Sometimes St. Albert’s influence can be felt decades later as shown in the following tale.

While the little friends never had a leader, they did have a financial manager who handled most of the little friends’ finances. Whenever the little friends needed a hotel room, plane ride, or just needed to buy something they would work with James A. James would find the best price on anything and, if he didn’t, he would wheel and deal until he got the best price available. If you were involved in a little friends’ road trip, at its conclusion you could expect an expense spread sheet from James that broke down everything to the penny. Most of the little friends never really cared about the spreadsheet but they knew James enjoyed working with money and feigned interest in these reports to make him happy. Through the years the little friends learned to follow James in whatever money scheme he was involved in. Most of the schemes succeeded but a few did not. Regardless the little friends usually did not have to worry about finances and keeping track of money since James was so good at it.

One day James approached the little friends with a scheme to get .40 cent beers and as many as they wanted. There was a catch. The little friends would have to join “The Knights of Columbus”, a Catholic organization for adults that was actually founded as a life insurance company but somehow evolved into this .40 cent beer supplier that caught the attention of James. The annual dues were around $15 so the little friends should be able to drink their money back the first month according to James’ figures. So that is how some of the little friends joined “The Knights” and enjoyed the .40 cent beers. Once again their parents, who obviously learned nothing from the ill fated Teen Club experience, were ecstatic that their children, now in their 30’s, were now considered “Knights” in the Catholic church and they could not wait to see them dressed up with their swords and feathery hats marching down the aisle at St. Albert’s. That would never happen.

The little friends knew their track record with St. Albert’s and the Catholic Church might be a little less than stellar so they decided to do a Halloween party/haunted house and donate all the money to Catholic charities. This was to be the little friends “ticket to heaven”. James would handle the finances, Charlie (who was inspired by the small haunted house at the St. Albert festival) would supply the decorations, Tom would supply the truck and transportation, Robert the dividers, and all the St. Albert little friends would converge and turn what used to be a small bingo room into a haunted house. A schedule was made up by James that let the little friends know what nights they were working and what task they would be doing (tasks varied from collecting money at the door to running a chainless chainsaw at the exit).

The little friends did not know that having a haunted house required a specialized inspection by the city who showed up unannounced one day. Their inspection was quick and the little friends’ haunted house failed every aspect of the inspection including a perfect “0” with the fire department who said the little friends “had broken every fire code on the books”. It appeared for a bit that the little friends “ticket to heaven” was going to go down in flames until they told the inspector that they were not a haunted house but instead a “Knights’ Dungeon”. The ploy worked but the little friends were warned that if they see any advertising for a haunted house at the Knights of Columbus, they would be back and it would not be pleasant.

Surprisingly the Knights’ Dungeon was a success for the little friends and each October they would raise thousands for various charities. In fact it was so successful “The Knights of Columbus” decided the haunted house should be charged rent since they take up floor space and use the councils electricity. This was unacceptable for James who prided himself on getting everything donated and had no intention of paying rent to the council. He would protest that the haunted house could not be using up electricity since there were no lights on and that the council was not using the space anyway. James was relentless when it came to money and the council soon realized that they were in over their heads. Trying to get money from James is never wise so they backed off and arrangements were made so that the little friends could again donate nearly 100 percent of the profits to the charities. In fact, James made the point that the hard working little friends deserved refreshments and somehow managed to get the little friends dumbwaiter rights. Now the little friends no longer had to wait, walk, or pay for their brew; they simply sent the empty pitchers up the dumb waiter and they would be sent back down full of brew like magic. The “Knights’ Dungeon” may be the little friends so called “ticket to heaven” but the little friends would not get parched waiting to use that ticket.

After a couple years the “Knights’ Dungeon” began receiving advertisements from Halloween wholesalers and they were offered free tickets to attend a huge Halloween Convention held annually in Chicago each spring. James crunched the numbers and realized that for a very reasonable rate, the little friends could attend this convention. Since the little friends were technically a charity, the convention cost was waived and the little friends would only have to pay their expenses. James told the little friends there would have to be concessions to make it work (such as eight people sharing two breakfast passes and one van), but it was feasible and at very little out of pocket cost to the little friends.

The enticement of the Chicago trip was not so much the Halloween convention. In fact the little friends had little interest in the convention. It was the opportunity to drink in a city where the bars were open past 2am. The little friends’ goal was to close three bars in one night on the night before the convention. The next day the little friends were off to Chicago and once again their families marveled at the little friends’ commitment to their charity work. The little friends were going to drive four hours, stay at a hotel, attend the convention as representatives of a Catholic organization, then drive four hours home. The reality was the little friends were going to drink the entire drive to Chicago, close three bars that evening, sleep through most of the convention, then sober up on the four hour drive home. The trip was considered a success by the little friends despite the fact they never purchased any Halloween props during any of the years they attended the Halloween convention.

As the years went by the little friends who had children would bring them to work the “Knights’ Dungeon”. The little friends would show the kids “the ropes”, such as the importance of the chainsaw operator who also had to multi-task by working the dumbwaiter as well. The dumbwaiter, which in the past was used solely for pitchers of beer for the little friends, would now be bringing down hamburgers, pop, and chips for the kids.

The “Knights Dungeon” went on for nine years and raised about $35,000 for charity during this time.