Back in the day, Rosalie was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, an international women’s social and cultural organization. (Started by a man in the 1930’s.) They met twice a month in the winter and did mysterious things that we guys weren’t allowed to know about. We did hear a rumour about sacrificing goats and giving drugged guys really weird haircuts and such but we never managed to verify that.
One of the guys, I don’t know who, suggested that we men form our own fraternity and call it the F.O.O.L.S. The “fraternal order of old lousy shits.” Our goal, while the girls were doing their weird rituals, was to provide entertainment once a year, for the women of the sorority.
Of course, we had to have meetings while the ladies had theirs but we were smart enough to have ours in a pub. The idea of these meetings was to come up with some kind of entertainment as a surprise for the ladies. This was not an easy task and it took many meetings (in the pub) to come up with a suitable idea. This idea usually became clear the week before we were supposed to pull it off.
First, we had to elect a president as a patsy to do all the running around and make phone calls. You had to be an idiot to take this position and I had it several years, along with Gordie.
We did things like BBQs and trips to restaurants. One of our best trips was to Port Alberni with a ride on the train to the Mclean Mill where we had a tour of this historic site and a special lunch of barbequed planked salmon, cooked over an open wood fire, provided by the local native community. I’m proud to say that this was one of my ideas. We did the trip a second time to the winery but it wasn’t as much fun as the first time.
We also did a few camping weekends; several people had RVs so this was a lot of fun. One of the more memorable days was when we were supposed to spend the day on Newcastle island and have a picnic and BBQ. Unfortunately, it poured down so Gordie, whom I suspect was president that year, had us all back to his and Janice’s house and it saved the day. Gordie and Janice also had us all go down to Lake Cowichan for a day at their cabin. We ended the evening firing off our potato guns over the lake.
Most of the things we did for the ladies were supposed to be a surprise and we didn’t want them to know until the last minute but some hen-pecked hubby usually succumbed to the pressure (me) and blurted out what we were doing.
It was so successful that we got mentioned in the Beta Sigma Phi International newsletter; although we were referred to as the Fraternity of old lousy spouses. The sorority chapter contributed a little money to help with the costs but we FOOLS took up the slack and coughed up the rest. As with all good things, it eventually came to an end and all we are left with are some great memories.
This blog is dedicated to Al Blackley who left us too soon.