New York OA Trader

Ray Gould has found an interesting item of Gonlix Lodge history. He made contact with a former Lodge Chief from the early 1960’s… Well I’ll let him tell it.

As alluded to earlier, I’ve finally received the original drawing (I’m guessing it was the patch company’s rendering…but certainly could have been drawn locally…although doubtful) used for the Gonlix Lodge F-01. It measures roughly 9.5″ x 4.25″.

The gentleman I received it from was a 2 term lodge chief (1962 and 1963). He has all three A-1 varieties (a,b, and c) in his collection of items saved from his Scouting youth (the a and c both on neckerchiefs…yes, he still has them currently) but he did not have the F-01 (he had never seen it…I’ll be sending him a scan to show him how it turned out). He remembers the flap idea being discussed during his tenure as chief but they were not available at that time. He went off to college late 1963 or 1964 (I’ll need to confirm with him) and I’m guessing it was manufactured shortly thereafter (circa 1964). I hope you enjoy seeing this early one-of-a-kind piece of history from Gonlix #34.

Click on the small image to see it full size.

Here is the finished product.

Ray thanks again for sharing this one.

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Bill Griesmyer left a comment on my 1:1 page regarding a Gonlix Neckerchief that was not listed in the Blue Book. Bill has a picture on his website, but has allowed me to reproduce the image here and save him some bandwidth.

He describes the neckerchief on his site as follows:

Gonlix Lodge #34 neckerchief. This is a rare neckerchief. The only one I have ever seen. This is a silk neckerchief with the Gonlix arrow patch (A1a or A1c). I have heard there were about 70 made. They were hand made by Patricia Wxxxx (wife of Nelson Wxxxx).

In his comment and subsequent email, he adds the following information.

I’m not sure if Nelson was ever lodge advisor. He was a leader when I was active. He led an effort to form a dance team, which I joined. I remember going to his home in Madison, NY to have him teach about the OA while his wife Pat had my mom help sew our dance outfits.
The neckerchief is a cram/white silk with red piping on the outside. The inner red square is just over 6″ to the side, and is also silk. It has black piping on the outside. I remember being warned not to wash it because the silk dried at different rates. I was given mine by one of my troop leaders (Robert C) when I went to the 1969 National Jamboree. Needless to say, I didn’t trade it. I had never seen another one until the one showed up on eBay this week. I have heard of a few people that had one though.

I was wondering (this isn’t a trade request) why the Gonlix Lodge neckerchief isn’t listed in Blue Book? John Pannell shows the image of the neckerchief to show one of the versions of the arrowhead patch. There is one currently on eBay for sale.

You can see the on on eBay here. I will not be bidding on this one as I have the 34 Gonlix A1 in my collection.

Now the second question at hand is why is it not listed in the Blue Book. The short answer is because it doesn’t meet the criteria. Which begs the question, well what are the criteria.

The Fifth edition of the Blue Book spells it out on page 18 (in part).

The Insignia Listing

What Gets Listed … and What Doesn’t

The distinction is made by what it says on the patch or neckerchief.

Insignia that get listed

• silkscreened and embroidered neckerchiefs

Insignia that don’t get listed

• neckerchiefs with sewn-on patches

If the neckerchief had, for example, Dance Team embroidered on it; than it would be listed separately as N99 RED P WHT - - Emb; White Silk with Red Silk diamond BLK Dance Team found with A1 sewn on neckerchief.

Since it is otherwise an un-embroidered and un-silkscreened neckerchief it does not get a separate BB listing, just the A1 listing.

Now each person can and should collect what they want; and I would certainly collect both the neckerchief version and the arrowhead patch (A1) separately if I had been a member of Gonlix, the Blue Book only lists the Arrowhead.

YMMV