An elder citizen of Frostbite Falls says the town hasn't gotten a telegram "since the war". The narrator asks if the telegram said "Remember Pearl Harbor", assuming that "the war" meant World War II. (The Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into the war, which had been raging in Europe since 1939.) The old man says the telegram actually said "Remember the Maine", meaning that "the war" he is talking about is actually the Spanish-American War of 1898. ("Remember the Maine!" became a rallying cry for Americans after the U.S.S. Maine, an American naval ship, mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor, Cuba, on February 15, 1898, killing over 250 sailors. The tragedy occurred during Cuba's war for independence from Spain, and popular American sentiment blamed Spain for the sinking, though the U.S. would not get involved in the war until later that year.)
Bullwinkle belongs to a lodge known as the BAMBAMS: the Big American Mooses Benevolent Artistic and Marching Society.