me into masonry.
I worked at the funeral home.
Everybody in the funeral homewas a mason except me.
In what city was this In?
Youngstown.
Okay.
One of the suburbs.
And we had funeral home andambulance service.
I worked there before I went inthe Army, so I went back to, to
the same job.
So were your colleagues,obviously were Masons.
(11:24):
Were you initially curious afterseeing a Masonic service,
perhaps, or was it yourcolleagues or maybe both.
It was a little of both.
I started doing some afterdinner speaking because my boss
was supposed to arrange for anafter dinner speaker, forgot to
do it, and three days before thebanquet he says, Hey, you gotta
(11:46):
bail me out.
Just come and tell some stories,you know?
Well, somebody that was in theaudience came up afterward and
asked if I would do it for hisorganization.
And then next thing you know, itjust kind of snowballed.
It's the Jerry Road speakingtour now.
Yeah.
Doing the rubber chicken Ccircuit.
Right.
So I, I spoke at a shrine club.
(12:07):
Youngstown has a shrine club.
They have their own property andtheir own building, and about
150 guys at the banquet.
And there was a girl there thatnight that had been in treatment
for five years in a ho in theShrine Hospital.
She was about 14, I think she'dbeen nine years old when she
started, but she had triplecurvature of the spine.
(12:30):
There were a lot of pictures ofher in the lobby.
Uh, when she started treatmentat Shrine Hospital, she couldn't
even look up.
Uh, she spent her whole lifelooking down and after five
years, she was standing therestraight as an arrow.
Well, her dad got up and spokeand he thanked them all, of
course, for everything.
She got up and spoke and whenshe said, I don't know exactly
(12:53):
how to thank you, man, so I'mgonna thank you, the only way I
know how.
And she walked through the halland hugged and kissed every guy
in the place.
It was absolute silence.
And these guys who'd beenstanding at the bar drinking,
smoking their cigars and talkingtough before dinner, just melted
(13:15):
a lot of cloudy eyes in theroom.
Oh, yes.
And I asked the guy sitting nextto me.
How, how can I become a part ofthis group?
I gotta get in on this.
Was that, that was the momentwhere you said, yeah, I need to
be a part of this.
He said, well, first of all, yougotta be a mason.
So the next morning when I wentto work, you know, I said, uh,
(13:37):
how do I become a mason?
The guy was working with says,what the hell took you so long?
He's waiting on you to saysomething.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well at the time he couldn't.
Right.
Did he produce a petitionquickly?
He had one in his desk.
and that obviously what led youto join Meander Lodge in Ohio?
Yes, yes.
(13:58):
And I got so hung up on the BlueLodge that it took me 15 years
to get to the Scottish Rite.
Uh, and I wanted to get to theScottish Rite,'cause I still
wanted to be a Shriner.
And then it took me 10 yearsbefore I get into the shrine.
I got hooked at Scottish Rite,which I think looking back is
still a plus because there isthat opportunity to really get
(14:23):
to know and understand what itmeans to be a Mason and to
immerse yourself in your BlueLodge experience.
And we're, yes, we're allmembers of the concordant
dependent bodies, but maybe werush guys a little quickly outta
the Blue Lodge and, and thenoverwhelm them with so many
different places to be involvedand to be active.
(14:43):
Well, it's true.
I usually tell our newer membersthat just give it a year or two,
let things settle, decide whatyou wanna do.
So how did you end up inMinnesota?
You were raised in Meander Lodgein 1972.
Did you work for a few moreyears in Ohio before?
What was the catalyst that ledyou here?
I left the funeral business,found out it just wasn't that
(15:08):
good.
A, a, a career.
I liked the work.
That was not a problem.
But, uh, the, the, the careeropportunities are few.
So I left the funeral businessand went into sales before we
leave that were, was thefuneral, the hours they had to
be difficult?
Were you the, the phone musthave been ringing all throughout
the night?
(15:28):
Oh yeah.
Seven days a week, twenty fourseven I'd call every other night
I'd be, I'd be at home in bed.
The phone would ring two in themorning.
but it was so unpredictable.
You just never knew.
So in those nights, you justreally couldn't go anywhere.
Had to stay home.
Had to be, so you decided trysales.
Try sales.
And what company did you workfor?
(15:49):
I went to work for Trail Mobile.
It was a tra, a semi-trailermanufacturer.
I had, I worked for them for 15years and then ended up going to
work for a leasing company.
As a trailer buyer.
So I sold'em for 15 years andfor the next 20 years, I, I was
(16:09):
buying them and I was alsoacting as a consultant to our
customers, the leasing customerson the equipment, not of they,
me in the agricultural business.
Well, they were all agriculturalwith that leasing company, but
didn't have really that muchknowledge about the trailers and
they, they weren't getting theright equipment.
You clearly had experience onboth sides of that equation to
(16:32):
Yes.
Be a true consultant with goodcounsel.
And if they were having problemswith the trailer, uh, I could
usually tell'em, you know, whatthe solution was.
So was that company starting inOhio?
Did you get transferred toMinnesota?
I got transferred from Ohio toDetroit with the trailer
company.
I.
And after a year, a year inDetroit, I got promoted again
(16:55):
and transferred to Boston.
Lived in Boston for two years,and then got transferred to
Minnesota.
I changed companies and came toMinnesota.
Had you ever been in this partof the country prior?
No.
First time.
What, what city was it?
Straight to Lindstrom, uh, itwas to Minneapolis.
Uh, they were hiring a managerfor, Minneapolis, Eastern
(17:17):
Wisconsin.
And the Dakotas, multiplelocations, a sales manager.
Little driving involved.
Uh, a little bit, yes.
And I bought a home in, uh,maple Grove.
Lived there seven years.
Uh, went through a divorce,ended up remarrying and bought a
hobby farm up in Lindstrom.
(17:39):
stayed there for 32 years andsix years ago I moved into
Taylors Falls right next door.
How many kids do you have?
Got?
Four kids.
Three boys and a girl.
Nine grandchildren only one ofwhich is in Minnesota.
Uh, my son went to University ofCincinnati, married a local girl
there and stayed there.
(18:01):
Uh, my daughter went to lawschool in Washington, DC at
Georgetown.
Uh, got a job in Washington andstayed there, and one of the
other sons moved to Florida for,for his occupation.
So he lives in Bonita Springsdown by Naples.
Safe to assume that's a goodwinter time visit?
(18:21):
Uh, yes it is.
My wife doesn't care forFlorida, basically because her
grandchildren are down there.
She wants'em closer.
Yeah.
That is tough.
And I have one son lives inBayport.
And have he, he has one of ourgrandsons.
No great grandkids though.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Keyword yet.
Yet, yeah.
Yeah.
(18:42):
He's senior city planner, forthe city of Woodbury.
Been there since today.
He got outta college.
Long tenure.
So far.
He's been there 20 years.
How different was it here comingfrom Ohio and then Boston?
I lived in Boston a couple yearsin a prior career in
underestimated the culturedifference between New England
(19:05):
and the Midwest.
It's easy to do.
Uh, I had no idea that it wouldbe as different as I found it.
Uh, the people in Minnesotamake, make the difference.
How so?
It is definitely different hereand did doing business in New
England.
You had to keep both eyes openall the time.
(19:25):
They would purposely trick you,They were always looking for a
way to, to, to get you, youknow, you really had to be on
your guard.
I came to Minnesota, it justwasn't that way.
People are honest, forthright.
It didn't have to be.
As, as vigilant as I had to bein New Orleans and bef or uh,
(19:47):
new England and before that inDetroit.
So when you first came upon thathonesty, the integrity, did you
initially maybe think, do thesepeople for real?
Is this, is this a front?
It?
It did make me wonder at first.
For example, when I moved toLindstrom, uh, wasn't married to
(20:08):
my wife yet, had the, had thehobby farm and there was a place
in the hallway that neededsomething on the wall.
So I went to the shop inLindstrom.
I'm looking at, uh, couple ofdifferent photographs, framed
pictures.
Lady says, can I help you?
I said, well, I can't decidebetween these two pictures.
(20:30):
She said, well, I'll put'em in abag.
You take'em home and hang themup and see which one looks the
best.
okay.
You sure I took the two of themhome?
And picked one out, brought theother one back and I said, I'm
gonna dump them.
Doesn't that make you a littlenervous?
Yeah.
You didn't even ask me my name.
He said, well, why would I benervous?
(20:51):
And I said, well, what if Ididn't bring them back?
She said, well, why would youwanna do that?
Couldn't fathom you doing that.
And then she said, do you, doyou recall what the price was on
the one you kept?
I said, 39.
Nine five said, okay.
She close enough.
Yeah.
I said, this is crazy.
(21:13):
where have I landed?
Where are these people?
It's just that's the way peopleare.
I don't have a key to my house.
Don't lock You don't lock it atall times, even when you're home
or you Nope.
You leave your car unlocked inthe Yeah, we, we lock it when we
go to bed.
But other than that, the, the.
The door of the patio, thesliding door is open all the
(21:34):
time.
We don't worry about it.
I, uh, frankly, I love it.
I like to ask every guest somerandom questions.
I have pulled these out, writtenthem down already, but it's
almost a perfect fit into whatwe're talking about.
What is the least favorite thingabout where you live now?
(21:56):
You've shared what you reallydo, like what's the least
favorite?
Uh, I would say the leastfavorite thing is my, my house
is on four acres.
We have a pond in the back, andwe have some wetland between the
house and the road.
And by law we can't do anythingwith it.
(22:18):
It's, to me, it's just nature.
You just, you have to leave italone.
Great.
Uh, great place to live.
Yeah.
Well, it's a trade off.
At least you can't do anythingwith the lamb, but at least you
have all of that too.
Yeah.
Small, small town.
What personality trait do youfind the most underrated in
(22:45):
Minnesota?
Anywhere?
I would have to say compassion.
I think there's much morecompassion in people than we
realize.
Maybe we just don't get theopportunity to see it, or it
(23:10):
doesn't really stand out excepton exceptional occasions.
But, uh, I, I have seen it allmy life.
When I worked in the ambulance,every time I got to an accident
on the Ohio Turnpike, there wasat least a dozen semis had
stopped and they got out theirblankets and their flares and
(23:33):
their first aid kits and theirfire extinguishers.
And most of the time they nevergot any of it back, but they
never hesitated.
And that's saying something witha truck driver that's driving on
a schedule Yes.
That's getting paid on thatschedule would say we're we're
gonna stop and do the rightthing.
Time's money, yes.
To a truck driver, but theynever hesitated.
(23:58):
But, and you know, nobodynotices except maybe the people
driving by and maybe they thinkthey were part of the accident.
They don't really see what'shappening.
But I know you know this, thispatient's already got two
blankets wrapped around him, andthere's a fire extinguisher
sitting there and you see theyput out the flares and, and
(24:20):
without hesitation or seekingreward, they do it because it's
the right thing to do.
Yeah.
Doing the right thing.
Yeah.
Let's come up on this podcastfrequently, how much we have in
common as people, as humans.
And the compassion.
The compassion knows.
No political angle, no religiousaffiliation, nothing.
(24:43):
We're all wired to havecompassion.
I think 98% of the people in theworld are good people.
They're just fine.
They're honest, they're caring.
They.
They're just plain nice people,but that doesn't stand out as
(25:03):
much as the 2% that do all thefoolish things.
What would happen in this worldif we took that 98% and had them
highlight and showcase thethings that made them happy, the
things that they're excitedabout or in this holding pattern
(25:24):
of social media, of just railingagainst the things we either
don't like, don't agree with, ormake us angry?
How can we stop focusing on thatand get back to that 98%?
Well, that's a good question.
I, I don't know if there's a oneanswer for that.
I don't know if there's one stepthat you have to take or if it's
(25:48):
a progress of things.
Something to make people realizethat they're the cause of their
own misery.
I can truly say there isn't oneperson in the world that I
actually dislike.
There's some people I prefer notto be around, but they don't
know it.
(26:09):
I can be around them, but thepeople who, who carry those
grudges, who are alwayscomplaining, don't realize
they're making them, makingthemselves miserable, and the
person they're angry at doesn'teven know it.
He's out playing golf somewhereor fishing.
He, he's not upset.
(26:31):
The only upset is the personthat's carrying this grudge
around.
So true, and I just made up mymind a long time ago, I couldn't
stand my high school principal,but a few years after I got
outta high school.
Why?
Why am I even thinking aboutthat jerk?
You know, I gotta stop this.
I'm not even, I'm not even angryat the guy that shot me down
(26:53):
over in Vietnam.
I'd have lunch with him thisafternoon.
We could really, we could talkit over.
Sure.
I, he was, he was fighting forhis cause and I was fighting for
mine.
He didn't, he, he had noparticular dislike for me.
He didn't even know me.
So, you know, why would I beangry at him?
(27:14):
I don't like what he did.
You know?
For sure.
But if your life came withpause, rewind, and fast forward
buttons, how would you use them?
(27:34):
I don't think I'd hit a rewindbutton.
There are times I'm, sometimes,maybe I'd like to have a pause.
And I'm not sure I wanna fastforward.
I'm having too much fun the wayit is.
(27:55):
I don't wanna skip.
It might miss something.
But as far as rewind, there havebeen times in my life that
things happened that I wouldhave preferred not to have
happened.
And like almost everybody, thereare times in my life where I
(28:15):
made mistakes, where I wasembarrassed.
Uh, but you learn from them.
I don't think I'd changeanything.
I certainly wouldn't give up anyof the people that I've met.
I value all of them.
You met some great people alongthe way.
(28:36):
Oh, you, you had such a, such astory between Ohio military,
your, your business.
Your Masonic service.
Could you imagine life withoutthose people?
No.
No, couldn't, couldn't possiblyhappen.
That's it.
It constantly reminds me of thefact that on the tombstones, you
know, it says 1901 to 1989.
(29:00):
It's 1901 dash 1989.
The 1901 means nothing.
The 1989 means nothing.
That's how you spent the dash.
That's what, that's what counts.
I really appreciate yourperspective on that.
Not using the fast forwardbutton, because it feels like so
(29:23):
many people in the world todayfeel like happiness,
fulfillment.
The next thing around the corneris where they're gonna find it.
How fast can I get there?
And they're not realizing thattoday.
Right now.
Those are your good old days.
That's right.
We're not enjoying the momentenough.
We're, we're keep looking ahead.
(29:45):
How do we get there instead of,and we're taking for granted
everything in today.
You have an opportunity today tocreate a memory, a pleasant
memory.
Why would you rush it?
I went back to college after Iretired.
Uh, I always had a passion forhistory unfortunately, you can't
(30:06):
make a living in history.
That's true.
All you can do is teach it.
Yes.
Uh, and, and there are lots ofpeople that wish they could
teach it, but in studyinghistory and going back to
college after I was retired,what was that like?
Oh, it was wonderful.
Yeah.
Uh, I got an additional major inhistory.
I didn't, I didn't finish thedegree.
(30:28):
My mom got cancer and I droppedout that quarter and went down
to Ohio to spend time with herand just never picked it up
again.
But they, they said then thepurpose of studying history of
liking history is so that youcan learn the lessons of the
past to make decisions in thepresent and plan for the future.
(30:52):
So I picked right up on that andjust bore ahead.
That is so true.
You learn from the past so thatyou can plan, so that you can
make decisions in the presentand plan for the future Really
Makes me sad to think that.
The, the history is beingslanted, trying to make our
(31:17):
mistakes, uh, go away, There's alot of it.
They don't teach in school.
I'm really going to be thinkingabout the dash that you just
described too at first, theyear, the last year.
It's all about the dash and it'sall about living in the moment
and not trying to wish our livesaway.
(31:38):
To fast forward that even intough times.
I guess where I'm going withthat is the, the difficult
times.
We want things to be easy.
We want things to becomfortable.
A, a brother shared with me a, aquote recently that basically
said that when asking peoplewhen they really grew
spiritually, they neverdescribed that it was an easy
(32:01):
time.
That their biggest growth camethrough hard times, difficult
circumstances, and that reallymade me think that was the
hamster wheel in my head atthree in the morning the next
day.
Yeah, I can understand thathamster wheel sometimes that's a
little overactive.
(32:23):
Why can't, why can't that happenat three in the afternoon and
not three in the morning?
I wish I could tell you I have ahabit of waking up in the middle
of the night.
I always have, and I can't goback to sleep.
So I usually get up and read andwithin 45 minutes I'm, my eyes
(32:43):
are drooping again.
I go back to bed.
This is a tough question, but inall the years of study, do you
have a favorite book?
Can you say There's one that'smy all time fave.
I would say there's two.
the Bible fascinates me.
(33:03):
I, I'm not one to try tomemorize verses or quotes.
My interest is more in studyingabout the Bible.
Who were the people that wrotethis?
What were their lives about?
What was their motivations?
What was the socialcircumstances at the time?
So that's fascinating.
(33:24):
Uh, the other one is my heritageas Welsh.
My family came here from Walesprobably the most famous book in
Wales is How Green Was My Valleyby Richard Lewellen.
I think I've read it eight or 10times.
Never gets old.
Never gets old.
It's about a Welsh coal miningfamily, uh, in the 18 hundreds.
(33:49):
Had to be tough, tough times.
Tough living.
Oh, man.
And making your living mine incoal.
Yeah, it's a, it's an excellentbook.
And speaking of books, history,reading and learning, you've
been a Mason now for 53 years,serving in so many different
(34:12):
capacities.
Grand Master of Masons inMinnesota, 2004 to 2005.
What are some of the bestmemories of that having served
in the Grand East?
I would say the best memory isall the traveling that I did and
all the people that I met.
(34:35):
I, I was treated like royaltyeverywhere I went.
Anywhere specific come to mind.
Any local lodge I went to.
Okay.
Uh, not me, it's the office thatI held.
Um, most of'em didn't know meuntil I showed up at their
(34:56):
lodge, but their, their respectfor the office was so
impressive.
Always being their last to speakand having people I never got
used to people standing up whenI'm introduced or when I'm
finished speaking.
(35:16):
it was a, it was a wonderfulyear.
Who named you to the line?
Chuck Luman.
Chuck Luman?
Yeah.
Character.
All his own.
Yes.
The uh, the reception that I goteverywhere I went was just, just
super It was a wonderful year.
At the banquet at the end of theyear, I said, I, I have to thank
(35:40):
you for giving me theopportunity to live my masonry
for a whole year, every day,which a lot of people don't get
to do.
I wish we all could.
Oh, that is quite a, quite anhonor and, and a privilege.
Who comes to mind for you asbeing a mentor?
Someone that you look up to,somebody that maybe identified
(36:03):
in you something that you didn'tidentify in yourself?
One of'em was Stuart Lindman,who was active in the radio
here.
Yes.
He was pretty well known.
Yes.
Another one that just died wasWiley Smith.
I think if you looked up theword Mason, there's probably, I
got his picture there.
Oh my God.
Wiley was such a, geez.
(36:25):
What a guy.
We could do a whole episode onWiley.
Gosh, what a, what?
A just, but just having, I said,keep an eye on me.
What do you see as the future ofthe craft?
Over the past 400, 500 years,it's been up and down.
(36:50):
The reason we went fromoperative to speculative was
because it was shrinking.
They weren't building castlesand cathedrals anymore.
The favorite construction wasItalian Renaissance, which is
two and three story buildingswith flat roofs.
Hell, anybody with a hammer anda sock can build those.
(37:11):
You don't need to be a mason toput up one of those buildings.
So the lodges were shrinking.
They took steps to make itbetter and take in speculative
masons.
It's been up and down, up anddown.
I don't think it'll ever be out.
I can feel it being coming backup already.
(37:35):
It's, it's coming slowly, butjust in my own lodge, in
Lindstrom, we were on the vergeof thinking about merging All of
a sudden a group of young guyscame along and grabbed onto it.
And I can truthfully say thetorch has passed in Lindstrom.
And I would agree with you inseeing the surge.
(37:58):
Of new members of gentlemeninterested in learning more
about Freemasonry, reallywanting what we offer with
authentic friendship, buildingcommunity and resources to
pursue personal development.
Not just talking about it, buttaking the tangible steps to
become that better version.
(38:20):
To keep chipping away.
it's, it's good to see.
Yeah.
That's what it's all about.
Yeah.
It's fun.
And having a, a past masterstill stick around, but having a
mentor, that mentor menteerelationship to help elevate the
new guy who may be intimidatedto wanna offend.
You've been doing this for along time, but really ensuring
(38:41):
the longevity of a lodge forthese guys really grabbed it.
Jerry Rhodes, you have given somuch of your time and talents to
this world, your career, yourmilitary service, Mason.
We could talk about it forhours.
I wish we had more time, but wereally appreciate you being
(39:04):
here.
My pleasure.
I I'm happy to come and sharewhatever there is that I have to
share.
well, you've given us a lot ofthings to think about and
contemplate in pursuit ofprioritizing what's important in
life.
Mm-hmm.
I like that.
I'm flattered that you see itthat way.
(39:26):
Very much so.
There's that authenticity thatjust rings.
Rings so true.
We look forward to seeing youagain soon, and as always, thank
you to our listeners forchecking us out.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Today's guest was raised atMeander Lodge number 7 6 5 in
(00:04):
February, 1972.
Meander Lodge being in the stateof Ohio.
He later affiliated at HiramLodge, number 2 87 in Lindstrom.
That was in 1988, serving asWorshipful Master in 1993, again
in 1999, a handful more times in2002, 2005, 2008.
(00:28):
We will have to hear more aboutthat.
Five, five times total in theEast.
Welcome Jerry Rhodes.
Thank you.
Pleased to be here.
It's very selfless to say theleast, that it's one thing to be
master.
Once or twice.
You did five rounds.
Enjoyed it, enjoyed every trip.
You have done so much MasonGrand Lodge Education Officer in
(00:52):
19 95, 96 Grand Master from2004, 2005.
Before we get into some of thoseadditional details, where are
you originally from?
Youngstown, Ohio.
Right on the Pennsylvaniaborder.
I grew up there.
I went to college there.
Where'd you go to school?
Youngstown University.
(01:12):
Then I transferred to Pitt inPittsburgh, graduated.
Then after I returned from theArmy, I made use of the v the VA
bill, the GI bill, and went backto Youngstown.
Got an additional degree.
What were your degrees inbusiness and science?
I was a licensed mortician.
No kidding.
No.
There's something I did not knowabout you.
(01:33):
Were you ever practicing in the,in that field?
I worked in that business for 11years, uh, with timeout, be for
the Army four years, but, uh,since, uh, about ninth grade, I
just always wanted to be amortician.
So put the blinders on boardahead and next thing you know, I
was licensed.
growing up, any siblings?
(01:54):
One sister younger.
And what did your parents do?
What's your dad do for a career?
My dad was in data processingbefore there were computers.
What did that look like in thosedays?
Well, they didn't call'emcomputers.
They called them businessmachines.
And they were very large, veryloud, disorders, calculators,
(02:14):
printers, huge machines.
And he just kind of graduallyprogressed right with the
industry.
Did that for 44 years.
I bet it would be difficult forhim to be able to comprehend how
tiny these microchips are bytoday's standards.
Well, he never used a, a laptopever.
(02:37):
And he said when he retired,anybody who mentioned the word
computer in his presence wouldprobably be skinned.
Well, message Steve Dad.
Yes.
And then did you sign up formilitary service?
Were you drafted?
What were the, what was thattimeline for you?
I was basically a draft dodger.
I didn't object at all tomilitary service, but I didn't
(03:00):
want to be drafted.
If you get drafted, you justtake two years of your life away
from home, do exactly what theytell you to do wherever they
tell you to do it.
Uh, and I thought that such awaste.
So I, I enlisted because I wassure I was gonna get drafted
anyway.
And what year was that?
Enlisted in 67.
(03:22):
Did you have a choice of whatyou wanted to go into?
Well, I picked up every brochurethe Army recruiter had, and the
only one that interested me wasthe aviation.
And the deal at the time was youcould take the admission test
for flight school, uh, beforesigning up.
(03:43):
So you knew whether or not youwere gonna get in.
So I took the test and passed ita real brain drain.
I'll tell you, it was a reallyeight hour exam.
Wow.
And Started out in helicoptersthe first day, which is opposite
of what the civilians do.
They get a airplane license andthen transition.
That's what I assumed.
Okay.
But, uh, we, oh, I started inhelicopters very first day.
(04:07):
Was flight school fast trackedbecause of Vietnam, because of
things going on in the world?
No, it took a year, six monthsin Texas and then six months in
Georgia at, at the advancedschool.
And then from there, I, I hadrequested medevac because I did
ambulance work before I went inthe army.
So I requested, uh, to flymedevac.
(04:27):
So I had to go take medicaltraining too.
What was the attrition rate likein advanced flight school and
then having in that?
Aspect of having to have themedical the attrition rate in
flight school was, uh, therewere some that couldn't handle
the academics and they justflunked out.
There were some that couldn't,couldn't fly, uh, that were just
afraid of it.
(04:48):
It's helicopters are ratherdifficult to, uh, to handle and
some of'em just never got overthe fear.
And were most of the ones whodidn't make it dropped out.
How soon after graduating didyou get deployed?
Uh, as soon as I graduated fromflight school, I went to Texas
for the medical trainingStandard medics course.
(05:10):
So eight weeks later I was on myway to Vietnam.
That's unusual for aviation toobecause, uh, usually the, when
you graduate from flight school,air Force or Navy, you get
assigned to a unit in the UnitedStates for additional training
and, and just accumulatinghours, becoming comfortable in
(05:31):
the cockpit.
And, but, uh, no, we get, mywhole class went to Vietnam
except for one guy.
He had already been there forone tour as an infantryman, so
they sent him to Germany how doyou feel about sharing a little
more insight on you're not onlypiloting a helicopter, but
(05:53):
you're a medevac.
Time is of the essence oninnumerable levels.
True.
It's, uh, it's a very stressfuloccupation.
I thought I was better preparedfor it than most of the guys
because I'd done the work in theambulance.
But, uh, in looking back at it,I was not any better prepared
(06:16):
than they were.
Uh, it's psychologicallystressful just seeing guys shot
up in bad, in bad shape dayafter day after day, and kinda
wears on.
You And you're trying to getthem from where they are injured
to a place of first aid and careand doing so without incident
(06:40):
within an hour.
The goal was to get'em from itwherever they were wounded to
the MASH unit and the surgeonwithin one hour.
Most of the time we made it.
Sometimes the distancesinvolved.
Just made it take a littlelonger.
I'd say 80% of the time thewounded were in Mash Hospital
(07:04):
within an hour of being wounded.
How fast were you expected to beturning around and back up in
the air?
It all depended on when the nextphone call came.
Sometimes it was, we didn't evenshut down.
Uh, we could fly four or fivemissions in a day.
In a day.
And we also flew at night, whichvery few of the other
(07:25):
helicopters did.
Can't hardly tell a guy, youcan't come and get him because
it's raining.
Right?
He's bleeding, you know, heneeds us.
how long did you serve in thatcapacity?
One year through 712 missions.
And we did fly at night quite abit.
(07:47):
How, what was that like?
Well, the advantage is if you doit enough, you get real good at
it.
Most of the helicopter pilots inVietnam didn't do it enough to
get good at it.
So consequently, they werepretty nervous about it.
Yeah.
I got to the point where Iactually preferred it.
How come?
The air was smoother at night.
And there's no better place inthe world to hide than in the
dark.
(08:07):
So I could turn all my lightsoff'cause nobody else was
flying.
That was my next question.
The novice question.
Could you go into lightdiscipline and turn everything
off in the dead of night?
Yes.
Turn off all the externallights.
The, uh, we turned the cockpitlights down, uh, so we could
still see'em, but they, they'rered, they didn't show up to the
(08:28):
ground at all.
So we, we could be up there,they could hear us and sometimes
they shot, just shot at thenoise.
but very seldom with any effect.
It that goes up there.
And you know, I've been outflying, I see tracers going
straight up in the air, quarterof a mile off to the left or
right.
(08:48):
And I know they're shooting atme'cause there's nobody else up.
But they're not even close.
It's laughable.
Only once did I get hit atnight.
Really?
Yeah.
Just a lucky shot.
Where did, where was contact?
It uh, machine gunners kind ofstitched up the belly of the
helicopter.
There was a dozen holes acrossthe, the bullets came in, hit
(09:09):
the fuel cells and actuallydropped down onto the fuselage.
Obviously you made it to safety,but that had to be dicey.
Well, it's, it is.
You can't see the damage, so youwonder just how bad it is.
But they came in and hit thefuel cells and, and just dropped
off.
(09:31):
it goes without saying, thankyou for your service to our
country, first and foremost.
Most welcome.
Very rewarding.
So how does someone do that fora year?
Stress, seeing what you, everyday, seeing what you saw.
How do you go back to civilianlife after that kind of a day,
(09:54):
at a time?
I do probably the only criticismI had of the Army.
I was much in favor of it, but,uh, the army and overall.
But when I came back, nobody,nobody even said, how do you
feel?
Are you okay?
I came back, had a couple ofweeks off, got right down to the
(10:15):
advanced flight school again asa classroom instructor.
Got on with my life.
Some guys needed some help withthat right away.
Uh, with me, it was, it, it kindof came back a lot of years
later, you get, you're prettynervous when you get back.
It's, I'd call it hyper alert Istill don't like to sit with my
(10:40):
back to the drawer.
I wanna see who's coming andgoing.
It's just a habit, you know,it's, if my back's to the door,
I'm just a little bit nervous.
Understood.
I don't know if that'll ever goaway.
So you come back, did you resumeschooling or work at the time,
or how did what?
What was your Initially I wentback to the funeral business and
(11:04):
that's what got me into masonry.
I worked at the funeral home.
Everybody in the funeral homewas a mason except me.
In what city was this In?
Youngstown.
Okay.
One of the suburbs.
And we had funeral home andambulance service.
I worked there before I went inthe Army, so I went back to, to
the same job.
So were your colleagues,obviously were Masons.
(11:24):
Were you initially curious afterseeing a Masonic service,
perhaps, or was it yourcolleagues or maybe both.
It was a little of both.
I started doing some afterdinner speaking because my boss
was supposed to arrange for anafter dinner speaker, forgot to
do it, and three days before thebanquet he says, Hey, you gotta
(11:46):
bail me out.
Just come and tell some stories,you know?
Well, somebody that was in theaudience came up afterward and
asked if I would do it for hisorganization.
And then next thing you know, itjust kind of snowballed.
It's the Jerry Road speakingtour now.
Yeah.
Doing the rubber chicken Ccircuit.
Right.
So I, I spoke at a shrine club.
(12:07):
Youngstown has a shrine club.
They have their own property andtheir own building, and about
150 guys at the banquet.
And there was a girl there thatnight that had been in treatment
for five years in a ho in theShrine Hospital.
She was about 14, I think she'dbeen nine years old when she
started, but she had triplecurvature of the spine.
(12:30):
There were a lot of pictures ofher in the lobby.
Uh, when she started treatmentat Shrine Hospital, she couldn't
even look up.
Uh, she spent her whole lifelooking down and after five
years, she was standing therestraight as an arrow.
Well, her dad got up and spokeand he thanked them all, of
course, for everything.
She got up and spoke and whenshe said, I don't know exactly
(12:53):
how to thank you, man, so I'mgonna thank you, the only way I
know how.
And she walked through the halland hugged and kissed every guy
in the place.
It was absolute silence.
And these guys who'd beenstanding at the bar drinking,
smoking their cigars and talkingtough before dinner, just melted
(13:15):
a lot of cloudy eyes in theroom.
Oh, yes.
And I asked the guy sitting nextto me.
How, how can I become a part ofthis group?
I gotta get in on this.
Was that, that was the momentwhere you said, yeah, I need to
be a part of this.
He said, well, first of all, yougotta be a mason.
So the next morning when I wentto work, you know, I said, uh,
(13:37):
how do I become a mason?
The guy was working with says,what the hell took you so long?
He's waiting on you to saysomething.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well at the time he couldn't.
Right.
Did he produce a petitionquickly?
He had one in his desk.
and that obviously what led youto join Meander Lodge in Ohio?
Yes, yes.
(13:58):
And I got so hung up on the BlueLodge that it took me 15 years
to get to the Scottish Rite.
Uh, and I wanted to get to theScottish Rite,'cause I still
wanted to be a Shriner.
And then it took me 10 yearsbefore I get into the shrine.
I got hooked at Scottish Rite,which I think looking back is
still a plus because there isthat opportunity to really get
(14:23):
to know and understand what itmeans to be a Mason and to
immerse yourself in your BlueLodge experience.
And we're, yes, we're allmembers of the concordant
dependent bodies, but maybe werush guys a little quickly outta
the Blue Lodge and, and thenoverwhelm them with so many
different places to be involvedand to be active.
(14:43):
Well, it's true.
I usually tell our newer membersthat just give it a year or two,
let things settle, decide whatyou wanna do.
So how did you end up inMinnesota?
You were raised in Meander Lodgein 1972.
Did you work for a few moreyears in Ohio before?
What was the catalyst that ledyou here?
I left the funeral business,found out it just wasn't that
(15:08):
good.
A, a, a career.
I liked the work.
That was not a problem.
But, uh, the, the, the careeropportunities are few.
So I left the funeral businessand went into sales before we
leave that were, was thefuneral, the hours they had to
be difficult?
Were you the, the phone musthave been ringing all throughout
the night?
(15:28):
Oh yeah.
Seven days a week, twenty fourseven I'd call every other night
I'd be, I'd be at home in bed.
The phone would ring two in themorning.
but it was so unpredictable.
You just never knew.
So in those nights, you justreally couldn't go anywhere.
Had to stay home.
Had to be, so you decided trysales.
Try sales.
And what company did you workfor?
(15:49):
I went to work for Trail Mobile.
It was a tra, a semi-trailermanufacturer.
I had, I worked for them for 15years and then ended up going to
work for a leasing company.
As a trailer buyer.
So I sold'em for 15 years andfor the next 20 years, I, I was
(16:09):
buying them and I was alsoacting as a consultant to our
customers, the leasing customerson the equipment, not of they,
me in the agricultural business.
Well, they were all agriculturalwith that leasing company, but
didn't have really that muchknowledge about the trailers and
they, they weren't getting theright equipment.
You clearly had experience onboth sides of that equation to
(16:32):
Yes.
Be a true consultant with goodcounsel.
And if they were having problemswith the trailer, uh, I could
usually tell'em, you know, whatthe solution was.
So was that company starting inOhio?
Did you get transferred toMinnesota?
I got transferred from Ohio toDetroit with the trailer
company.
I.
And after a year, a year inDetroit, I got promoted again
(16:55):
and transferred to Boston.
Lived in Boston for two years,and then got transferred to
Minnesota.
I changed companies and came toMinnesota.
Had you ever been in this partof the country prior?
No.
First time.
What, what city was it?
Straight to Lindstrom, uh, itwas to Minneapolis.
Uh, they were hiring a managerfor, Minneapolis, Eastern
(17:17):
Wisconsin.
And the Dakotas, multiplelocations, a sales manager.
Little driving involved.
Uh, a little bit, yes.
And I bought a home in, uh,maple Grove.
Lived there seven years.
Uh, went through a divorce,ended up remarrying and bought a
hobby farm up in Lindstrom.
(17:39):
stayed there for 32 years andsix years ago I moved into
Taylors Falls right next door.
How many kids do you have?
Got?
Four kids.
Three boys and a girl.
Nine grandchildren only one ofwhich is in Minnesota.
Uh, my son went to University ofCincinnati, married a local girl
there and stayed there.
(18:01):
Uh, my daughter went to lawschool in Washington, DC at
Georgetown.
Uh, got a job in Washington andstayed there, and one of the
other sons moved to Florida for,for his occupation.
So he lives in Bonita Springsdown by Naples.
Safe to assume that's a goodwinter time visit?
(18:21):
Uh, yes it is.
My wife doesn't care forFlorida, basically because her
grandchildren are down there.
She wants'em closer.
Yeah.
That is tough.
And I have one son lives inBayport.
And have he, he has one of ourgrandsons.
No great grandkids though.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Keyword yet.
Yet, yeah.
Yeah.
(18:42):
He's senior city planner, forthe city of Woodbury.
Been there since today.
He got outta college.
Long tenure.
So far.
He's been there 20 years.
How different was it here comingfrom Ohio and then Boston?
I lived in Boston a couple yearsin a prior career in
underestimated the culturedifference between New England
(19:05):
and the Midwest.
It's easy to do.
Uh, I had no idea that it wouldbe as different as I found it.
Uh, the people in Minnesotamake, make the difference.
How so?
It is definitely different hereand did doing business in New
England.
You had to keep both eyes openall the time.
(19:25):
They would purposely trick you,They were always looking for a
way to, to, to get you, youknow, you really had to be on
your guard.
I came to Minnesota, it justwasn't that way.
People are honest, forthright.
It didn't have to be.
As, as vigilant as I had to bein New Orleans and bef or uh,
(19:47):
new England and before that inDetroit.
So when you first came upon thathonesty, the integrity, did you
initially maybe think, do thesepeople for real?
Is this, is this a front?
It?
It did make me wonder at first.
For example, when I moved toLindstrom, uh, wasn't married to
(20:08):
my wife yet, had the, had thehobby farm and there was a place
in the hallway that neededsomething on the wall.
So I went to the shop inLindstrom.
I'm looking at, uh, couple ofdifferent photographs, framed
pictures.
Lady says, can I help you?
I said, well, I can't decidebetween these two pictures.
(20:30):
She said, well, I'll put'em in abag.
You take'em home and hang themup and see which one looks the
best.
okay.
You sure I took the two of themhome?
And picked one out, brought theother one back and I said, I'm
gonna dump them.
Doesn't that make you a littlenervous?
Yeah.
You didn't even ask me my name.
He said, well, why would I benervous?
(20:51):
And I said, well, what if Ididn't bring them back?
She said, well, why would youwanna do that?
Couldn't fathom you doing that.
And then she said, do you, doyou recall what the price was on
the one you kept?
I said, 39.
Nine five said, okay.
She close enough.
Yeah.
I said, this is crazy.
(21:13):
where have I landed?
Where are these people?
It's just that's the way peopleare.
I don't have a key to my house.
Don't lock You don't lock it atall times, even when you're home
or you Nope.
You leave your car unlocked inthe Yeah, we, we lock it when we
go to bed.
But other than that, the, the.
The door of the patio, thesliding door is open all the
(21:34):
time.
We don't worry about it.
I, uh, frankly, I love it.
I like to ask every guest somerandom questions.
I have pulled these out, writtenthem down already, but it's
almost a perfect fit into whatwe're talking about.
What is the least favorite thingabout where you live now?
(21:56):
You've shared what you reallydo, like what's the least
favorite?
Uh, I would say the leastfavorite thing is my, my house
is on four acres.
We have a pond in the back, andwe have some wetland between the
house and the road.
And by law we can't do anythingwith it.
(22:18):
It's, to me, it's just nature.
You just, you have to leave italone.
Great.
Uh, great place to live.
Yeah.
Well, it's a trade off.
At least you can't do anythingwith the lamb, but at least you
have all of that too.
Yeah.
Small, small town.
What personality trait do youfind the most underrated in
(22:45):
Minnesota?
Anywhere?
I would have to say compassion.
I think there's much morecompassion in people than we
realize.
Maybe we just don't get theopportunity to see it, or it
(23:10):
doesn't really stand out excepton exceptional occasions.
But, uh, I, I have seen it allmy life.
When I worked in the ambulance,every time I got to an accident
on the Ohio Turnpike, there wasat least a dozen semis had
stopped and they got out theirblankets and their flares and
(23:33):
their first aid kits and theirfire extinguishers.
And most of the time they nevergot any of it back, but they
never hesitated.
And that's saying something witha truck driver that's driving on
a schedule Yes.
That's getting paid on thatschedule would say we're we're
gonna stop and do the rightthing.
Time's money, yes.
To a truck driver, but theynever hesitated.
(23:58):
But, and you know, nobodynotices except maybe the people
driving by and maybe they thinkthey were part of the accident.
They don't really see what'shappening.
But I know you know this, thispatient's already got two
blankets wrapped around him, andthere's a fire extinguisher
sitting there and you see theyput out the flares and, and
(24:20):
without hesitation or seekingreward, they do it because it's
the right thing to do.
Yeah.
Doing the right thing.
Yeah.
Let's come up on this podcastfrequently, how much we have in
common as people, as humans.
And the compassion.
The compassion knows.
No political angle, no religiousaffiliation, nothing.
(24:43):
We're all wired to havecompassion.
I think 98% of the people in theworld are good people.
They're just fine.
They're honest, they're caring.
They.
They're just plain nice people,but that doesn't stand out as
(25:03):
much as the 2% that do all thefoolish things.
What would happen in this worldif we took that 98% and had them
highlight and showcase thethings that made them happy, the
things that they're excitedabout or in this holding pattern
(25:24):
of social media, of just railingagainst the things we either
don't like, don't agree with, ormake us angry?
How can we stop focusing on thatand get back to that 98%?
Well, that's a good question.
I, I don't know if there's a oneanswer for that.
I don't know if there's one stepthat you have to take or if it's
(25:48):
a progress of things.
Something to make people realizethat they're the cause of their
own misery.
I can truly say there isn't oneperson in the world that I
actually dislike.
There's some people I prefer notto be around, but they don't
know it.
(26:09):
I can be around them, but thepeople who, who carry those
grudges, who are alwayscomplaining, don't realize
they're making them, makingthemselves miserable, and the
person they're angry at doesn'teven know it.
He's out playing golf somewhereor fishing.
He, he's not upset.
(26:31):
The only upset is the personthat's carrying this grudge
around.
So true, and I just made up mymind a long time ago, I couldn't
stand my high school principal,but a few years after I got
outta high school.
Why?
Why am I even thinking aboutthat jerk?
You know, I gotta stop this.
I'm not even, I'm not even angryat the guy that shot me down
(26:53):
over in Vietnam.
I'd have lunch with him thisafternoon.
We could really, we could talkit over.
Sure.
I, he was, he was fighting forhis cause and I was fighting for
mine.
He didn't, he, he had noparticular dislike for me.
He didn't even know me.
So, you know, why would I beangry at him?
(27:14):
I don't like what he did.
You know?
For sure.
But if your life came withpause, rewind, and fast forward
buttons, how would you use them?
(27:34):
I don't think I'd hit a rewindbutton.
There are times I'm, sometimes,maybe I'd like to have a pause.
And I'm not sure I wanna fastforward.
I'm having too much fun the wayit is.
(27:55):
I don't wanna skip.
It might miss something.
But as far as rewind, there havebeen times in my life that
things happened that I wouldhave preferred not to have
happened.
And like almost everybody, thereare times in my life where I
(28:15):
made mistakes, where I wasembarrassed.
Uh, but you learn from them.
I don't think I'd changeanything.
I certainly wouldn't give up anyof the people that I've met.
I value all of them.
You met some great people alongthe way.
(28:36):
Oh, you, you had such a, such astory between Ohio military,
your, your business.
Your Masonic service.
Could you imagine life withoutthose people?
No.
No, couldn't, couldn't possiblyhappen.
That's it.
It constantly reminds me of thefact that on the tombstones, you
know, it says 1901 to 1989.
(29:00):
It's 1901 dash 1989.
The 1901 means nothing.
The 1989 means nothing.
That's how you spent the dash.
That's what, that's what counts.
I really appreciate yourperspective on that.
Not using the fast forwardbutton, because it feels like so
(29:23):
many people in the world todayfeel like happiness,
fulfillment.
The next thing around the corneris where they're gonna find it.
How fast can I get there?
And they're not realizing thattoday.
Right now.
Those are your good old days.
That's right.
We're not enjoying the momentenough.
We're, we're keep looking ahead.
(29:45):
How do we get there instead of,and we're taking for granted
everything in today.
You have an opportunity today tocreate a memory, a pleasant
memory.
Why would you rush it?
I went back to college after Iretired.
Uh, I always had a passion forhistory unfortunately, you can't
(30:06):
make a living in history.
That's true.
All you can do is teach it.
Yes.
Uh, and, and there are lots ofpeople that wish they could
teach it, but in studyinghistory and going back to
college after I was retired,what was that like?
Oh, it was wonderful.
Yeah.
Uh, I got an additional major inhistory.
I didn't, I didn't finish thedegree.
(30:28):
My mom got cancer and I droppedout that quarter and went down
to Ohio to spend time with herand just never picked it up
again.
But they, they said then thepurpose of studying history of
liking history is so that youcan learn the lessons of the
past to make decisions in thepresent and plan for the future.
(30:52):
So I picked right up on that andjust bore ahead.
That is so true.
You learn from the past so thatyou can plan, so that you can
make decisions in the presentand plan for the future Really
Makes me sad to think that.
The, the history is beingslanted, trying to make our
(31:17):
mistakes, uh, go away, There's alot of it.
They don't teach in school.
I'm really going to be thinkingabout the dash that you just
described too at first, theyear, the last year.
It's all about the dash and it'sall about living in the moment
and not trying to wish our livesaway.
(31:38):
To fast forward that even intough times.
I guess where I'm going withthat is the, the difficult
times.
We want things to be easy.
We want things to becomfortable.
A, a brother shared with me a, aquote recently that basically
said that when asking peoplewhen they really grew
spiritually, they neverdescribed that it was an easy
(32:01):
time.
That their biggest growth camethrough hard times, difficult
circumstances, and that reallymade me think that was the
hamster wheel in my head atthree in the morning the next
day.
Yeah, I can understand thathamster wheel sometimes that's a
little overactive.
(32:23):
Why can't, why can't that happenat three in the afternoon and
not three in the morning?
I wish I could tell you I have ahabit of waking up in the middle
of the night.
I always have, and I can't goback to sleep.
So I usually get up and read andwithin 45 minutes I'm, my eyes
(32:43):
are drooping again.
I go back to bed.
This is a tough question, but inall the years of study, do you
have a favorite book?
Can you say There's one that'smy all time fave.
I would say there's two.
the Bible fascinates me.
(33:03):
I, I'm not one to try tomemorize verses or quotes.
My interest is more in studyingabout the Bible.
Who were the people that wrotethis?
What were their lives about?
What was their motivations?
What was the socialcircumstances at the time?
So that's fascinating.
(33:24):
Uh, the other one is my heritageas Welsh.
My family came here from Walesprobably the most famous book in
Wales is How Green Was My Valleyby Richard Lewellen.
I think I've read it eight or 10times.
Never gets old.
Never gets old.
It's about a Welsh coal miningfamily, uh, in the 18 hundreds.
(33:49):
Had to be tough, tough times.
Tough living.
Oh, man.
And making your living mine incoal.
Yeah, it's a, it's an excellentbook.
And speaking of books, history,reading and learning, you've
been a Mason now for 53 years,serving in so many different
(34:12):
capacities.
Grand Master of Masons inMinnesota, 2004 to 2005.
What are some of the bestmemories of that having served
in the Grand East?
I would say the best memory isall the traveling that I did and
all the people that I met.
(34:35):
I, I was treated like royaltyeverywhere I went.
Anywhere specific come to mind.
Any local lodge I went to.
Okay.
Uh, not me, it's the office thatI held.
Um, most of'em didn't know meuntil I showed up at their
(34:56):
lodge, but their, their respectfor the office was so
impressive.
Always being their last to speakand having people I never got
used to people standing up whenI'm introduced or when I'm
finished speaking.
(35:16):
it was a, it was a wonderfulyear.
Who named you to the line?
Chuck Luman.
Chuck Luman?
Yeah.
Character.
All his own.
Yes.
The uh, the reception that I goteverywhere I went was just, just
super It was a wonderful year.
At the banquet at the end of theyear, I said, I, I have to thank
(35:40):
you for giving me theopportunity to live my masonry
for a whole year, every day,which a lot of people don't get
to do.
I wish we all could.
Oh, that is quite a, quite anhonor and, and a privilege.
Who comes to mind for you asbeing a mentor?
Someone that you look up to,somebody that maybe identified
(36:03):
in you something that you didn'tidentify in yourself?
One of'em was Stuart Lindman,who was active in the radio
here.
Yes.
He was pretty well known.
Yes.
Another one that just died wasWiley Smith.
I think if you looked up theword Mason, there's probably, I
got his picture there.
Oh my God.
Wiley was such a, geez.
(36:25):
What a guy.
We could do a whole episode onWiley.
Gosh, what a, what?
A just, but just having, I said,keep an eye on me.
What do you see as the future ofthe craft?
Over the past 400, 500 years,it's been up and down.
(36:50):
The reason we went fromoperative to speculative was
because it was shrinking.
They weren't building castlesand cathedrals anymore.
The favorite construction wasItalian Renaissance, which is
two and three story buildingswith flat roofs.
Hell, anybody with a hammer anda sock can build those.
(37:11):
You don't need to be a mason toput up one of those buildings.
So the lodges were shrinking.
They took steps to make itbetter and take in speculative
masons.
It's been up and down, up anddown.
I don't think it'll ever be out.
I can feel it being coming backup already.
(37:35):
It's, it's coming slowly, butjust in my own lodge, in
Lindstrom, we were on the vergeof thinking about merging All of
a sudden a group of young guyscame along and grabbed onto it.
And I can truthfully say thetorch has passed in Lindstrom.
And I would agree with you inseeing the surge.
(37:58):
Of new members of gentlemeninterested in learning more
about Freemasonry, reallywanting what we offer with
authentic friendship, buildingcommunity and resources to
pursue personal development.
Not just talking about it, buttaking the tangible steps to
become that better version.
(38:20):
To keep chipping away.
it's, it's good to see.
Yeah.
That's what it's all about.
Yeah.
It's fun.
And having a, a past masterstill stick around, but having a
mentor, that mentor menteerelationship to help elevate the
new guy who may be intimidatedto wanna offend.
You've been doing this for along time, but really ensuring
(38:41):
the longevity of a lodge forthese guys really grabbed it.
Jerry Rhodes, you have given somuch of your time and talents to
this world, your career, yourmilitary service, Mason.
We could talk about it forhours.
I wish we had more time, but wereally appreciate you being
(39:04):
here.
My pleasure.
I I'm happy to come and sharewhatever there is that I have to
share.
well, you've given us a lot ofthings to think about and
contemplate in pursuit ofprioritizing what's important in
life.
Mm-hmm.
I like that.
I'm flattered that you see itthat way.
(39:26):
Very much so.
There's that authenticity thatjust rings.
Rings so true.
We look forward to seeing youagain soon, and as always, thank
you to our listeners forchecking us out.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
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