Earlier this evening my good friend Woody Woodruff came by my home with some interesting pieces from his collection to scan for my website. After first having a wonderful dinner at an excellent local Italian restaurant, we sat down to business.

Some of the items he brought are very rarely seen. A few of them are not yet listed in Blue Book. The first of these is an apparent prototype of Occoneechee’s 45th/60th anniversary wovens. It came from another well-known North Carolina collector who recently sold much of his collection and is a member of this lodge.

Continue Reading »

Popularity: 4% [?]

As many know, the National Committee of the Order of the Arrow stopped assigning lodge numbers a few years back.     Lodge numbers no longer appear on lodge charters.     At National events, lodges are identified by their names, council names, headquarter cities, and council numbers.

For most practical purposes this has no effect at the local level upon the lodges and its members.     Nothing stops the lodges from referring to themselves by their historical lodge numbers.   Nothing stops anyone else from referring to lodges, colloquially, by the lodge number.     For example, I think most would agree it’s easier to say, “Do you have a 188 or a 536 flap  for my 561?” than “Do you have an Itibaipishe Iti Hollo or Tupwee Gudas Gov Youchiqudt Soovep flap for my Oala Ishadalakalish flap?”

However, even if something is simple and clear, there will be ways found to muddle it. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Much has been written about the performance of the UNC men’s basketball team over the past weekend, from their comeback against USC to their collapse against Georgetown.       Much has also been written about the familial connections between this year’s Georgetown team and 1982′s who lost to UNC on a last minute shot by a UNC student named Michael Jordan.

Rapidly becoming lost in the hustle and bustle of March Madness is the tragedy of Jason Ray.     Jason was a member of the UNC cheerleading squad and performed the role of Ramses, the UNC mascot, for the past three years.     Friday he was struck by a car while crossing the street in NJ.     Early Monday morning he left this mortal world. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 14% [?]

Thanks to the guys at ScoutHistory.net, Cloth Talk #25 is now available for downloading either through iTunes or by direct download at http://www.scouthistory.net/blog/. Remember, you do not need to have iTunes installed in order to listen to Cloth Talk. They also have a dialup-friendly version available for those who do not have high speed internet connections.
Continue Reading »

Popularity: 4% [?]

25 years ago UNC won the national championship with a last second shot by Michael Jordan against Georgetown.     History did not repeat itself.   Carolina’s season came to a disappointing end Sunday evening with an overtime trouncing by Georgetown.

Carolina had a slump of sorts in the latter part of the regular seaon, displaying less than stellar play, but bounced back.   They ended their regular season with a victory over “dook”, clinching the ACC regular season title, and then went on to win the ACC tournament.

Unfortunately, that Carolina team did not show up on Sunday.     For most of the game they were firmly in control and victory seemed to be almost assured.     Then about halfway through the 2nd half it was almost as if the team went home and were replaced by a lackluster playing gang of dopplegangers.     The Tarheels went almost the whole overtime period without scoring a single point.     By that time Georgetown had completely owned them.

They now return to Chapel Hill, having made it to the Elite 8, but unable to add a National Championship banner to the Dean Dome’s rafters.   They boys in Chapel Hill will not be commemorating the 25th and 50th anniversaries of previous championships with one of their own.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Just when you thought there would be no more patches issued for last Summer’s NOAC, along comes Santee 116 with their first ever NOAC flap.     Thanks to Jason Spangler for the information and scan.

Jason reports this flap didn’t arrive until after NOAC.   The lodge had these and wanted to release them at the 2006 Fall Fellowship, but they could not decide how to distribute them.   Once a decision was made, the lodge released these at their banquet in January 2007.

Continue Reading »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Greg Grimes sent me the image of the patch at the head of this post. He thinks it might be an unknown/unlisted elangomat issue from Occoneechee lodge.

He reports this was in a collection of items from Occoneechee and therefore suspects this piece could also be from that lodge. He has no other evidence to support this contention.

This lodge is and has been avidly collected by many folks. While certainly possible, it would be a bit unusual for an issue to have escaped the notice of the various collectors and cataloguers for all these years. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Muscogee 221 has issued a new neckerchief for their 65th anniversary.   250 were made and have all sold out.   Thanks to Tripp Clark for the image of this piece.

Blue Book information is as follows:

Popularity: 4% [?]

Atta Kulla Kulla has issued a patch for their 2007 Spring Fellowship.     Once again, thanks to Darrell Green for making me aware of this issue.

Blue Book style information for this issue is as follows:

Popularity: 4% [?]

According to Darrell Green, Atta Kulla Kulla 185 has issued its first chenille.     There were 300 of these made.   All area individually numbered in embroidery on the face of the patch.

The lodge has plans for a second chenille, an unnumbered version of this one, to be issued after this chenille sells out.

Continue Reading »

Popularity: 4% [?]