——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
By Pauline Masson
A crew of 14 volunteers showed up to work the Mothers Day “All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast”at the Robertsville Masonic Lodge), 1228 Adler Lane – named for George J. Adler the first worshipful master of the Lodge.
By 10:00 a.m. 111 adults and four kids were gathered at tables that filled the Lodge dining area, as volunteers manned their stations in the busy kitchen.
Ken Brasier grilled a continuous line of plate-filling pancakes. Brasier, a long time member who retired in Salem, Missouri, makes the 100-mile drive to the lodge once a month to help with the breakfast. Judy Humphrey slathered gravy atop open biscuits and Cindy Poertner scooped up large helpings of eggs, hash browns, sausage and bacon.
The story of the 151-year-old Lodge begins at the heyday of Robertsville as a railroad town, when 20 trains a day stopped at the Robertsville Station at the junction of Hwy O and N.
“The lodge was founded in the days before electric street lights,” Ron Brown said. “Meeting were held on are near the full moon so members could see their way home when the meeting closed near midnight.”
From the outset, families have been the mainstay of the lodge. When the late Charles Watters accepted his 50 year pin in May 2019 he told me that his great-grandfather, Ed Watters, built the first lodge, when it occupied the second story of the Mount Olive Church in Robertsville.
His grandfather, Charlie Watters later removed the second story of the church and built the structure at Highways O and N, which served as the lodge for several decades. Charles was about 10 years old when the brick lodge on Adler Lane, where it is now located, was completed.
“This lodge was built almost entirely by lodge members, who worked in the building trades,” Ron Brown said.
The pancake breakfasts, which are held the second Sunday of each month, started in 1976, and have funded a series of community service projects for the lodge.
A Christmas basket program that provided food and clothing for area families was operated for more than 50 years. That program – like the pancake breakfasts – attracted people and groups from throughout the community and grew into a community-wide project. The Mount Olive United Methodist Church, Catawissa V.F.W. Post 6665 and OES, and eventually Bell Funeral Home helped with the program.
Recently the basket program was morphed into the Pacific Area Adopt-A-Family. The lodge adopts three families, that usually includes ten to twelve kids, and buys all the items on the list.
“The pancake breakfasts have changed a bit,” said Bob Wors, worshipful master of the lodge. “People used to serve themselves. We stopped the breakfasts from March to September 2021. When we restarted in October 2021, because of concerns about COVID we didn’t want people touching things so we set up the cafeteria style serving.”
Every mother who attended the breakfast was presented with a delicate long-stemmed rose bud – courtesy of Russell and Judy Humphrey – whose petals were were crafted from paper thin wood.
