Loyal Order of Elbows

 

HISTORY of the LOE:

 

Hooo, boy! This will be tricky, but I'll try:

 

It was like there was something in the air...or beer, that first night, in what I believe was the Spring of 1991. We were on a roll, at the ol' watering hole, Bob Leff & Geno Worms' Happy Hour Bar in Brainerd, MN. The term Elbow came from Bob Danzl (see separate section). He used to have to be home from the bar bar by 6:00, or his wife would turn up, not down, the burner on his supper. So at 6:00 when all the firemen's beepers would go off, we'd always holler out "It's 6:00, Bob". He'd then reply "thanks a lot, ___holes", and promptly leave. Then one day he came in and said he had read a book that said it wasn't polite to call people ___holes, and you should call them elbows. Now that elbow thing was was kind of what we do down there, and it was the inspiration for the 4 of us for the Loyal Order of Elbows name. There were already elks and eagles and moose and such, so we wanted to get away from the animal thing.  The third night or so Rando got in on it, and told about how he's always wanted to find a group to join that didn't have dues or too many rules and chiefs. That's why we left it quite open, and unofficial, and stupidly simple. I think that's what makes the thing work, and I hope it STAYS simple (just this man's opinion). The third night we fine-tuned the bylaws, and I put them on paper and all in a binder. Later came a logo, noticeably similar to the GBWC logo (same designer), then pins, buttons, an elbow stamp, and what-have-you. On the lined paper roster hanging on the bulletin board, as of 8-14-94, there were 90 members signed up, and it piddled along. Then several years later Shep and Bernell (Opie and Aint Bee) bought the place. Roh-roh!

 

UPDATE, 12/11/2016: At the 2016 Half Way to the Holidays Party, it so happened that Ike and Wally were in attendance.  Before the dance club started on the other side in the old bar, we wandered over for a bit of reminiscing.  Well, it seems it brought up some old memories, and those 2 told me some things I missed above.  It seems they and Popcorn were already working on the thing before I got there.  Ike first suggested such a scheme, and Wally & Popcorn chimed in.  When I got there, being the historian, I said I'd better start writing all this down before the beer kicks in.  I think it all went pretty fast that first night.  The second night we fine-tuned it. The third night I believe Rando walked in and he was our test model, and he liked it because it was "unofficial", not to mention dues-free.  Wally & Ike...see if this is accurate, and LMK what I need to fix.

 

2016 was also the 46th Annual GBWC Crewunion!  Scary.

 

After he got his bearings and his wheels started turning (you'd have to know this guy), Shep asked me one day "Tell me more about that Elbow thing". The next day I brought in the binder with everything we had on Elbowdumb, and slid it across the bar to him. Within a week he started the numbering system. We already had 5 Grand Elbows at that time, so that's why I wound up being LOE # 6. The others we had signed up were assigned numbers roughly in order thereafter as they appeared on that old "unofficial roster", and it shot up once he started the sign-in sheet for the daily prize. The rest is, as they say, history.

 

2015/8/11: GE 25 asked about the LOE logo.  Here is how it went.  When we first got going on numbering the Elbows at Shep's, we decided we'd need a logo in case the thing really goes over.  I already had a good one for the Grain Belt Wrecking Crew, another loosely-knit collection of bums from the early 1970's, and we all drank Grain Belt, and the familiar diamond worked well for that since the late 1800's.  So I ran with that that and replaced the GBWC in the diamond with a guy with a raised elbow.  Well, not being a great artist I sort of borrowed it from the Arm & Hammer box, tracing it on onion skin paper, then sketching it in and dolling up the diamond.  I added the LOE and some cool lines, cuz we were so cool, and drew in a Grain Belt beer bottle.  The raw copy is at the top of each page on this siteA  Shep made up the cards and put the logo on the yellow cardstock.  And that's a fact, jack.

 

Other elements of the LOE were loosely borrowed from the GBWC, and some members carried over as well.  Below is a photo from the OLD Happy Hour Bar on Laurel St. from about 1973.  I'm working on a history the GBWC, and it should be up any year now.  Back in the 70's we were quite in Grain Belt Heaven!  You might want to check up on that link.

 

-Fert, LOE #6, 2003, modified 2013; 9/7/2015; 12/11/2016