I miss the Elks Club

When Perry Case signed over the Elks Club building and property to McCook Community College, I finally had to admit to myself that the Elks Club as I had known it was through. We tend to hang on to relationships, both personal and professional, until something happens that cements in our mind that they're over and they're never going to be with us again and it took the above mentioned transaction to seal that deal for me.

That's because the Elks Club was the finest organization I've ever been associated with, both as a benevolent organization and as a place to meet up with friends. My best friend at the college, Rich Michaelson, invited me out for the first time on a Friday afternoon shortly after I took the teaching job here at MCC. I was amazed at the size of the crowd there on a Friday afternoon and the fact that several MCC faculty members and their spouses were there too. In fact, it was so full, they had to go get chairs from the formal bar to accommodate the crowd in the back bar.

While Rick was talking to someone across the room, Glen Haney asked me if I would be interested in becoming an Elk and I told him I would. So he got me a membership form, had me fill it out and then he signed it as my sponsor before Rick ever got back to the table. When Rick DID get back, it was a done deal and he was none too happy about that since he invited me because HE was going to sponsor me. But the bad feelings didn't last for long and everyone remained friends.

That was the first day I met Bob Ruby too, the one-of-a-kind bartender at the Elks and a person who would go on to become one of my very best friends. Ruby had worked there for a long time and was lovingly known as Mr. Elk, although the lovingly part wouldn't apply to everyone who knew him. But it did to Rick and me and in fact, whenever Rick would call to ask me if I wanted to go down there, he would never ask if I wanted to go to the Elks Club, he would always ask if I wanted to go see 'Rube'. That's the kind of relationship we had with him and one that has lasted.

I would love to mention the friends I made there and the people who I always enjoyed seeing but I won't do that for fear of leaving someone out. But it was a group of people who banded together as one and we were all happy to see each other whenever we appeared. In fact there was a group that met there for Sunday morning services every Sunday but, as you can imagine, this meeting had nothing to do with religion. There was a circular bar in the back bar at the Elks Club and that bar would almost always be full on Sunday's from around 10 am to one or two in the afternoon. Since it was usually the same guys, we became close friends and always enjoyed meeting up and discussing the world's woes on Sunday morning. Of course back then, we respected the different opinions that people had much more than we do today.

It was an incredibly sad day when I found out that all the equipment was going to be auctioned off and the recreational part of the Elks Club was to be no more. I've been to a lot of different Super Bowl parties in a lot of different towns and cities but none like the ones the Elks Club put on! Everything they did was top notch and first class and the people who were also Elks fit the same mold. I hoped I could keep in touch with most of them after the Elks Club closed but it just wasn't to be. That was a meeting place we all shared and coveted and there wasn't any other place in town like it. So friends that I made and treasured drifted away and I haven't seen many of them for years.

But I still remember their names and faces just like it was yesterday and I hope they do mine too because I forged special relationships with them like none I ever had before or since!