What's a Mason?

"I think my grandfather was one, but I'm not sure what it means. "

"Yeah, my dad and uncle both used to go to Masonic meetings. I remember Uncle Fred coming by to pick him up. But I
don't know where they went or what they did. "

"I think they wear those funny hats. "

"I remember when I went away to college, my father showed me his ring and told me, if I ever needed help, I should look for a man with a ring like that and tell him I was the daughter of a Mason, but he never told me much about it. "

That's not a surprising question. Even though Masons (Freemasons) are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world, and even though almost everyone has a father or grandfather or uncle who was a Mason, many people aren't quite
certain just who Masons are.

The answer is simple. A Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry (or Freemasonry) . A fraternity is a group of men (just as a sorority is a group of women) who join together because:

(We'll look at some of these things later.)