tonto

Hi D Miller! Twi? RETURN MONEY??? hahaahahahahahahahahahahhahahahha!!!

I haven't tried it, but T-Bone uses it on a daily basis when he's working in a certain high-elevation mountain town, and swears by it. As far as regular elevations, I dunno.

Hi topoftheworld, I couldn't help but notice you still have $1.85 on that 1980 ROA meal ticket. The way I see it, twi owes you a wow burger and a drink (1980's prices?).

We (T-Bone and I) were standing in line for a wow-burger when we heard of Elvis' untimely death. I remember being stunned, along with a general sense of surprise that "the world" went on turning while we were safely tucked away at "the greatest gathering this side of the gathering together"...or however that quote went. Because we were broke (having gone to pfal '77 earlier that year), we hitched to ROA all the way from Colorado. We camped in our little two-man pup tent, and I know it rained and was chilly at least part of the time because I remember taking refuge in one of the big tents during a daytime rainstorm. Geez...we were young and stoopid. :P

Nope, Lifted...I was Family 11. When I spoke of sexual abuse occurring in mainstream religion, I didn't do so to minimize the actions of vpw. I was just pointing out that in people's search for truth, creeps seem to come out of the woodwork. People with life-dominating sins shouldn't be clergy. ..period. edited for sloppy spelling...

Rascal and Suda, I hope you don't mind if I interject a couple of things which are (at least in my mind) related. Rascal, you asked: The same can be asked about the churches where the altar boys were molested by their priests. Or about the young women, older women, any age women...seeking counsil from their preacher only to be coherced into "blessing" the man of God sexually (this has happened locally in so many different Protestant churches that I've lost count). These folks were just looking for a "closer walk with Thee"...but look what happened to them, yet there are probably people in those congregations who have been blessed by some aspect of their ministries. I'm not saying that I don't think vpw wasn't a false prophet or a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I'm not saying he was...I don't know. I tend to lean toward thinking maybe he was born again but left his trap door wide open by being a slave to ego and lust. Then again...how could he do what he did? I go 'round and 'round and 'round with this and I figure I won't know until judgement. I just know that if he really was born again and will be in heaven with us, I want a room waaaaaaaay far away from his...in another zip code, if heaven has zip codes. :lol: Anyway, I do believe that the mainstream churches of the early 70's failed the youth miserably. There just wasn't a whole lot being offered in the way of "hot Bible" teachings...well, not unless you counted the hellfireandbrimstone variety of preaching. No real Bible study to speak of...no research for the average Joe. I just remember too many rigid rules and judgements about the way kids dressed and the length of their hair. There's more I'd like to say, but I'm starting to bore myself, so thanks for listening.

Well, earlier in the thread there was talk of biscuits, then there was talk of farts, which made me remember someone referring to a fart as an "air biscuit". Any of you heard that term before?

Awesome post, Suda! Your summary was wonderful, but in the paragraph below you have described what I believed happened but couldn't find the words to express: Thank you for taking the time to work through this and share your musings with us.

Danny, isn't that pretty much what happened after the great exodus of the late 80's? But now I see, you heard that Duv*l took piffle? Man, I never heard that one. (Not doubting you). Unfortunately, he probably had a large group of ministers to choose from. In our area alone there have been plenty of wolves over the years...Til+on, for one.

Anyone here seen the movie "The Apostle"? Robert Duvall plays a pentecostal preacher who cheats on his wife and murders a man in a fit of jealousy, yet he also spreads the gospel. I know it's just a movie but everytime I've watched it I think of vp. I agree, ex10.Whether or not he was born again, I do believe his desire for respect and power are what initially "opened the trap door" in his heart. After all, the man had legitimate degrees but got his doctorate from a degree mill. And what did he insist we call him? Doctor. I know this is a small thing compared to some of the horrible things he did, but I think it screams what was important to him. And don't think that wasn't what he wanted to be called. I've witnessed him melt someone's face over breath mints...if he didn't want us to call him that, believe me, we would have heard about it.

Larry, I didn't say "you vic-worshippers disgust me". I said it with a little more "punch" : Ya'll hug away...I'm still pi$$ed.

I've read this entire thread and I don't know what to say except thank you excathedra, Dot, Cat for speaking up. You will probably never fully know the good you have done by telling the truth. As for the disgusting behavior of certain posters...it just makes me sick. It literally makes me sick at my stomach. The hard cold uncaring unfeeling unrepentatent downright nasty dirty evil behavior of these "brothers" is beyond me. Their words have revealed the putrid contamination bubbling out of their vic-worshiping hearts.

Ahhh...finally! I'm so happy for you Mo.

Socks, twice you mentioned Canned Peaches. Do you care to share your Canned Peaches experience with the class, or are the details too painful to recall?

Catcup, it never ceases to amaze me how we're all connected here at the cafe. Thank you for the information, but I'm sorry to hear that he suffered burns. He and Cathy (Kathy?) were among the people who contributed to the fun, warm memories of our time in twi.

We both had lasik...mine was 10 years ago and T-Bone's was in 2004. We're both happy with the results and deal with the need for reading glasses by keeping them in every room of the house, in both vehicles, in my desk at work, in his briefcase, on my shirt...you get the picture. I wouldn't change a thing, but I would never have done it if the surgeon hadn't done thousands of patients before me. It's your eyes, so you need the best surgeon you can find.

I understand what you're saying Jonny. I believe that the challenge was part of it, but I still believe the driving force was the money saved. We'll just agree to disagree...no biggie. I can't believe I stayed up this late...T-Bone is in there snoozing away...probably dreaming up more stuff for "just plain silly" or "doctrine", or "silly doctrine". Nighty-nite.

I do have a point Larry. They didn't even provide a dam n bus. They were too cheap. They knew hitching was illegal and dangerous but they required us to hitch. It's all about the money.

Hi Doreen, I was a Christian before taking pfal, and since my upbringing was Baptist, I already believed "once saved always saved" = incorruptable seed. The trinity never made sense to me when I was growing up and I still don't believe Jesus Christ is God, but I certainly don't believe I'm any better than the people who think he is. I still believe the dead aren't alive now, but who knows? I was so excited to have some "rock solid" answers in pfal, then after leaving twi I was equally exasperated to find out that there were so many errors (like the law of believing). I haven't given up on God, I just don't feel like I have to spend the rest of my life searching for answers. My theme is pretty much "farther along we'll know all about it"...

Jonny said: Yes, it was disgusting and it was one of the long list of euphamisims for anu s rattled off by the manofgodfortheworld in CF&S circa 1975. He said we needed to know these words so we wouldn't be shocked if someone used them. I gave that example because I believe some men don't "get" what rape is unless they can think in terms of it happening to them. Well, enough of that. Yes, LEAD was required for the corps...the only person in our corps who didn't have to go was a young mom with a heart condition. Everyone else went. I knew LEAD was required when I went in. That's not the problem. The problem is that the shi+ that happened on the road happened because twi/vpw was too cheap to provide safe transportation. If they had provided a bus for us and a semi crossed the median and slammed into our bus head-on and killed us, then that would have been a tragedy but yes, shi+ happens. If, however, they provided a bus with worn breaks (because money for new breaks wasn't in the budget) and the breaks failed while the bus was going down the mountain, resulting in our deaths, that's not in the catagory of "shi+ happens". That's negligence. Remembering the good times in twi is fine with me...just realize that most of the bad happened not by chance, but as a result of the greed and lust of vpw/lcm/etc.