Fascinating. My memory of the year in California was that the state troopers ALWAYS gave you the ticket. Any other state, a sweet smile would get you out of the problem. Had to be the sticker, I would think.
My grandfather wrote about the masons in one of his newspaper articles. He wrote with respect and reverence for the person they discovered to be one when they went through his effects after he died, so I think that at the regular guy level, they were the same type of person who joined the Lions to do good work for their communities.