History of Loyal Order of the Elbows

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.