Fortitude Lodge #47

Seen in downtown La Grange: a nice triumvirate of old signage for the Masonic Fortitude Lodge #47, the Scottish Rite Albert Pike Club, and the Rob Morris grand chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. (The only thing that could make them even more fun is if they were neon.)

La Grange was named after Freemason Marquis de Lafayette, whose wanderings around Kentucky seem to have had quite an influence - one that may be continuing to reverberate to this very day via the so-called "Fayette Factor".

Shears 2 You

So, this morning I found myself walking down an alley in downtown La Grange, when I unexpectedly encountered this wild little hair salon with some very unique architecture and idiosyncratic black-and-blue color scheme. Who can say it isn't beautiful?

Tony's Wild Wood

I was driving in Prospect recently and noticed a stump painted blue with a bas-relief image of Popeye on it.

Then I realized there was a carved eagle and a horse head as well. I checked out the website on his sign, tonyswildwood.com, and so should you - he's got all kinds of fascinating folk-art creations.

He also apparently has a shop in LaGrange.

Poet Laureate of Freemasonry

I didn't even know there was such a thing as "the Poet Laureate of Freemasonry", but sure enough, his name was Rob Morris and he's buried at the Valley of Rest cemetery in La Grange, KY.

Historians can't seem to make up their minds if he was born in Boston or New York, or if his real name was Morris or Peckham. But his later life is much more documented: according to Wikipedia, he served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky in 1858 and 1859, and in 1860 moved to LaGrange and became professor of the Masonic University.