Watered Garden

Shell, Don't be so subtle! :D--> WG

As a mere humble peon, little-Miss-Nobody-Nothing-from-Nowhere, non-WC person, I cried when His Majesty pronounced that Mortgage Loan is debt and thou shalt not own a house! Then I got mad. Whose business is it, anyway? I saw one lovely couple kicked out of the WC because they didn't close on the contract on their very lovely home by the deadline, which I think was corp week 1995. They had a beautiful custom built home overlooking Lake Stevens, WA. People were reeling, panicking, terrified their homes wouldn't sell and they would be cast out. And of course then it trickled down to everyone without exception. It was horrible hurtful, mean and unecessary. I remember clearly LCM stating on a SNS tape, "I've never owned a house, and it hasn't hurt me one bit!" You never had to you son of a Bytch! Someone always was there to provide your housing free of charge after you went in the WC! When We left TWI and came back "home", I wondered if we would ever again own a home. Well, we owned two, one to live in and one to rent! And we sold those and we built our own custom home that is just a dream come true! And we have a mortgage. And savings accounts, too! And mutual funds and money market things and all that! And none of those nasty little TWIers are getting one red cent of it!!! And if any church group or anyone else ever asks me again about my finances (except my broker ;)--> the answer is "none of your **!$@ business! Take that, you moneygrubbers! Woe to you for leading innocent people astray with your subtlety and lies for filthy lucres' sake! If someone didn't learn anymore about math than he knows about God's love and what Jesus Christ was all about, I'm surprised he can add 2+2 without help. WG

Bramble, I was told much younger than crawling. Maybe 2-3 months, and maybe with a flick or light slap with the hand first. There are so many ways to discipline/train a child besides inflicting pain. I remember having a couple leadership's kids, elementary school age, in my home when I was doing housework. They reprovedme for (a) not folding my bath towels in the one and only proper, logical and appropriate manner, and (b) not placing the fitted bottom sheet on my bed in the correct manner, which for those of you who are also unenlightened, is bottom right corner, then upper left corner, then lower left corner, then upper right corner. At the time, I was somewhat bemused by their insistence, as well as slightly irritated at being corrected by an 8 and a 10 year old. Now, I realize they just little waybots in training, and how sad it is that their little minds were filled with such nonsense at such an early age. WG

I have two memories of the auditorium. We were invited to its opening, along with 2Life & Family. I also remember being in there while some hapless soul was polishing a brass railing. He was not blessed to be serving, but irritated beyond belief. I did thank him, which somewhat surprised him. It is possible to get brass that's been coated with some kind of finish so it wont' tarnish, like Baldwin brass. I'm surprised they didn't go for that.

The aforementioned (by me) leadership liked to feed their children a Sunday morning treat of pie for breakfast, thus filling their little veins with tons of sugar. Naturally by 10:30 a.m. they were hyper as they could be. This was okay, though, because the mom liked to give her kids pie for breakfast on Sunday mornings. However, my kid would get the least little bit restless and we would both get yelled at. Speaking of wooden spoons, in a perfect world there would be a lot of those spoon advocates walking around in a curiously humped posture because their respective wooden spoons had been placed where they rightfully belonged - where the sun don't shine! ;)-->

From 1993-96 children in the area where we lived were expected to attend home fellowships with the adults (childrens fellowship was a no-no, this was a FAMILY fellowship). They were expected to sit crosslegged on the floor near their parents, sing the songs, pay close attention to the teachings, and their eyes to were either gaze on their songbook, their Bible or the glorious visage of the teacher/leader. One little twitch and out they went to be beaten severely brought back in and plopped on the floor. This included all children without exception who could physically sit by themselves. (except the leaders' kids who were exempt for some reason) LISTEN!REMEMBER!OBEY! was the watchword of the day. I'm sure each of these children grew up to love God and want to hear more teachings. NOT! Note to Radar - I LOVE you! You were absolutely right to confront those parents. I remember one interminable "teaching" on a school night, on and on and on and my son had school in the morning as well as several (5-8 or so) other youngsters in the room. Finally at about 9:15 or so, the man of God sounded like he was winding down. Then he said, "Oh, and also go to verse such-and-such..." My son emitted the loudest, most frustrated sigh I have ever heard! Of course, no one laughed, but I guarantee - we ALL knew EXACTLy how he felt. :P-->

You gotta right to vent, honey after a day like this!!! Got a nice bottle of wine? Some cheese? Put your feet up and relax. WG

(((((((CoolWaters)))))

Exxie, I have insulin dependent diabetes and here are a couple of points from long and bitter experience. Go to the pharmacy and get some glucose tablets. These are like sweet tarts and are for very low blood sugar. The normal range is 70-140 for a diabetic, 70-120 or 70-110 for a normal person. You want to keep his glucose between 75-80 and 200. If you want to PT me with a list of meds, I will try to help you. I mostly know about insulin. Second, he needs SOME carbohydrate if he is on any kind of medicine at all. Sweets, potatoes, white rice all contain short chain carbs, will digest faster, and will cause his glucose to skyrocket if eaten in large amounts. Ask him what symptoms he has if his glucose is too high and if it is too low. They somewhat differ from person to person. If it is high he may feel short of breath. If it is low, he will be sweaty and shaky, perhaps even tearful. If he is short with you and snappish, it may be high (I am a screaming you know what when my glucose is 200+) (Maybe when it's not, too). Praying for your son, and your dad, and especially YOU. Love, WG

Thanks for your reply, Galen and for Bonnie's input. We were in a city about 25 miles north of Seattle. We were under a shadow anyway for reasons I won't go into. I often wonder what people like this would have said if one of us peons had called them up and said, "How would you like to come over, and clean MY house?" There's a whole world of difference between helping people move, do a chore, prepare for a wedding, etc, and being expected to serve like a slave. This is the same woman who demanded that my son and I plant flowers in her beds beside her front door to make the house look nice for a class, then when we were doing this chore and the rain was pouring down refused to let my son stand inside the door, got into a screaming contest with her spouse and my son and I had to walk home (a couple of blocks). Then she had the unmitigated audacity to come and fetch me back to finish the job after they had finished the screaming. And she considered herself to be the living epitomy of Prov 31:10-31. Jeez. How could I have been so darn spineless? WG

And vacuum, wash the dishes and put them away (with the 10 year old bossing me), do a couple loads of laundry, make sure the right kid got the right bath, each one drank a glass of water right before going to bed, then get yelled at because the youngest wet the bed! When this person had major surgery, I had to go every day and clean her house. The BL's wife called me and said, "dont spend more than half an hour doing it, 45 minutes max!" Then they sat together sipping herbal tea and chatting while I spent two hours cleaning for her. This included washing walls, laundry, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, dusting and vacuuming and getting reproved by the 10 year old (again!) for not doing it quite right. But we lead this thread astray....sorry!

Galen, when I was on the Left Coast our TC's wife would always call me to come and visit (we were both homemakers at that time). When I arrived, rather than coffee and a doughnut, she would be waiting with a bucket of soapy water and a rag! She considered it to be granting me a privilege to scrub something in her home for her. She also allowed me to babysit for her sometimes and left a six inch list of chores to accomplish in addition to feeding, bathing and getting her little darlings off to the land of nod! BTW, I charge $100,000 an hour for that kind of service now!

Galen, That wasn't boring, that was fascinating! Thanks a bunch! We've come a long, long way since the Henley, haven't we? WG

Happy Birthday!!! (I'm right behind you!) WG

Maybe this is another one of my dumb remarks, but here in Buckeye Land, having ONE person riding in the bed of a pickup truck is against the law. There were 15 or so folks in the back of that one, and they were towing a trailer? That's not only dumb, it's against the law in most states. WG

When you are pregnant you do what the DOCTOR says. Period. I hope you passed her the chocolate ice cream when she said that!!!! WG

Galen, I wish I'd been in your and Bonnie's twig. Sounds like y'all were doin' it right! Love, WG

Galen, If you thought I was "sharing dirt" I apologize. I was careful not to use this person's real name, and I was honestly surprised that more than one person would have had an idea to whom I referred. The original topic was Corps Nazis. I was sharing some things that happened to me when I was a WOW. No one whose initials I mentioned or who participated in an incident I mentioned did anything that that individual would consider particularly wrong, and if either of those people were to come on this forum and inform me "I was the one you were referring to" I wouldn't have a problem with it. If that person/those persons think it's okay to be playing "master/mistress of the universe" with my life, I'd love for them to explain it to me once again. The individual whose initials I used became a different person in the 2-3 three years after that year, and softened up quite a bit. These were incidents that I thought illustrated the point of the thread and if I offended you I apologize.

Tom Strange I sent you a private topic. WG

To give the devil his due.... "Call me Miss..." actually did get reproved, and by VP himself. I didn't actually know about it firsthand, but this thread brought up a funny memory. I was discussing my WOW year with my now husband, who upon hearing of the formality, suddenly burst out laughing. Seems he had been to a family camp (remember those?) in the summer of 1975 and VPW asked to meet with WOW vets. He asked the group if they would go out on the field again, and this one individual answered "NO" and gave as the reason the formality demanded by a certain Texas BL who was WC. VP had a $hit fit, got the guy to tell who it was privately, and the next thing little old doulos Garden knows it's "call me first name."' When my honey told me this story, I remembered the reversal in formality. But now I knew....the rest of the story! WG

I really hope she changed. I think someone else said a few pages back about people being thrust into situations where they were to be leaders, do marriage counseling, teach parenting, and so on and so on and they were young, inexperienced, and didn't know what they were doing. I think that happened a lot. I think to be sent far away from your home, to be with people you don't want to be with and do what you don't want to do and are maybe not cut out to do would be very difficult indeed. And the big thing too, is remember this woman was not living with the saint of the earth, either. I had been around a year and probably gave her some headaches. But we parted friends. WG

Alfakat, you win. Whether you share or not is up to you! Actually, it wasn't horrible after a while. I did tell her that one time that I had volunteered to go out and serve God, not her and if she didn't like SHE could leave! But it got old after a while. It was my initial exposure to the hierarchy in TWI. It was not improved terribly when a group of her fellow corps came to town on various occasions. There were things that happened that were just plain wrong, and I knew it and said so, but I was "not Way Corps just couldn't possibly understand." Like the time a couple of lightbearers came through and I was forced to share my bed with the woman while....you can fill in the blanks. Or being treated by other corps folks like SB's combination servant and pet dog. One WC who came to town (not 4th Corps by the way) suggested they go out for a meal, and to my surprise (and dismay) I was "invited" along to this expensive seafood restaurant, where the visitor announced she and I were sharing a meal. She ate most of it, and when I gave her half of the money she was outraged - she was NOT paying for this, I was and I better leave a decent tip, too! (Sharing apparently takes on the same kind of meaning as the immortal phrase "How would like to get blessed?") Ah, the golden days of yesteryear! WG

Sunesis, she may have changed. She was very unhappy at being sent "on the field" and wanted to stay at HQ to be with WC only. She tried like hell to get the WOW region coordinator to send me home, for no particular reason other than I wasn't WC. About 2-3 months into that year, she looked me straight in the eye and said in her honey-dripping Southern accent, "Ah don't liuk yew, in fact, Ah cain't stand to look at yew. Why don't you go away, live in Florida or somethin' 'cause Ah don't want to live with someone who's not Wayuh Coe." I bet Jesus said that to His disciples all the time, right? PT me and I'll tell you who, if you haven't guessed by now. WG

Yeah, but even my WOW "sister" who was 4th corps was pretty much a Nazi most of the time. While we lived in the same apartment, I was 95% responsible to do all the cooking, cleaning and even some of her laundry. When not at home and in her presence, I was required to address her as Miss ******* rather than by her first name. I even had to be on hand when she sunbathed to oil her back. This being my second year in TWI I put up with her organic fertilizer pretty much as a servant of God serving the WOG. She was always holding HA up as an example to me. I tend to agree that the ones who had no aspirations to MOG-dom were wonderful.

HighWay, what you said about the 18th corps really helped me a lot. We were "in" for a long time, starting in the early 70's. When we arrived at our final destination as TWI'ers, we were under the leadership of an 18th corp grad, who was a nightmare on wheels. The people we knew out there from before had changed, too. Screaming at their kids, my kid, calling the most wonderful man I've ever known weak and of no character. This 18th WC guy, however, copied the phrases, body language, and attitudes of his trainer to a T. It was sad. He and his wife may have been nice young people at one time, but they were trained to be hard and cold, unreasonable and demanding. The only people I've EVER had invite me to dinner, then expect me to bring the ingredients, prepare the meal for them, and clean up afterwards. And our child was NOT invited. He had already been M&A without a word to us. And God says I have to forgive these nuts! Well, okay then. I'll do it with gritted teeth! WG