outintexas

That was my experience. 25 years wasted in an organization that was doing nothing for me and yet I stayed until they threw me out! Now my policy is don't stay in any group (bowling league, church, etc.) that's not making my life better. Twi used to talk about being in charge of your life. I guess that's what I'm finally doing.

Thanks for the post. I totally missed the program. Sometimes I forget about PBS with all the other channels on cable nowadays. It's being re-run at 2AM Thursday (Wed night) here (KERA-13) in Dallas/Fort Worth. I'm gonna tape it for sure. Thanks!

These are great positive stories. Very heartwarming.

I married my WOW sister in '83. It wasn't an arranged deal, but I did go into it very naive and believing the "any two believers" thing. I think the only reason we stayed together as long as we did was because divorce seemed pretty much taboo in twi. We got out in '99 and divorced in '01. She left me with the kids and sees them now and then at her convenience. But I'm doing well now. Getting out of twi and getting divorced from her were two similar experiences. It's nice to be able to think for myself and not get yelled at daily.

If nothing else, I do really well on Jeopardy when they have a Bible category.

The comment about the lunar eclipse got my interest, since I'm a bit of an astronomy nerd. According to a chart on NOAA's website, there was a lunar eclipse on August 16, 1989 which reached its maximum at 11:08pm EDT. And as for the shooting stars, the Perseid meteor shower peaks each year around August 13th. It must have been quite a sight. By the way, there will be a lunar eclipse on the night of Saturday, October 27, 2007 visible from North America.

In my area, things were okay with the "home grown" twig and branch leaders. Then around the mid-90s, twi-assigned corps started taking over those positions. It all went downhill then.

I'd be a whole lot less socially retarded if I had listened to Mister Rogers instead of twi. Here are a couple of his quotes: "I feel the greatest gift we can give to anybody is the gift of our honest self." (emphasis mine) and "You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable."

Between 1974-1999 I sat through them all. Sometimes they were 15-hour classes in a single weekend. Three hours Friday night, nine hours Saturday, and three more Sunday morning. Then back to work or school on Monday. And as if the class wasn't already long enough, add a long-winded coordinator to rehash what you just watched. Then there was the obligitory presentation of the gift and card to the coordinator.

Jerry Seinfeld: Don't you know what it means to become an orgy guy? It changes everything. I'd have to dress different. I'd have to act different. I'd have to grow a mustache and get all kinds of robes and lotions and I'd need a new bedspread and new curtains I'd have to get thick carpeting and weirdo lighting. I'd have to get new friends. I'd have to get orgy friends. ... Naw, I'm not ready for it.

10 PM eastern tonight (Saturday). Repeats at 2AM. "From the bizarre prophecies of Charles Manson to the desperate paranoia of Jim Jones, cult leaders draw us into worlds of power, paranoia, and death. Through interviews with world-renowned scholars and the survivors of cultic tragedy, we will unmask the mystery of cults. From Jim Jones' pursuit of a socialist paradise to Warren Jeffs' Yearning for Zion ranch, cult leaders have twisted the quest for purity into an obsession with madness and murder." I'll be watching! Thanks. I love The History Channel!

We got about an inch of liquid snow in the DFW area between yesterday and overnight. It was a real blessing since it was much more than what was predicted. We have a two-year drought going on. Merry CHRISTMAS from Texas, y'all!

"You just need one, there all the same. " LOL, polarbear! So true.

I was in the "college division" at the Way C of E in 1978-79. On a number of Saturday nights we watched movies that had been recorded off of TV in the Weirwille "library." So it could have been recorded from that June 1978 broadcast.

What I remember most is faxing my weekly schedule to my TC/HFC from work since it had to be in by some deadline. It was a form with the seven days of the week in columns and "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening" in rows, making 21 squares. And I had to fax ANOTHER one for the previous week showing what I did with my time so they could compare that with what I had planned the previous week. It was all because we were "planning the devil out of our lives." I would hope to god that no one at work would see what I was faxing. It was so retarded and I KNEW IT! And yet I stayed in until I was M&A'd in May, 1999. Now I enjoy doing whatever I want!

Benny Hinn video with Benny HILL music. Genious!

Sunday night teaching tapes used to work every time.

In July I drove to San Diego and back from Fort Worth with my daughter. I did the trip in 8 days. Sounds crazy, but we had a great time, even if it was 1400 miles each way in my little Ford Focus. (Thank God for cruise control and A/C!) I had always wanted to see Carlsbad Caverns and I found it would only add about 50 miles to my trip. I took a right off of I-10 (speed limit 80!) at Pecos, TX and made our way to the caverns. To my surprise, the caverns are at the top of a mountain! The caves are really cool - literally! All those stalactites and stalagmites I learned about in high school. And lots of other bizarre rock formations. The walk in the caverns is something like a mile long! You can go down by elevator. That evening we camped about 50 miles south of Carlsbad. At something like 5000 feet, it was nice and cool, even in July. I hooked back up to the interstate in El Paso. The rest of the drive was enjoyable, even if it was all Interstate. I love the desert. I didn't know there are so many mountain passes between Texas and California. On one of the mountain ridges on I-8 in California there is a huge array of those giant three-bladed windmills. It was surreal. On the return trip, I took a two-lane road heading east out of Las Cruces, NM, though Cloudcroft, a town I had previously never heard of. I want to retire there! It's at about 8,000 feet. It was sooo beautiful there. It looked a lot like Colorado. Continuing east and descending, the road gradually straightened out back to the desert. I love to look at a road atlas and dream of trips I'd take around the country.

"Everything gives off something" Ugh.

I got "reproved" once for not looking excited when I arrived at fellowship.

At least in my hhf, the horn had to be passed a certain way; open end towards the recipient.

"No matter how much you were told you were 'more than a conqueror' in twig, the reality was intense judgement and pressure to do more for God, and to have every imperfection pointed out as if you were an affront to God and the Ministry." Very well said, Hiway29. This pretty much sums up my twi experience.

Married 1983 to 2001.

In the later years it was like an episode of the original Twilight Zone... Six-year-old Anthony Fremont (Billy Mumy) is a monster. He has eliminated the rest of the world, or has whisked Peaksville, Ohio into its own dimension. He creates, mutates, and kills animals for his pleasure. He's eliminated electricity, grocery supplies, and television signals. He controls the weather. He terrorizes and controls the people of Peaksville by disfiguring them wishing them away, forever into "the cornfield" if they don’t think happy thoughts or otherwise act according to his wishes. - From Wikipedia.

bek recently wrote about his experience growing up in twi in the "My Story" thread. It's really good.