I remember the Pirates That Don't Do Anything. That is what they called themselves. I probably saw the Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) sometime between the release of the film in the United States on Friday, October 4th, 2002, and the time it came out on DVD on Tuesday, March 4, 2003. We saw it at the Grand Lodge Theater of McMenamins who bought the Grand Lodge (in Forest Grove, OR) and/or became the custodians of the building and began renovating it in the fall of 1999.
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2020
By Oatmeal Joey Arnold
@OatmealJoey | @OatmealEnglish | @OatmealHealth | @JoeyArnoldVN
Published in February of 2020
McMenamins Grand Lodge
The McMenamins Grand Lodge opened in March of 2000. McMenamins must have bought the Grand Lodge from the Masons or the Freemasons who started building it in 1920 as a home for the elderly and infirm Masons. It was an Eastern Star Home. My older sister did gymnastics there a few times, like performances or something like in the 1980's. My mother and her sister may have been part of the Job's Daughters International club (of the Masons) for like a year or two in their teen years, maybe around 1966. Mom was probably about 15 years old as she was born in 1951.
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I Grew Up Near Here
I lived a few blocks away from this Grand Lodge building. They had a duck pond. So, as we would walk towards McDonald's and other places, we would see the ducks. I was born in 1985 and grew up near this Grand Lodge. So, all of my life, I would go by this mansion of a building. Eventually, there were no more ducks. One time, my dad fell in the pond, I've heard. But the pond was dried out or something. Maybe they did it on purpose. They started growing up the bushes up to like ten or twenty feet high maybe around 1999 when McMenamins took over. So, then you couldn't see the building any more.
During High School
I was homeschooled. I started going to the Forest Grove High School (FGHS) in September of 2000 and graduated from FGHS on Tuesday, the 8th of June of 2004. So, in high school, I joined and was part of the Drama Club, the Earth Club, and also FCA.
About The FCA
So, the FCA Club would meet Tuesday mornings at 06:30 AM in a Math classroom. That was a 30 minute or so long weekly club where we would sing worship songs and talk about the Bible a little. I went a few times. I would ride my bike to get there. It would be tough as it was raining at times. It was a bit cold. School started at 07:55 AM, Monday to Friday. So, this was a before school club as opposed to an after-school club. My number 23 school bus would get us to school at like 07:35 AM at the earliest or at least some minutes before school started. I would wait for the bus at around 07:00 AM. It would generally pick us up before like 07:10 AM. So, I had to find my own way to school if I wanted to attend FCA.
About The Girl
I'm pretty sure I saw this movie with the FCA. I'm pretty sure they wanted to see it as a way to support Christian movies. So, we saw it. I remember the one girl who may have been in my speech class or something. She was a blond. She probably had braces. I'm telling you this because I think I didn't have a crush on her. See, that is surprising as I would usually have crushes on almost every girl I saw. I remember talking to her while we were waiting for a ride to take us home after the movie. It was just me and her for a few minutes. I could have walked home from there. I stood there and attempted some small talk I guess. But I don't really like small talk. But we must have exchanged a few things. Not a long conversation. I was thinking about that while I was sleeping. That memory came up and I was trying to figure out where it came from. I was asking myself why I was at that building with that girl. Probably because we were there to see that cartoon film.
Tyler
About The Movie
I don't remember much from this movie. But I am pretty sure I saw it with the FCA or something. Most likely the FCA. The movie is based on the story of Jonah as found in the Bible. The movie is made for children and may not be the best movie out there. I may have saw a few other movies at that theater at different times. This was one of them. We got there a little late. The movie already started by the time we arrived. They were at the part where they were telling the actual story of Jonah. I think I saw the pirates that do nothing at that point. I remember that we got some popcorn and that was fun. I remember eating the popcorn as I love popcorn almost as much as I like original green oatmeal. We may have saw this movie on a Friday at like 04:30 PM. Maybe a Friday but who knows which day. Not too late. Sometime after school which means after like 02:50 PM or something like that.
About The Lodge
I was in the Grand Lodge at least once when I was a boy, maybe before 1991 when my older sister was doing gymnastics there. I have a memory of walking down the road behind the train tracks where the industrial buildings are. So, I kind of thought we went inside one of those buildings but we probably walked all the way to the Grand Lodge. It was dark and I was just a kid. So, what do I know? So, it may have been the Grand Lodge that one time or it may have been another building with a big chimney pipe thing which had smoke and pollution coming out of it like a train. It was like a factory building. We were on the second floor, like a balcony to watch Katie. I was playing with like the toys they had there. So, I say that to say that I've been there before. I had another memory of being at the Grand Lodge. We walked up to it. We went up the big stairs. The door nob was so high. The doors where so big. The ceiling was so high.
Funny Feeling About The Place
Many years later, I saw that movie with the dancing vegetables at that same building and I kind of felt like there was spiritual dirt left over from the Masons there. I talked about it after experiencing whatever that I felt while there. We were there again for the funeral of Tiffany Cumbo in April of 2003. I was last there with Mike Kurtz on Monday, the 4th of December of 2017 for some like oatmeal beer, etc, and we walked around to look at the paintings on the wall and I told Mike a little bit about like Bitcoin, Bit Torrent, Robin Baker who threw me in jail in 2012, and a few other random things. Mike was an old Salvation Army Camp Kuratli friend of mine from 2007. So, I just got back from my five years teaching English in Vietnam, 2012-2017, and we ended up going to the Grand Lodge to catch up on life. I didn't feel bad when I was there last.