About 20-25 years ago I was invited to a Beer & Clams night at the Point Pleasant Beach Elks Lodge by a co-worker, who happened to be the Exalted Ruler at the Lodge, in an effort to encourage me to join.

I was seated at the same table as another guest who happened to be the President of an IBEW union that represented Jersey Central Power & Light workers, and who was also a first-time guest of another Elks member. At the time I was very involved in my Local 827 IBEW Union for Telephone Workers here in New Jersey ... so we had quite a bit in common as we would sometimes run into each other on the job as Linemen ... he for the electric company, and I for the telephone company.... on occassions where both utilities would be working on a broken utility pole as a result of an automobile accident, usually late at night.

We were drinking beer pretty good and shucking down clams for a couple of hours and before we knew it, the two of us were in an undeclared contest as to who could eat the most clams. We each had quite a large pile of empty shells and pitchers of beer in front of us ... when the clock on the wall began chiming 11 times.

(For those of you who are not aware of this nightly ritual at Elks Lodges all over the country ... everything stops at 11 p.m. ... the lights in the room are dimmed, the clock with the Elks logo and chimes is illuminated, and it becomes a very solemn silent occassion where you could literally hear a pin drop.)

Ron, the Exalted Ruler,(my host for the evening) stood to give his standard memorized prayer and started off with something like .... "and now is the time we pay our deepest repect to those who are not with us tonight ..." to which the Union President whom I was sitting next to says in an audible voice .... "F... 'em, if they ain't here, they don't get any clams" {my appologies to anyone who is offended ... but the story just isn't the same without the quotes}

Well, before either of us knew anything, we were both being herded out the door into the parking lot and needless to say, we were never invited back to that Elks Lodge again.