- Joined
- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 1,861
I have been recently reading about the "Clampers." A fraternal organization in California's Gold Rush days.
They were organized for fun and drinking. They liked to have outrageous initiation ceremonies to induct traveling salesmen and about anybody else they could talk into joining.
The motto of the Order is "Credo Quia Absurdium" (take nothing seriously unless it is absurd).
Maybe started as a spoof on the serious fraternal orders like the Masons and the Odd Fellows, they were also instrumental in supporting "widders" of miners killed in the dangerous job of extracting gold from the earth, also preserving history.
The more I read, the more I knew that this organization has many kindred spirits on the HI Forum!
Here are a couple of links. ENJOY!
http://members.aol.com/machngunr1/page5.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/e-clampus-vitus
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/13/MN135259.DTL
They were organized for fun and drinking. They liked to have outrageous initiation ceremonies to induct traveling salesmen and about anybody else they could talk into joining.
The motto of the Order is "Credo Quia Absurdium" (take nothing seriously unless it is absurd).
Maybe started as a spoof on the serious fraternal orders like the Masons and the Odd Fellows, they were also instrumental in supporting "widders" of miners killed in the dangerous job of extracting gold from the earth, also preserving history.
The more I read, the more I knew that this organization has many kindred spirits on the HI Forum!
Here are a couple of links. ENJOY!
http://members.aol.com/machngunr1/page5.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/e-clampus-vitus
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/13/MN135259.DTL
