PANCAKES!!!

Languages may unite. Music can break down borders. But folks, a pancake breakfast just maybe the key to world peace. Native to tiny towns and greenbelt laced suburbs the community pancake breakfast is the ideal fundraiser. It's combined forces of creating community and delivering endless pancakes qualify it as one of the better ways to spend a summer Sunday.

As a former Indian Princess I have spent several weekends of my life selling tickets for and attending the local YMCA's pancake breakfast. Just like the breakfasts of yesteryear, Sunday's  griddle was headed up by some men folk. Battle Lake's Lion's Club members flipped fluffy pancakes, refilled lemonade and delivered costco hot dog-sized sausage links to each long table. 

I spent half of the breakfast thinking that the lions where the guys that drove little cars in parades. Turns out those are actually the shriners. Thousand Oaks' cool club was the Elk's Lodge. Unsure of the particulars myself, I made a quick cheat sheet for the next time you need to identify the group of old men gliding down the parade route. 

Lions 

Originated: Oak Brook, Illinois 

Motto: We Serve

Causes: Diabetes, Environment, Youth Outreach, Sight and Hearing agencies

Garb: Anything with a lion crest

Fun Fact: The female only sector is called the "Lioness Club"

HELLO

Shriners

Originated: Manhattan, New York

Actual Name: Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine

Causes: Children's Hospitals

Garb: Red Fezzes

Membership Fact: Only Masons are eligible to become Shriners

Elks

Originated: New York City

Original Name/Cause: The Jolly Corks were drinkers

Causes:Veteran Services, Scholarships, Community Investment

Fun Fact: Exalted Ruler, Lecturing Knight and Organist are all officer positions

You got it? Great, now let's get back to the main event. PANCAKES!!!

My eeeeeaasssssy* Sunday morning was perfected by a jar of smuggled peanut butter. Chances are that the peanut butter was in no way contraband and I didn't need to bundle it up in my purple flannel. But sometimes things are just more fun when you're being a little covert here and there. 

*sung like Lionel Richie's "Easy Like Sunday Morning" duet with Willie Nelson