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| A small portion of Bro. Dick Johnson's sword collection. |
"Oh, it's the greatest," Bro. Dick told The Past Bastard during an interview in the basement of his parent's suburban home outside of this Canadian city. "I mean, think about it: What other club can you belong to that would let you use a sword all the time?"
Dick Johnson is a bit of a sword aficionado, and told us that he has a different sword for every meeting of the year -- and then some.
"I can't give you a number because that changes weekly, but a few weeks ago it was almost 200. I have swords from all different eras, and while most are copies, I actually have a few historical pieces, although I just leave those in their cases and don't take them out much."
Bro. Dick has been a Tyler for his entire Masonic career.
"They asked me if I wanted to get into the officer line back when I joined. I thought about it for, like three seconds, and then asked if I could be a Tyler. He's the guy that sits outside the door with a sword, you know." Bro. Dick became the Tyler that year. The Past Bastard asked if he had aspirations to any other position.
"Naw, none of those positions let you have swords, so they didn't seem very interesting to me. I did look into the Commandery thing, because I heard that they were Knights Templar," he told us. "The real Templars had the most awesome swords, but those Commandery guys just have these flimsy little rapiers. They bend and they aren't very useful, and they won't allow you to use any real swords. What kind of knights are those, know what I mean?"
The Past Bastard asked Bro. Dick if he had any intention of moving into any of the other chairs.
"No, I'm not really interested in any position that doesn't involve swords, " he told us." I mean, I just really enjoy swords, you know?"
--Conte Calvino Gliostro
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