Just a thought. It doesn't do a hill of beans for God whether we liked the ROA or whether we disliked the ROA. It does not affect anything. It is all just different view points and perspectives. Some people love camping, some people love roughing it and some people love working their tails off while others play. What works for one doesn't work for another and vice versa. It doesn't make us better or lesser or more spiritual or not. It doesn't make someone cleaner or dirtier spiritually if they can come up with great memories or not. What it does show is how people react and remember an event that may have been suited to their personalities and personal likes or not.
The point is, or my point is, if I had to do it all over again, would I? No, I wouldn't. It is NOT my cup of tea. But at the time I felt compelled to go whether I was going WOW or returning, which I did twice. So here I was, along with others that I know of, going and participating in a festival/gathering/what have you that I would not attend under any other circumstance and really didn't prefer going as it was.
So am I going to remember it fondly? No. Is that bad? No. Take me to stock car races and I will complain too. I don't like that stuff. Take me to an antique sale and I will come back raving and wanting to go again.
It is just personal preferences. I didn't need to travel all across the country to get to Ohio, planes and changing planes and layovers to be rained on or listen to the Word the Word the Word being taught. I had more 'believers' in my area than I could shake a stick at as well. (nevertheless the expense of flying in from California to Ohio)
What is ironic that even to this day, being so out of TWI and being so far removed from TWI's doctrine, it still feels 'wrong' to say openly that I personally disliked the ROA and dreaded it when it came around every year. It is not bad to say that, it is not bad to feel that way. I am more than confident that no one in China got possessed because I feel this way :) hehehe
Oh and I never had a WOW burger either. Never wanted one. I don't think the ceiling will fall in on me for that *ducks*
Linda Zster reminded me on the other ROA thread, that the ROA 72 was in Sidney. 73 was at the Way Nash, as those that followed.
Sometime shortly after, and I can't place the years, I recall a meeting after the Rock where Craig spoke. He was talking about the Rock and different stuff - might have been the first year after Emporia opened and he was the Corps Coordinator, can't remember exactly.
Anyway, I remember this distinctly - he had held a couple meetings at this one ROA for incoming and outgoing Corps, during the day. He was excited about that, and noted that while the Rock was a great time for fun and fellowship, it was also a great time to get some things done, get "some work" done, dernit", words to that effect. (this was when he still knew a few curse words he didn't use in public) He went on about how it didn't have to be all "play" time, but "we" could have meetings, people could come to meetings. (which I guess to him meant to listen to him)
I remember looking at my wife and thinking "uh oh". But we didn't think at the time the ROA could become some long string of pre-planned snooze-fests of listening to someone rattle on about who-knows-what. Having everyone together once a year, or those that came, could have some benefits along these lines, but since everyone didn't come, or for the whole thing, it wouldn't do to make it a mandatory "meeting", to host other uh, important meetings. It was supposed to be a kind of get-together-celebratory event, initially.
Buuuuut, that changed, and the very next year after Craig discovered it's meeting value, there were more. And then more. And more. Everyone and their uncle wanted to plan some kind of little tea-fest or meeting. Spontaneity was reduced, and with everyone "working' on something or other, there was little time for a lot of people to wander around, meeting others. The opportunity for self-discovery was reduced if you have to follow a schedule of planned meetings and events. Avoiding the uninspiring goo-roos of Meeting World became something of an art.
My first ROA was 1977 and it was at Sidney. I agree that 1978 it was at HQ for the first time. I remember it was sometime in the ROAS after that VP lamenting from the main podium about having to sacrifice his farm land to be trampled on by us for the ROA.
Ok I dug out the Way magazines Oakman was correct it was 78
D*mn, I should have bet money
My first ROA was 1977 and it was at Sidney. I agree that 1978 it was at HQ for the first time. I remember it was sometime in the ROAS after that VP lamenting from the main podium about having to sacrifice his farm land to be trampled on by us for the ROA.
Like he ever did any farming himself Edited by Oakspear
It was a great Time and I loved it. I loved the WOW burgers, and most of all, hooking up with friends who had the same heart as I did: "Word Over The World". It was glorious and exciting. I couldn't have asked for more.
Oh....you said the least. Sorry about that. Well, the thing I liked least was staying up late at night and helping keep the tents up during the storms. Lotsa storms.
...and tell me papagee, did you accomplish your goal of "Word Over The World"???
...or were you too busy shoving wow burgers down your throat?...sorry, I'm not usually this hard on newcomers...I was just having a "flashback" of sorts... ;)
...and tell me papagee, did you accomplish your goal of "Word Over The World"???
...or were you too busy shoving wow burgers down your throat?...sorry, I'm not usually this hard on newcomers...I was just having a "flashback" of sorts... ;)
OH Groucho - those flashbacks aren't from the Wow Burgers.........they're from that "other" stuff you ate
...and tell me papagee, did you accomplish your goal of "Word Over The World"???
...or were you too busy shoving wow burgers down your throat?...sorry, I'm not usually this hard on newcomers...I was just having a "flashback" of sorts... ;)
Groucho those wow burgers always seemed to have a lot of oil in them. Never did like oil.
Thank you, Kit for posting that link concerning the backside of the ROA. I apologizing for bringing up the subject again when it was already discussed here.
My heart ached and rebroke over two issues I saw. One if you were the corps person who had to sacrifice time and salary to be there only to work like a dog, it wasn't fun at all. And it wasn't fun for the others who lived there and had to work as well. That is a big difference from those who went and basically hung out all day, so memories would be very very different.
The rebreaking of my heart was in reading Radar's comments about the dead WOWS. That had to be horrible to deal with the confusion and fear and grief to pass that on.
That year I had gone WOW for my second time, I knew at least one person in that accident. I did not find out about them dying till nearly year later when I was at the Advanced Class and ran into a mutual friend who mentioned it to me and became confused as I reacted to the news. He was surprised that I did not know and was never informed. Then I had move in with a corps couple after that ROA 1986 as apprentice corps and found out the accident was blamed on them for 'being out of fellowship' and 'for not being able to get it together.' Last night these memories replayed in my mind and I relived all that and realized just how vunerable our young lives were and how much we didn't matter.
Here are people, good people, people in their twenties and more, giving up their lives, giving up their jobs, giving up whatever security they had to go where ever the hell TWI thought to send them with just a few hundred measely dollars in their pockets. When we left TWI grounds in our caravan we got onto a road, I don't remember if it was highway or not and I don't think so cause all I remember is two lanes, one in either direction but we were going at a good clip. I was in back of the caravan when all the cars ahead of us starting swerving at the same speed on to the shoulder of that road. I remember asking out loud, more in a yell if everyone ahead of us had lost their minds. Then I saw what happened. Some freaking idiot stopped his truck right in the lane we were in and left it there and we were all bearing down on it, right behind each other. He was standing on the side of the road just looking at us as we all swerved around. I gave him the finger.
THEN SOME OF THEM NEVER GOT AWAY FROM TWI GROUNDS AND DIED RIGHT THERE. IT ALMOST HAPPENED TO US AT THE SAME ROA.
Any memorials for them? Any memorial for my friend? No, just a bunch of devil poison blaming them for their own deaths.
That could have been any one of us and it would not have mattered one iota with TWI leadership. Out of fellowship my foot.
Word over the World, positive memories...great food and guitar singing and music? None of that, not one aspect of that can measure up to the life of one human being. For God's sake, why didn't we matter? Here we are, giving our all including our lives and all you get is that it was your own fault if you died?
There is something seriously wrong with that, people being treated as diposable as Kleenix.
I now hate the ROA and for all it stood for. It was their version of the Bible that mattered only. Human life came last.
Thank you, Kit for posting that link concerning the backside of the ROA. I apologizing for bringing up the subject again when it was already discussed here.
FullCircle.......no apology necessary. Topics resurface all the time around here. Heck, with newcomers arriving here at GS all the time......it's bound to happen.
Besides, with pages and pages of back topics.....who really ever goes back more than 3 or 4 pages anyway.
I now hate the ROA and for all it stood for. It was their version of the Bible that mattered only. Human life came last.
Yeah......it's a mixed bag, for sure. One thing I try to keep in mind is........God worked lots of blessings and all despite the corrupting organization or its dis-trustees.
My most memorable moment (not) was watching J Reynolds yell for two whole hours at all the wonderful International believers because he didn't think the little balloons on the International tent were blown up enough. The integity of the Word and all that rot.
Most of these folks had travelled from all over the world and for the most part had spent every penny they had to get there, with little sleep.
Having to quit my job and spend every nickel I had to go to it, and then having to call my wife and tell her I got sent out wow again and we were moving.
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waysider
FreeAtLast--------Yes, I have heard some pretty wild first-hand accounts of Burning Man. I think SXSW(South By Southwest) in Austin might be more to your liking. Hundreds of bands come together to s
FreeAtLast
You are probably right waysider. I would be more into the music than burning wooden art work.
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FullCircle
Cool.
Just a thought. It doesn't do a hill of beans for God whether we liked the ROA or whether we disliked the ROA. It does not affect anything. It is all just different view points and perspectives. Some people love camping, some people love roughing it and some people love working their tails off while others play. What works for one doesn't work for another and vice versa. It doesn't make us better or lesser or more spiritual or not. It doesn't make someone cleaner or dirtier spiritually if they can come up with great memories or not. What it does show is how people react and remember an event that may have been suited to their personalities and personal likes or not.
The point is, or my point is, if I had to do it all over again, would I? No, I wouldn't. It is NOT my cup of tea. But at the time I felt compelled to go whether I was going WOW or returning, which I did twice. So here I was, along with others that I know of, going and participating in a festival/gathering/what have you that I would not attend under any other circumstance and really didn't prefer going as it was.
So am I going to remember it fondly? No. Is that bad? No. Take me to stock car races and I will complain too. I don't like that stuff. Take me to an antique sale and I will come back raving and wanting to go again.
It is just personal preferences. I didn't need to travel all across the country to get to Ohio, planes and changing planes and layovers to be rained on or listen to the Word the Word the Word being taught. I had more 'believers' in my area than I could shake a stick at as well. (nevertheless the expense of flying in from California to Ohio)
What is ironic that even to this day, being so out of TWI and being so far removed from TWI's doctrine, it still feels 'wrong' to say openly that I personally disliked the ROA and dreaded it when it came around every year. It is not bad to say that, it is not bad to feel that way. I am more than confident that no one in China got possessed because I feel this way :) hehehe
Oh and I never had a WOW burger either. Never wanted one. I don't think the ceiling will fall in on me for that *ducks*
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socks
Linda Zster reminded me on the other ROA thread, that the ROA 72 was in Sidney. 73 was at the Way Nash, as those that followed.
Sometime shortly after, and I can't place the years, I recall a meeting after the Rock where Craig spoke. He was talking about the Rock and different stuff - might have been the first year after Emporia opened and he was the Corps Coordinator, can't remember exactly.
Anyway, I remember this distinctly - he had held a couple meetings at this one ROA for incoming and outgoing Corps, during the day. He was excited about that, and noted that while the Rock was a great time for fun and fellowship, it was also a great time to get some things done, get "some work" done, dernit", words to that effect. (this was when he still knew a few curse words he didn't use in public) He went on about how it didn't have to be all "play" time, but "we" could have meetings, people could come to meetings. (which I guess to him meant to listen to him)
I remember looking at my wife and thinking "uh oh". But we didn't think at the time the ROA could become some long string of pre-planned snooze-fests of listening to someone rattle on about who-knows-what. Having everyone together once a year, or those that came, could have some benefits along these lines, but since everyone didn't come, or for the whole thing, it wouldn't do to make it a mandatory "meeting", to host other uh, important meetings. It was supposed to be a kind of get-together-celebratory event, initially.
Buuuuut, that changed, and the very next year after Craig discovered it's meeting value, there were more. And then more. And more. Everyone and their uncle wanted to plan some kind of little tea-fest or meeting. Spontaneity was reduced, and with everyone "working' on something or other, there was little time for a lot of people to wander around, meeting others. The opportunity for self-discovery was reduced if you have to follow a schedule of planned meetings and events. Avoiding the uninspiring goo-roos of Meeting World became something of an art.
That's all what I liked the least.
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WhiteDove
Sockster 73 ROA was at Sidney as well as 74, 75 was in Lima 76 on at The Way Int.
Here is a couple of shots of Pressed Down from 73 not a suit to be found................
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socks
Really? Wow, there goes my memory then.
Is this the Fishing Lightweight reel board....?
:biglaugh: 
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skyrider
ROA '75 was in Lima
ROA '76 was in Sidney
ROA '77 was at The Way Int.
All those following -- at HQ
I'll bet money on it.
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Oakspear
I won't bet money on it, but I thought that '78 was the first year back at New Knoxville.
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FullCircle
My first ROA was 1977 and it was at Sidney. I agree that 1978 it was at HQ for the first time. I remember it was sometime in the ROAS after that VP lamenting from the main podium about having to sacrifice his farm land to be trampled on by us for the ROA.
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WhiteDove
Ok I dug out the Way magazines Oakman was correct it was 78
1973 - Sidney
1974 Sidney
1975 - Lima
1976 - Sidney
1977 - Sidney
1978- on The Way International
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Oakspear
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GrouchoMarxJr
...and tell me papagee, did you accomplish your goal of "Word Over The World"???
...or were you too busy shoving wow burgers down your throat?...sorry, I'm not usually this hard on newcomers...I was just having a "flashback" of sorts... ;)
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doojable
OH Groucho - those flashbacks aren't from the Wow Burgers.........they're from that "other" stuff you ate
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skyrider
Well...........I got 3 out of 4 right.
Thanks WD for digging out the mags.....I threw mine away years ago.
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RumRunner
Groucho those wow burgers always seemed to have a lot of oil in them. Never did like oil.
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Kit Sober
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ex70sHouston
Everyone talks about the heat.
It was either 76 or 77 I remember freezing at night it got so cold.
After Texas heat it never seemed that hot in Ohio.
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Ham
I think I liked the rain least. Here we were, in Ohio farmland, at the time of the year it was SUPPOSED to rain.
I remember wading through three feet of mud (or more) thinking, "what have I done to deserve this"
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FullCircle
Thank you, Kit for posting that link concerning the backside of the ROA. I apologizing for bringing up the subject again when it was already discussed here.
My heart ached and rebroke over two issues I saw. One if you were the corps person who had to sacrifice time and salary to be there only to work like a dog, it wasn't fun at all. And it wasn't fun for the others who lived there and had to work as well. That is a big difference from those who went and basically hung out all day, so memories would be very very different.
The rebreaking of my heart was in reading Radar's comments about the dead WOWS. That had to be horrible to deal with the confusion and fear and grief to pass that on.
That year I had gone WOW for my second time, I knew at least one person in that accident. I did not find out about them dying till nearly year later when I was at the Advanced Class and ran into a mutual friend who mentioned it to me and became confused as I reacted to the news. He was surprised that I did not know and was never informed. Then I had move in with a corps couple after that ROA 1986 as apprentice corps and found out the accident was blamed on them for 'being out of fellowship' and 'for not being able to get it together.' Last night these memories replayed in my mind and I relived all that and realized just how vunerable our young lives were and how much we didn't matter.
Here are people, good people, people in their twenties and more, giving up their lives, giving up their jobs, giving up whatever security they had to go where ever the hell TWI thought to send them with just a few hundred measely dollars in their pockets. When we left TWI grounds in our caravan we got onto a road, I don't remember if it was highway or not and I don't think so cause all I remember is two lanes, one in either direction but we were going at a good clip. I was in back of the caravan when all the cars ahead of us starting swerving at the same speed on to the shoulder of that road. I remember asking out loud, more in a yell if everyone ahead of us had lost their minds. Then I saw what happened. Some freaking idiot stopped his truck right in the lane we were in and left it there and we were all bearing down on it, right behind each other. He was standing on the side of the road just looking at us as we all swerved around. I gave him the finger.
THEN SOME OF THEM NEVER GOT AWAY FROM TWI GROUNDS AND DIED RIGHT THERE. IT ALMOST HAPPENED TO US AT THE SAME ROA.
Any memorials for them? Any memorial for my friend? No, just a bunch of devil poison blaming them for their own deaths.
That could have been any one of us and it would not have mattered one iota with TWI leadership. Out of fellowship my foot.
Word over the World, positive memories...great food and guitar singing and music? None of that, not one aspect of that can measure up to the life of one human being. For God's sake, why didn't we matter? Here we are, giving our all including our lives and all you get is that it was your own fault if you died?
There is something seriously wrong with that, people being treated as diposable as Kleenix.
I now hate the ROA and for all it stood for. It was their version of the Bible that mattered only. Human life came last.
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rascal
(((Full circle))) I am sorry.
They had to have somebody to blame rather than accept responsibility for the failability of their doctrines.
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skyrider
FullCircle.......no apology necessary. Topics resurface all the time around here. Heck, with newcomers arriving here at GS all the time......it's bound to happen.
Besides, with pages and pages of back topics.....who really ever goes back more than 3 or 4 pages anyway.
Yeah......it's a mixed bag, for sure. One thing I try to keep in mind is........God worked lots of blessings and all despite the corrupting organization or its dis-trustees.
:unsure:
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polar bear
My most memorable moment (not) was watching J Reynolds yell for two whole hours at all the wonderful International believers because he didn't think the little balloons on the International tent were blown up enough. The integity of the Word and all that rot.
Most of these folks had travelled from all over the world and for the most part had spent every penny they had to get there, with little sleep.
What a warm welcome.
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coolchef
wow
what an foot
but how typical
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Mr Incredible
wow - who posted the photo attachment of the players on stage?
Who was that? was that 'PDSTRO' ("Pressed Down Shaking Together and Rolling Over")?
I listened to alot of the music of the day and I was just curious.....my favorite song "You can lead a horse to water..."
Ok back on the topic all -- sorry....
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Mr Incredible
shucks I never got to go to a ROA....
Look at all the memories you guys have....should I be regretful?
I know, I know.....look a the posts....
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griffp
Having to quit my job and spend every nickel I had to go to it, and then having to call my wife and tell her I got sent out wow again and we were moving.
Ha ha what a life.
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