Both my years sucked 'Greasy Luongo's and hairy watatas" whatever that means. Second year I was sent to Mesa as a 'Minuteman". The fourth person never showed up. Left me with a newly wed couple. They had both been WOW the year before and gotten engaged. When their new assignments came out and it was to the same place they decided to get married. So we found an apartment and I have no idea how many times I would lie awake at night listening to them explore the new found joy of sex. They were both rather vocal so night after night I woulkd be serenaded to grunts and "Ohhhh ****". Damn I hated that. I don't think we got one person to come to twig that year.
The first year I supported (for the most part) two less-than-industrious kids while the FC had his girlfriend follow us down to Alabama and move in. That lasted for a month or so, till he finally just took off with her and went back home to Idaho. We floundered around for the rest of the year and went back to the ROA, THORUOGHLY dejected.
I signed up for a second year in hopes of erasing the first and hoping in vain to really "see God work" this time.
It was another dreary year (in my childhood hometown) and we schlepped back to the ROA again with nothing much to show for it.
So, no classes, no wonderful triumphs of God over the adversary or any of the other crap that was supposed to happen.
What I DID manage to do was to thoroughly (throughly?) disrupt my life and career. The guy that took over the management position that I left, retired last year with several millions in his portfolio, I'm told. I, OTOH, am doing somewhat less well. So who needs to retire anyway?
Of all the crap I did with WayWorld, going W.O.W is EASILY the most harmful, stupid and counterproductive that I ever did. And, it's the one thing that I MOST regret. A REALLY stupid move...
However, I thought I'd add a little something I picked up.
If you look through the book "the way:living in love", you'll see a book that was written not long before the institution
of the WOW program, and it includes some photos, which are labelled. One photo shows a WOW holding up the
hand-sign for it, which, apparently, never caught on.
Yeah, if I remember right, that's Donnie Fugit in the picture. A three-finger "W" on each side of his head, and his mouth as the "O".
Maybe this is why the sign kinda died out, I don't know:
Back around 1975, there was a comic book called "Son of Satan." I found the series while I worked for a magazine and paperback distributor. Son of Satan's alter-ego went by the name of Helstrom. When he went to turn into the "power figure," he stood outside and raised both his hands toward the heavens in the very same three-finger sign!
Freaked me out when I saw it. At the time, I sent a copy of it to TWI for that special table they always laid out at the Advanced Classes to show particularly "debbilish" items.
But it encouraged me 2 yrs later too move over 200 miles away from my surroundings.
Now over these past years,i heard about the bad stuff that went wrong during some of the assignments.
But when i got that far away from my surroundings.That's where i grew the most.
Just opinion here,the reason why there why there's a high amount of divorce in the USA.
Cause folks don't ever get away from family.
Sure they may move 5 miles down the road.
But who your kidding,they see mom and dad every week.
Plus a lot of times,one or the other mates,lets their siblings dictate to them.
How to run their marriage(especially the husbands mother with him).
And it goes downhill from there.
I believed WOW was very excellentin helping a lot of folks stand on their 2 feet,
and really learn to learn on yahweh for their suffiency.
Getting out on your own in a place far away from familiar surroundings can really help a young person grow and take on responsibility, make their own mistakes, and learn from them.
A little aside here on the subject. Sorry. Anyways, whatever you might believe about the Bible, there is some pretty profound stuff regarding marriage in Genesis, where it says that a man must leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.
The principle here is very true:
If you do not leave,
You cannot cleave.
I have seen more messes made by well-meaning but bumbling family members. This is a time in their lives when they need to cut the apron strings, whether they live a thousand miles away or just a thousand feet.
Mom and Dad, you've got to give those young 'uns space and time to work out their own problems. Bite your tongue and pray. Trust that you brought them up to make the right decisions, and that if they are headed in the wrong direction, they will quickly figure it out. And remember you had to make quite a few of your own before you figured some things out. You can't live your life over again through them, and they have to make their own lives or they won't ever learn.
Husband and Wife, if your family comes to you badmouthing your spouse, have the guts to tell them to back off and mind their own business.
My first year WOW was 1973-74, the first year they put people into “families” instead of couples. I had lived away from home before, but in the same town in southern Indiana.as my parents. When I went WOW at the age of 19, I was assigned to Greenville, South Carolina. I did not expect the year to be easy, and expected to grow, but was not prepared for how quickly things would get strange. I am hoping that you folks who were around in the early 1970’s, especially at TWI HQ, will surely remember this, and maybe you can fill in the blanks for me. I’ve looked for answers for this for many years. I have come very close to getting them, but never did. I can only wonder.
Sit back and brew a cup of coffee. This is a long ride.
Things started out ok. WOW training was fun. I saw old friends there from my home state. One of my high school friends that I had gotten into the Word, Scxtt Exde, was going out WOW as well. We also made lots of new friends. There were some inspiring teachings, but some stupid stuff, too. Vxnce Fxnnegan was my TC during the event—I think there were four or five of us in the WOW twig.
Once during training when Vxnce was teaching our twig about how important it was to read the word every day, I particularly perked to attention because I had discovered the joys of searching the scriptures on a regular morning basis, and had been doing so for about a year. Every morning without fail, I would rise before dawn, usually around 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. to spend quiet time with God and read His word for pleasure and understanding. Then I would go out and run at least a mile while I prayed. That time of day for me had become a very personal and special time when I would get my mind prepared for the day, pray, and enjoy my fellowship with God. So at that moment I could really relate to what he was saying and began listening intently.
However, I suppose he interpreted my attention as God telling him to let me have it. He must have thought God had given him some “heavy revvy” that I didn’t like to read the word, and lacked the discipline to get up in the morning, so he very intensely stared me in the eyes and directly gave me “reproof” for being lazy and undisciplined. It was so obvious that this guy I had such immense respect for as a “spiritual heavy,” was actually walking totally by the flesh and was soooo wrong. It confused the hell out of me.
When things like that happened, it tended to deeply confuse me, and make me doubt my own perceptions of reality. Why? Because already, I had been firmly and repeatedly schooled that these “spiritual heavies” were always right. And if you thought you saw them make a mistake, YOU were wrong. You were totally misreading the situation, so you needed to listen to them and be humble and look for the learning. So, I did. And afterward, for the remainder of the training, it was as if Vxnce felt he had me “pegged” and thereafter treated with me with what I can only describe as some kind of “attitude.”
The rest of the training went well enough. One night several of us sat outside the hotel in Sidney and talked, played guitar, and had a great time. The next night was commissioning at HQ in the BRC. I got in early and put my bible on a front row aisle seat. When we all sat down, I discovered that I had actually put my bible down next to Dxug Hxrrison, who had been at that little gathering the night before. We were both pleasantly surprised and laughed about how cool that was. We were further surprised when they read off our names to be in the same family!
Also, my friend Scxtt was sent to the same state! He was in the same family as Cxthy Brubeck, Dave Brubeck’s daughter. We thought that was so great, since Scxtt was such a jazz fan. Things seemed to be going well. Our family coordinator, Stxphxnie Jxrdan, had been a WOW the year before, with Sue Crxbb. We felt we would be in capable hands. Our other WOW brother was Dxnnis McGxx from Columbus Ohio, who was just barely out of the PFAL Class, and had not even had the intermediate class yet. Basically a brand new babe.
So, we are all excited. We load up in my little blue ’67 Malibu and head out in a caravan for South Carolina with everyone assigned to that state, and our WOW Rover Pxtti Bxss in the lead. While going through the mountains, my little Malibu blew a radiator hose and the engine light came on just as we were stopping to have dinner. I tried to tell Pxtti what I thought was wrong and what I needed to do, and that I didn’t think it would take long to fix. However, Pxtti stopped me mid-sentence and said I needed to stop going by my senses and just believe God and my car would make it. We didn’t have the time or the money to deal with expensive car repairs that would slow us down and eat up the family finances.
Again, I get confused, and hurt, because I may just be a little peon, but I KNOW that if I drive with that light on, I’m going to ruin my engine. It’s cheaper to replace a little hose than an entire car. That’s basic mechanics and common sense. I couldn’t eat and was visibly upset, fighting back tears. Again, why were the people who were supposed to be the “spiritual heavies” making what appeared to be the wrong decisions, and not even listening to me? It had to be me.I had to make my mind stop questioning and just shut up and follow, and maybe I would learn something. But my gut was eating me alive.
My WOW brother saw I was upset. He asked me what was wrong and I told him. He agreed with me. He got up from the table and said “Come on, I know what to do.” He and I left the restaurant, took my car two doors down to a gas station, where the mechanic sure enough had to replace a hose, at very little cost to me, and we were done and back before everyone finished eating, and Pxtti was none the wiser.
So we arrive at our destination with our WOW family of 4. I have bonded really well with my two WOW brothers, but Stxphxnie seems a little distant, though still trying to connect with us and be the leader of the family. At that time, being sent to a conservative southern state, we decided the girls would get an apartment together, and the guys would get another apartment close by. We actually found nice unfurnished apartments side by side in the same apartment complex.
Stxphanie and I got jobs right away, working at the same clothing manufacturer. A wonderful local believer, Flxrence Shxnnan (Stxnley Reahxrd’s aunt), had a cabin up near Hilton Head that she had some extra furniture in, and she was going to let us borrow whatever we needed. But I still wasn’t making the connection with Stxphanie I was hoping and trying to make. She tended to spend a lot of time by herself, in the bedroom. She did tell me her parents were going through a divorce, and she had a brother who was in residence. I knew she was going through a hard time. I made myself available to her, but did not want to pry.
One morning Flxrence planned to pick us up from our apartments and take us out to her cabin in her station wagon to bring back some beds. We were all in the car and ready to pull out of the apartment complex, when Stxphanie said “Wait a minute, I need to go check the mail first.” So we stopped, she exited the car, rounded the corner of the building to pick up the mail, and we never saw her again.
We all sat in the car for about 15 minutes, then finally I got out and went around the apartment building to the mailboxes and she was not there. I went inside the apartment and she wasn’t there either. Hours went by. We searched everywhere we could think of. Dxnny and I were the only two in the family with cars, so we knew she had not driven off somewhere. Stxphxnie seemed to have simply vanished off the face of the earth.
We called Pxtti and told her. We filed a missing person’s report with the Police. The FBI became involved. Our employer put out a reward. People at HQ were on a 24-hour prayer vigil. VPW had Stxphxnie’s photo distributed to every trucker on the eastern seaboard. We put up missing person flyers everywhere. We knocked on doors, searched the streets and alleys, looked everywhere, found her nowhere. This is long before deprogramming was an issue. Besides, her family were all longstanding PFAL grads. To all of us, we assumed she had simply been kidnapped. Weeks went by. VPW personally called us to check up on us and see how we were doing. We were hanging on by our fingernails. Three teenagers who barely knew each other, all alone in separate unfurnished apartments in a strange city, a strange state, in a very frightening and confusing situation with no answers.
One late night, through my bedroom wall, I could hear Dxnny actually sobbing in his bedroom in the apartment next door. I went over to talk to him. Dxug was either working or at a neighbor’s house. Dxnny was there all alone in his sleeping bag on the floor (we still had no furniture), crying his eyes out. The WOW experience was definitely not what either of us had bargained for. But we had made a commitment and we felt we were under attack by the “adversary” and were determined not to let him deter us from fulfilling our commitment to God.
Poor Dxnny, just had been in the word barely three months. Had literally just finished the PFAL class and launched into the WOW program the next week. I felt I had to do whatever it took to help him through this and make it a positive growing and learning experience for us. I guess that helped me not to concentrate on my own uncertainties during this time. Dxug soon came home and the three of us talked and cried into the wee hours of the morning together. The three of us, Dxnny, Dxug, and myself, were determined to not cave in, and help each other get through this.
Pxtti later called me and asked me if I would coordinate the family. Actually I said I would rather defer to Dxug, who was the only Advanced Class grad between the three of us. I know I could have done the job, but I think Dxug did a great job, considering the circumstances we all were thrown into.
Eddix Lxmos, Stxphanie’s fiancé, came all the way from Kansas out to South Carolina, firmly committed not to leave until he found Stxphanie. I think he stayed at least a week or two and I went everywhere with him to try to help him find her. Eddie was quite a character. Originally from NYC complete with accent and attitude to boot, he stuck out like a sore thumb in the molasses-slow culture of the South. One sleepy Sunday morning we went to a crowded cafeteria for breakfast in the after-church crowd, where Eddie was loudly trying to witness to everyone in line.
We were eventually seated at this tiny little table that was kind of wobbly. Eddie was talking and laughing and joking with the waitresses, and kept dropping his silverware on the floor. Then one of us accidentally knocked over a waterglass. Then Eddie says “I just can’t believe this!” and put his elbows down hard on the table, turning it completely over onto the floor, spilling milk, pancakes, syrup, bacon, eggs, sausage, juice, and coffee everywhere. We both ran out to the cashier in embarrassment to pay for our meals. As I grabbed my changepurse, a roll of pennies I had went flying out of my purse and scattered all over the floor. I handed the cashier a twenty and told her she could keep the change, and Eddie and I ran out of the restaurant laughing so hysterically we both thought we were going to pee ourselves! Needless to say, Eddie brought much comic relief during that awful time period, but alas, never found his fiancé and had to go home in defeat.
Several weeks later, I got a call from our State coordinator, who asked me to pack up all of Stxphxnie’s things and have them ready in an hour to be picked up. They had found Stxphxnie, and she was already being escorted to TWI HQ. He would not give me any other details than that. Any questions I asked were answered with “I don’t know.” Or, “We don’t know.”
Several days later I called him, and asked him what happened. He said he took her to HQ and delivered her straight to VPW’s office. He waited outside until she came out. He said to me that all Stxphxnie said to him when she came out of his office was “He kicked my @-$$.” None of my questions were answered as to what happened, except that she had left of her own free will and was not kidnapped.
Dxug, Dxnny, and I went on to have a relatively successful year for the most part, I thought. We moved into a different neighborhood. Pxtti moved with me into a furnished duplex with a humorously nosy landlady named Mrs. Corn who used to spy on us by peering through the windows and peeking through the keyholes of the doors that separated our apartments. Being the rover, Pxtti was only there a week out of every month, but we eventually got fairly close.
The boys rented an unfurnished house down the street-- Mrs. Corn peeked in their windows too. I never had a problem with finding work, but the guys struggled a bit in Greenville and never did get any furniture. We ran fellowship at my house. We did run two classes in Greenville. Dxug witnessed to one of his neighbors, and eventually married her—and used my phone to talk to her for hours and hours after our WOW family was moved to Columbia SC. Dxug and Denny had a really nicely furnished apartment which Pxtti helped them with, but they had no phone. The guys ate at my apartment and used the phone there. On the down side, Doug managed to rack up very expensive long distance love-lorn conversations between Columbia and Greenville the second half of the year, which he never paid for . But he got a good wife out of the deal and I hope they are still together and doing well. Dxnny went on to write The Rescue and a sequel. I went on to coordinate the folks in southern Indiana and all three of us eventually graduated from The Way Corps. But the questions remained.
Stxphanie exhibited depressive behavior. I can only wonder what might have been at the root of it.
That's a definite fugue. That's an indication of some pretty deep psychological doo-doo.
It had to be caused by some pretty deep $h!t as well.
I wonder what the hell happened between the end of her seemingly successful WOW year 72-73, and the beginning of her WOW year 73-74?
What the hell happened? We were simply given the "possession" line of bs.
But I want to know:
What happend to her between August and October of 1973?
Why did Stxphxnie disappear?
How did she disappear? She had no transportation and just dropped out of sight on the spur of the moment and survived for weeks without any visible means of support. She left all her belongings in the apartment, and even left her purse in the car.
What were her reasons? How was she found? Who found her?
And why were we put through that kind of emotional upheaval and no one felt we deserved any kind of explanation whatsoever for this behavior?
Once at Rome City I was sitting with Txmmy Crabb at lunch, and when he read my nametag, he recognized me as having been in that WOW family. We began to talk, I found he had inside info on what went down, and at the precise moment I was able to ask him what actually happened and he willingly began to tell me, Del Duncan picked up the microphone and we had to stop talking. After the lunch, he was called away, and we never, ever got to finish that conversation.
Will somebody out there who recognizes all of us, and who actually knows what happened, please tell me?
Anyway, that’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version of my FIRST year WOW. It gets weirder from there. But that’s another post.
However, I thought I'd add a little something I picked up.
If you look through the book "the way:living in love", you'll see a book that was written not long before the institution
of the WOW program, and it includes some photos, which are labelled. One photo shows a WOW holding up the
hand-sign for it, which, apparently, never caught on.
I vaguely remember that picture. The pinky, ring and middle fingers on both hands are spread apart to look like a "W" and the index and thumb of both hands are overlapped to form an "O" so it looks like: W O W. I think the reason it didn't catch on is because it wasn't an easy hand sign to do, and it couldn't be done using just one hand. Spock's "Live Long and Prosper" hand sign is also hard to do at first, but only Trekies, that is, the Startrek "Spock" fans probably still do it.
Both my years sucked 'Greasy Luongo's and hairy watatas" whatever that means. Second year I was sent to Mesa as a 'Minuteman". The fourth person never showed up. Left me with a newly wed couple. They had both been WOW the year before and gotten engaged. When their new assignments came out and it was to the same place they decided to get married. So we found an apartment and I have no idea how many times I would lie awake at night listening to them explore the new found joy of sex. They were both rather vocal so night after night I woulkd be serenaded to grunts and "Ohhhh ****". Damn I hated that. I don't think we got one person to come to twig that year.
John
Wow, how soon they forget. Your original 4th never showed so they sent me in the second week. You and I shared a room for the first two months then moved to our own apartment for the rest of the time in the field. You and I played chess almost every night I was home. Around Feb I got my Motorcycle and spent a lot of time at the Branch leaders house playing guitar with the other member of my band, Good Measure (we were in TN the year before together) and backing up Paul Cuoco From Pressed Down. He was the Branch leader. Yes our Twig coord was an interesting person but darn his wife was hot! do you remember her name?
I'm crushed you totally forgot I was there. :D Ill bet you forgot the thing with the 5 lbs of American cheese too. Since I wasn't home as much as you were I figure my year was better than yours. Then again I had family in Tucson so between the band and Home I have a support system.
And I thought I had a strange WOW year! Stuff like that will drive you up the wall!, specifically the being left in the dark about what really happened. I'm honored to "know" someone who stuck it out through such horrible experiences.
In my year, (1974-75) we had a 7 families of 4 each, two male, two female. One of the families, coordinated by a young man who was later infamous as the limb leader of Alaska during the times Temple Lady and CoolWaters remember all too well. Both the girls were named C**dy and both were attractive young women. Unbeknownst to me, one of them "left the field" and moved in with a man she had met whom she thought was the love of her life. Though they were living with his family, it turned out to be not such a great deal, as he kept her a virtual prisoner. She was not permitted to leave the premises nor to contact any of her friends or family. To ensure her cooperation, he locked all her clothing and other possessions, such as they were, in the trunk of his car. Now, being the roommate of the BL, SB, I was pretty much a slave myself, however, when she held a twig coordinator's meeting one evening she graciously allowed me to stay in my room in our apartment instead of wandering the streets or hanging out for hours in the guy's stinky, dirty apartment around the corner in the same complex. The phone rings, she answers, and all h311 breaks loose. C**dy had called, giving directions to her location and asking for rescue. Seems she had been trying to get loose from this guy for weeks. (Many of us didn't know she was even there). So I am called out of my little room, commanded to stay there and keep my mouth shut, my two WOW brothers are commandeered from their apartment, and I think my car was commandeered also. I insisted on an explanation before I would cooperate and got a brief one, but since SB thought I was a spiritual weakling I wasn't allowed to assist in the rescue, especially since I recommended calling the police (more evidence of my weakness, I guess).
So at any rate they all go barrelling off to wherever this girl is being held against her will, and eventually bring her back. She is jumpy and terrified this guy will come after her. She was the most traumatized person I had ever seen. However, I was soon sent away and not allowed to comfort her or hardly speak to her.
The next morning her parents flew in from Indianapolis. She was glad to see them, and S tried to explain what had happened in a way that would not make TWI look like they didn't properly train or protect their WOW Ambassadors. They took her out shopping and out to eat and she stayed with them at a hotel that night (I think). The next morning they came over to see us, everything seemed okay, she was going back with her WOW family. They went out to lunch and never came back. C**dy called from the airport. Her parents had come down with an extra return ticket and never told her or us until then that they were taking her home.
They took her to a psychiatrist, a minister, and several other interventions, but she eventually went to TWI HQ and talked to the people there and around New Year's she came back and we had a party. She went on to marry a very nice man who got involved with TWI that year and they were FWC grads the last I knew.
The thing that I find so annoying still is the subterfuge and sneakiness with which TWI routinely operated. For one thing, why bother to teach the power of God and the power of prayer and "believing" if you are so secretive that no one knows what the h311 is going on? We could have at least prayed for her. And the right thing to do was call the cops if that girl was being held against her will. It's called kidnapping.
I don't think the "leadership" over the WOWs was well trained, either. SB did not like having to associate with non-Way Corps who were filled with zeal, love, and enthusiasm, but not "in with the in crowd" of the WC. I think a lot of the WC who were sent out with 27 other people they were supposed to lead and train and love and protect that year didn't know their azz from their elbow about what they were doing. I'm sure I was a special annoyance, because I believed that we were all equal members of the Body of Christ, sent there together by God (yeah, I believed that, too) to save souls and lead people to Christ and a better knowledge of God's Word. Of course I wasn't an Advanced Class grad, let alone one of VP's special friends, but I loved God and trusted Him totally.
It was a long time before I really believed that anyone with a WC tag had special powers and abilities. That year, I was pretty sure God knew more than any of them.
Wow, how soon they forget. Your original 4th never showed so they sent me in the second week. You and I shared a room for the first two months then moved to our own apartment for the rest of the time in the field. You and I played chess almost every night I was home. Around Feb I got my Motorcycle and spent a lot of time at the Branch leaders house playing guitar with the other member of my band, Good Measure (we were in TN the year before together) and backing up Paul Cuoco From Pressed Down. He was the Branch leader. Yes our Twig coord was an interesting person but darn his wife was hot! do you remember her name?
I'm crushed you totally forgot I was there. :D Ill bet you forgot the thing with the 5 lbs of American cheese too. Since I wasn't home as much as you were I figure my year was better than yours. Then again I had family in Tucson so between the band and Home I have a support system.
Love to hear from you.
Michael
I'm surprised to get no response from John on this. Its been a week and he is posting all the time. I guess he doesn't love me any more O well after 32 years I guess I will have to learn to move on. Seriously John, Id love to here from you. Its been a long time and it was an interesting year. At least tell me to leave you alone. Then I will know you saw this. If nothing else give me permission to post the story about the 5 lbs of American cheese!!
I went WOW 80-81. The biggest WOW year I was told at the time. I was in Oregon. That year was the beginning of the end for me. I was one of the two that had cars in our family of two guys and two girls; only the girls had cars. It totally ....ed me off that we were expected to let the guys use our cars. Sorry, but they didn't pay for my insurance! And one of them wrecked my car, did I see any money from them? Of course not, and God forbid should I get upset about it! Sorry, but I did not like commune living. It was socialist living to me. Nobody could have more than the other, etc........ I was the only one with a decent job during the year and I had to quit my good job to wash F______g windows with the rest of them because we were a family!!!! WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE! Hate to disagree with those of you who thought that living the socialist way was Godly! I truly believe it was meant to further brainwash you and to totally strip you of any individuality.
I don't know...before twi I lived with 3 other guys in a house and mostly we all drove our own cars but once I went on a trip for 2 weeks and I handed them the keys to my car and said use it if you need it. Our family coordinator had the only car in our family and she'd let any of us use it to go shopping or something like that but mostly she drove it. Some of y'all had pretty opportunistic wow siblings.
I find I must agree with you on your comments regarding communes and socialism.
A month or two ago, I started a thread on the Fellowlaborer program, which was a commune in the true academic sense.
It didn't get much response, perhaps because the program was nowhere near as far reaching as some of the others.
The aspect of communal living had a far greater and long lasting effect on me than any of the doctrinal material (such as *4 crucified* or *6 denials*)
Sometimes people will mistakenly think that living together as a group is the same thing as a commune.
It may well include that but it is larger in scope than that.
I think for some WOWs(I was not one), the experience might have been like a group of people living together while for others, it might have been a form of communal living.
This might explain why there is a diversity of opinions on the effects of the WOW program.
Roses, when I went wow to D.C. in 75-76 I was the only one in our family with a car, and I rarely drove it. I took the bus to work in Georgetown and either my wow sister or my other wow brother (not T-Bone) ended up driving my little V.W everywhere. One of them (can't remember who) got parking tickets, which the whole family had to pay. I think I was the only one who had had a phone before, so the phone was in my name so I got stuck paying the long distance bills of our co-ordinator at the end of our year.
Regardless of how much money we made, it wasn't ours to keep. It all went into the family account, which the coordinator controlled. We were a bunch of inexperienced and trusting kids, but in my opinion the whole arrangement was encouraged by twi to prepare us for giving up more and more control of our money and our lives.
(Edited because I got distracted when our daughter came in the room to ask about lunch...I wasn't through complaining yet! :lol: )
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bulwinkl
Both my years sucked 'Greasy Luongo's and hairy watatas" whatever that means. Second year I was sent to Mesa as a 'Minuteman". The fourth person never showed up. Left me with a newly wed couple. They had both been WOW the year before and gotten engaged. When their new assignments came out and it was to the same place they decided to get married. So we found an apartment and I have no idea how many times I would lie awake at night listening to them explore the new found joy of sex. They were both rather vocal so night after night I woulkd be serenaded to grunts and "Ohhhh ****". Damn I hated that. I don't think we got one person to come to twig that year.
John
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ChasUFarley
No problem-o... (and if it makes you feel better, I had to look it up myself...) (old age sucks!)
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dmiller
Came to Duluth in 1978. 5 families of wow's were sent here that year.
One couple (Gene and Debbie Ne$goda) owned a church building and lived in it.
They lived there (with their two daughters) downstairs,
that was remodeled to make it *liveable* (separate bedrooms, etc.)
Gene and Debbie graciously allowed some of the new WOW's *living quarters*
in the upstairs area, until they found housing.
They wanted to turn the upstairs (what used to be the main sanctuary),
into a *coffee house* for believers to perform at, and ---
they called it the Uncle Harry Coffee house.
(Why? I don't know.)
With 20 new wow's in town (all eager to work for such a worthy goal),
things moved quickly in getting it into shape.
Suddenly --- we were informed that Joyful Noise was going to go
*out of their way* to pay us a visit on the tour that they did that year.
We weren't ready for them (with the coffee house), but almost everything was done.
When Joyful Noise showed up (in a BIG COACH with THE WAY INTERNATIONAL
painted on the outside of it), they were conscripted to help.
They were asked to help lay the carpet, which was (about)
the last thing that needed to be done there at the *coffee house*.
I remember in particular --- Richie D!Bartolo was truely *miffed* to have to go to work.
(He said so during the concert they gave that same evening).
But to give him credit -- He also DID say that while he was initially Pi$$ed,
he got a chance to forget his (as he called it then *negative*) thinking,
seeing the family working together for a common goal.
This happened on October 23, 1978. A special day for me,
and ---------- I taped their concert that evening.
(That's one of my *fond* WOW memories.)
:)
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George Aar
I spent two dreary years out W.O.W.
The first year I supported (for the most part) two less-than-industrious kids while the FC had his girlfriend follow us down to Alabama and move in. That lasted for a month or so, till he finally just took off with her and went back home to Idaho. We floundered around for the rest of the year and went back to the ROA, THORUOGHLY dejected.
I signed up for a second year in hopes of erasing the first and hoping in vain to really "see God work" this time.
It was another dreary year (in my childhood hometown) and we schlepped back to the ROA again with nothing much to show for it.
So, no classes, no wonderful triumphs of God over the adversary or any of the other crap that was supposed to happen.
What I DID manage to do was to thoroughly (throughly?) disrupt my life and career. The guy that took over the management position that I left, retired last year with several millions in his portfolio, I'm told. I, OTOH, am doing somewhat less well. So who needs to retire anyway?
Of all the crap I did with WayWorld, going W.O.W is EASILY the most harmful, stupid and counterproductive that I ever did. And, it's the one thing that I MOST regret. A REALLY stupid move...
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TheInvisibleDan
I was a W.O.W. Ambassador in Charlotte, NC '82-83.
On the trip down to NC, God blessed me with a hernia, to add to my wooden leg.
Each day I would wake up at 3:30 AM, to hobble two miles to my janitorial job at "Bojangles"
through rain, sleet or snow.
Oh yeah, along the way I "spoke-in-tongues" alright, and perhaps a little higher
than usual with my family valuables being crushed by my own intestinal fortitude.
Thank God there was a clubhouse at the apartment complex where I lived with plenty of cheap
beer to take the edge off.
I got to borrow Doc Watson's 12 string Guild for a few months. That was kind of miraculous, I guess.
That was a sweet instrument.
Wish I had the 200 bucks to buy it from him at the end of the year. Damn.
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dmiller
Doc Watson plays a Gallagher 6-string.
He made Gallagher a *household* name because of how he picked it.
I've never seen pics of him with a Guild, much less a 12-string.
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TheInvisibleDan
Whoa, now I 'm wondering whose 12 string that was (lol).
Or did it belong to someone in his band?
I'm sorry, it's been awhile I de-fragged that part of my brain.
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Catcup
Yeah, if I remember right, that's Donnie Fugit in the picture. A three-finger "W" on each side of his head, and his mouth as the "O".
Maybe this is why the sign kinda died out, I don't know:
Back around 1975, there was a comic book called "Son of Satan." I found the series while I worked for a magazine and paperback distributor. Son of Satan's alter-ego went by the name of Helstrom. When he went to turn into the "power figure," he stood outside and raised both his hands toward the heavens in the very same three-finger sign!
Freaked me out when I saw it. At the time, I sent a copy of it to TWI for that special table they always laid out at the Advanced Classes to show particularly "debbilish" items.
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Catcup
Getting out on your own in a place far away from familiar surroundings can really help a young person grow and take on responsibility, make their own mistakes, and learn from them.
A little aside here on the subject.
Sorry. Anyways, whatever you might believe about the Bible, there is some pretty profound stuff regarding marriage in Genesis, where it says that a man must leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.
The principle here is very true:
If you do not leave,
You cannot cleave.
I have seen more messes made by well-meaning but bumbling family members. This is a time in their lives when they need to cut the apron strings, whether they live a thousand miles away or just a thousand feet.
Mom and Dad, you've got to give those young 'uns space and time to work out their own problems. Bite your tongue and pray. Trust that you brought them up to make the right decisions, and that if they are headed in the wrong direction, they will quickly figure it out. And remember you had to make quite a few of your own before you figured some things out. You can't live your life over again through them, and they have to make their own lives or they won't ever learn.
Husband and Wife, if your family comes to you badmouthing your spouse, have the guts to tell them to back off and mind their own business.
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Catcup
My first year WOW was 1973-74, the first year they put people into “families” instead of couples. I had lived away from home before, but in the same town in southern Indiana.as my parents. When I went WOW at the age of 19, I was assigned to Greenville, South Carolina. I did not expect the year to be easy, and expected to grow, but was not prepared for how quickly things would get strange. I am hoping that you folks who were around in the early 1970’s, especially at TWI HQ, will surely remember this, and maybe you can fill in the blanks for me. I’ve looked for answers for this for many years. I have come very close to getting them, but never did. I can only wonder.
Sit back and brew a cup of coffee. This is a long ride.
Things started out ok. WOW training was fun. I saw old friends there from my home state. One of my high school friends that I had gotten into the Word, Scxtt Exde, was going out WOW as well. We also made lots of new friends. There were some inspiring teachings, but some stupid stuff, too. Vxnce Fxnnegan was my TC during the event—I think there were four or five of us in the WOW twig.
Once during training when Vxnce was teaching our twig about how important it was to read the word every day, I particularly perked to attention because I had discovered the joys of searching the scriptures on a regular morning basis, and had been doing so for about a year. Every morning without fail, I would rise before dawn, usually around 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. to spend quiet time with God and read His word for pleasure and understanding. Then I would go out and run at least a mile while I prayed. That time of day for me had become a very personal and special time when I would get my mind prepared for the day, pray, and enjoy my fellowship with God. So at that moment I could really relate to what he was saying and began listening intently.
However, I suppose he interpreted my attention as God telling him to let me have it. He must have thought God had given him some “heavy revvy” that I didn’t like to read the word, and lacked the discipline to get up in the morning, so he very intensely stared me in the eyes and directly gave me “reproof” for being lazy and undisciplined. It was so obvious that this guy I had such immense respect for as a “spiritual heavy,” was actually walking totally by the flesh and was soooo wrong. It confused the hell out of me.
When things like that happened, it tended to deeply confuse me, and make me doubt my own perceptions of reality. Why? Because already, I had been firmly and repeatedly schooled that these “spiritual heavies” were always right. And if you thought you saw them make a mistake, YOU were wrong. You were totally misreading the situation, so you needed to listen to them and be humble and look for the learning. So, I did. And afterward, for the remainder of the training, it was as if Vxnce felt he had me “pegged” and thereafter treated with me with what I can only describe as some kind of “attitude.”
The rest of the training went well enough. One night several of us sat outside the hotel in Sidney and talked, played guitar, and had a great time. The next night was commissioning at HQ in the BRC. I got in early and put my bible on a front row aisle seat. When we all sat down, I discovered that I had actually put my bible down next to Dxug Hxrrison, who had been at that little gathering the night before. We were both pleasantly surprised and laughed about how cool that was. We were further surprised when they read off our names to be in the same family!
Also, my friend Scxtt was sent to the same state! He was in the same family as Cxthy Brubeck, Dave Brubeck’s daughter. We thought that was so great, since Scxtt was such a jazz fan. Things seemed to be going well. Our family coordinator, Stxphxnie Jxrdan, had been a WOW the year before, with Sue Crxbb. We felt we would be in capable hands. Our other WOW brother was Dxnnis McGxx from Columbus Ohio, who was just barely out of the PFAL Class, and had not even had the intermediate class yet. Basically a brand new babe.
So, we are all excited. We load up in my little blue ’67 Malibu and head out in a caravan for South Carolina with everyone assigned to that state, and our WOW Rover Pxtti Bxss in the lead. While going through the mountains, my little Malibu blew a radiator hose and the engine light came on just as we were stopping to have dinner. I tried to tell Pxtti what I thought was wrong and what I needed to do, and that I didn’t think it would take long to fix. However, Pxtti stopped me mid-sentence and said I needed to stop going by my senses and just believe God and my car would make it. We didn’t have the time or the money to deal with expensive car repairs that would slow us down and eat up the family finances.
Again, I get confused, and hurt, because I may just be a little peon, but I KNOW that if I drive with that light on, I’m going to ruin my engine. It’s cheaper to replace a little hose than an entire car. That’s basic mechanics and common sense. I couldn’t eat and was visibly upset, fighting back tears. Again, why were the people who were supposed to be the “spiritual heavies” making what appeared to be the wrong decisions, and not even listening to me? It had to be me. I had to make my mind stop questioning and just shut up and follow, and maybe I would learn something. But my gut was eating me alive.
My WOW brother saw I was upset. He asked me what was wrong and I told him. He agreed with me. He got up from the table and said “Come on, I know what to do.” He and I left the restaurant, took my car two doors down to a gas station, where the mechanic sure enough had to replace a hose, at very little cost to me, and we were done and back before everyone finished eating, and Pxtti was none the wiser.
So we arrive at our destination with our WOW family of 4. I have bonded really well with my two WOW brothers, but Stxphxnie seems a little distant, though still trying to connect with us and be the leader of the family. At that time, being sent to a conservative southern state, we decided the girls would get an apartment together, and the guys would get another apartment close by. We actually found nice unfurnished apartments side by side in the same apartment complex.
Stxphanie and I got jobs right away, working at the same clothing manufacturer. A wonderful local believer, Flxrence Shxnnan (Stxnley Reahxrd’s aunt), had a cabin up near Hilton Head that she had some extra furniture in, and she was going to let us borrow whatever we needed. But I still wasn’t making the connection with Stxphanie I was hoping and trying to make. She tended to spend a lot of time by herself, in the bedroom. She did tell me her parents were going through a divorce, and she had a brother who was in residence. I knew she was going through a hard time. I made myself available to her, but did not want to pry.
One morning Flxrence planned to pick us up from our apartments and take us out to her cabin in her station wagon to bring back some beds. We were all in the car and ready to pull out of the apartment complex, when Stxphanie said “Wait a minute, I need to go check the mail first.” So we stopped, she exited the car, rounded the corner of the building to pick up the mail, and we never saw her again.
We all sat in the car for about 15 minutes, then finally I got out and went around the apartment building to the mailboxes and she was not there. I went inside the apartment and she wasn’t there either. Hours went by. We searched everywhere we could think of. Dxnny and I were the only two in the family with cars, so we knew she had not driven off somewhere. Stxphxnie seemed to have simply vanished off the face of the earth.
We called Pxtti and told her. We filed a missing person’s report with the Police. The FBI became involved. Our employer put out a reward. People at HQ were on a 24-hour prayer vigil. VPW had Stxphxnie’s photo distributed to every trucker on the eastern seaboard. We put up missing person flyers everywhere. We knocked on doors, searched the streets and alleys, looked everywhere, found her nowhere. This is long before deprogramming was an issue. Besides, her family were all longstanding PFAL grads. To all of us, we assumed she had simply been kidnapped. Weeks went by. VPW personally called us to check up on us and see how we were doing. We were hanging on by our fingernails. Three teenagers who barely knew each other, all alone in separate unfurnished apartments in a strange city, a strange state, in a very frightening and confusing situation with no answers.
One late night, through my bedroom wall, I could hear Dxnny actually sobbing in his bedroom in the apartment next door. I went over to talk to him. Dxug was either working or at a neighbor’s house. Dxnny was there all alone in his sleeping bag on the floor (we still had no furniture), crying his eyes out. The WOW experience was definitely not what either of us had bargained for. But we had made a commitment and we felt we were under attack by the “adversary” and were determined not to let him deter us from fulfilling our commitment to God.
Poor Dxnny, just had been in the word barely three months. Had literally just finished the PFAL class and launched into the WOW program the next week. I felt I had to do whatever it took to help him through this and make it a positive growing and learning experience for us. I guess that helped me not to concentrate on my own uncertainties during this time. Dxug soon came home and the three of us talked and cried into the wee hours of the morning together. The three of us, Dxnny, Dxug, and myself, were determined to not cave in, and help each other get through this.
Pxtti later called me and asked me if I would coordinate the family. Actually I said I would rather defer to Dxug, who was the only Advanced Class grad between the three of us. I know I could have done the job, but I think Dxug did a great job, considering the circumstances we all were thrown into.
Eddix Lxmos, Stxphanie’s fiancé, came all the way from Kansas out to South Carolina, firmly committed not to leave until he found Stxphanie. I think he stayed at least a week or two and I went everywhere with him to try to help him find her. Eddie was quite a character. Originally from NYC complete with accent and attitude to boot, he stuck out like a sore thumb in the molasses-slow culture of the South. One sleepy Sunday morning we went to a crowded cafeteria for breakfast in the after-church crowd, where Eddie was loudly trying to witness to everyone in line.
We were eventually seated at this tiny little table that was kind of wobbly. Eddie was talking and laughing and joking with the waitresses, and kept dropping his silverware on the floor. Then one of us accidentally knocked over a waterglass. Then Eddie says “I just can’t believe this!” and put his elbows down hard on the table, turning it completely over onto the floor, spilling milk, pancakes, syrup, bacon, eggs, sausage, juice, and coffee everywhere. We both ran out to the cashier in embarrassment to pay for our meals. As I grabbed my changepurse, a roll of pennies I had went flying out of my purse and scattered all over the floor. I handed the cashier a twenty and told her she could keep the change, and Eddie and I ran out of the restaurant laughing so hysterically we both thought we were going to pee ourselves! Needless to say, Eddie brought much comic relief during that awful time period, but alas, never found his fiancé and had to go home in defeat.
Several weeks later, I got a call from our State coordinator, who asked me to pack up all of Stxphxnie’s things and have them ready in an hour to be picked up. They had found Stxphxnie, and she was already being escorted to TWI HQ. He would not give me any other details than that. Any questions I asked were answered with “I don’t know.” Or, “We don’t know.”
Several days later I called him, and asked him what happened. He said he took her to HQ and delivered her straight to VPW’s office. He waited outside until she came out. He said to me that all Stxphxnie said to him when she came out of his office was “He kicked my @-$$.” None of my questions were answered as to what happened, except that she had left of her own free will and was not kidnapped.
Dxug, Dxnny, and I went on to have a relatively successful year for the most part, I thought. We moved into a different neighborhood. Pxtti moved with me into a furnished duplex with a humorously nosy landlady named Mrs. Corn who used to spy on us by peering through the windows and peeking through the keyholes of the doors that separated our apartments. Being the rover, Pxtti was only there a week out of every month, but we eventually got fairly close.
The boys rented an unfurnished house down the street-- Mrs. Corn peeked in their windows too. I never had a problem with finding work, but the guys struggled a bit in Greenville and never did get any furniture. We ran fellowship at my house. We did run two classes in Greenville. Dxug witnessed to one of his neighbors, and eventually married her—and used my phone to talk to her for hours and hours after our WOW family was moved to Columbia SC. Dxug and Denny had a really nicely furnished apartment which Pxtti helped them with, but they had no phone. The guys ate at my apartment and used the phone there. On the down side, Doug managed to rack up very expensive long distance love-lorn conversations between Columbia and Greenville the second half of the year, which he never paid for
. But he got a good wife out of the deal and I hope they are still together and doing well. Dxnny went on to write The Rescue and a sequel. I went on to coordinate the folks in southern Indiana and all three of us eventually graduated from The Way Corps. But the questions remained.
Stxphanie exhibited depressive behavior. I can only wonder what might have been at the root of it.
That's a definite fugue. That's an indication of some pretty deep psychological doo-doo.
It had to be caused by some pretty deep $h!t as well.
I wonder what the hell happened between the end of her seemingly successful WOW year 72-73, and the beginning of her WOW year 73-74?
What the hell happened? We were simply given the "possession" line of bs.
But I want to know:
What happend to her between August and October of 1973?
Why did Stxphxnie disappear?
How did she disappear? She had no transportation and just dropped out of sight on the spur of the moment and survived for weeks without any visible means of support. She left all her belongings in the apartment, and even left her purse in the car.
What were her reasons? How was she found? Who found her?
And why were we put through that kind of emotional upheaval and no one felt we deserved any kind of explanation whatsoever for this behavior?
Once at Rome City I was sitting with Txmmy Crabb at lunch, and when he read my nametag, he recognized me as having been in that WOW family. We began to talk, I found he had inside info on what went down, and at the precise moment I was able to ask him what actually happened and he willingly began to tell me, Del Duncan picked up the microphone and we had to stop talking. After the lunch, he was called away, and we never, ever got to finish that conversation.
Will somebody out there who recognizes all of us, and who actually knows what happened, please tell me?
Anyway, that’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version of my FIRST year WOW. It gets weirder from there. But that’s another post.
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What The Hey
I vaguely remember that picture. The pinky, ring and middle fingers on both hands are spread apart to look like a "W" and the index and thumb of both hands are overlapped to form an "O" so it looks like: W O W. I think the reason it didn't catch on is because it wasn't an easy hand sign to do, and it couldn't be done using just one hand. Spock's "Live Long and Prosper" hand sign is also hard to do at first, but only Trekies, that is, the Startrek "Spock" fans probably still do it.
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Catcup
sorry, double post.
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lapaglia
Wow, how soon they forget. Your original 4th never showed so they sent me in the second week. You and I shared a room for the first two months then moved to our own apartment for the rest of the time in the field. You and I played chess almost every night I was home. Around Feb I got my Motorcycle and spent a lot of time at the Branch leaders house playing guitar with the other member of my band, Good Measure (we were in TN the year before together) and backing up Paul Cuoco From Pressed Down. He was the Branch leader. Yes our Twig coord was an interesting person but darn his wife was hot! do you remember her name?
I'm crushed you totally forgot I was there. :D Ill bet you forgot the thing with the 5 lbs of American cheese too. Since I wasn't home as much as you were I figure my year was better than yours. Then again I had family in Tucson so between the band and Home I have a support system.
Love to hear from you.
Michael
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Watered Garden
Catcup,
And I thought I had a strange WOW year! Stuff like that will drive you up the wall!, specifically the being left in the dark about what really happened. I'm honored to "know" someone who stuck it out through such horrible experiences.
In my year, (1974-75) we had a 7 families of 4 each, two male, two female. One of the families, coordinated by a young man who was later infamous as the limb leader of Alaska during the times Temple Lady and CoolWaters remember all too well. Both the girls were named C**dy and both were attractive young women. Unbeknownst to me, one of them "left the field" and moved in with a man she had met whom she thought was the love of her life. Though they were living with his family, it turned out to be not such a great deal, as he kept her a virtual prisoner. She was not permitted to leave the premises nor to contact any of her friends or family. To ensure her cooperation, he locked all her clothing and other possessions, such as they were, in the trunk of his car. Now, being the roommate of the BL, SB, I was pretty much a slave myself, however, when she held a twig coordinator's meeting one evening she graciously allowed me to stay in my room in our apartment instead of wandering the streets or hanging out for hours in the guy's stinky, dirty apartment around the corner in the same complex. The phone rings, she answers, and all h311 breaks loose. C**dy had called, giving directions to her location and asking for rescue. Seems she had been trying to get loose from this guy for weeks. (Many of us didn't know she was even there). So I am called out of my little room, commanded to stay there and keep my mouth shut, my two WOW brothers are commandeered from their apartment, and I think my car was commandeered also. I insisted on an explanation before I would cooperate and got a brief one, but since SB thought I was a spiritual weakling I wasn't allowed to assist in the rescue, especially since I recommended calling the police (more evidence of my weakness, I guess).
So at any rate they all go barrelling off to wherever this girl is being held against her will, and eventually bring her back. She is jumpy and terrified this guy will come after her. She was the most traumatized person I had ever seen. However, I was soon sent away and not allowed to comfort her or hardly speak to her.
The next morning her parents flew in from Indianapolis. She was glad to see them, and S tried to explain what had happened in a way that would not make TWI look like they didn't properly train or protect their WOW Ambassadors. They took her out shopping and out to eat and she stayed with them at a hotel that night (I think). The next morning they came over to see us, everything seemed okay, she was going back with her WOW family. They went out to lunch and never came back. C**dy called from the airport. Her parents had come down with an extra return ticket and never told her or us until then that they were taking her home.
They took her to a psychiatrist, a minister, and several other interventions, but she eventually went to TWI HQ and talked to the people there and around New Year's she came back and we had a party. She went on to marry a very nice man who got involved with TWI that year and they were FWC grads the last I knew.
The thing that I find so annoying still is the subterfuge and sneakiness with which TWI routinely operated. For one thing, why bother to teach the power of God and the power of prayer and "believing" if you are so secretive that no one knows what the h311 is going on? We could have at least prayed for her. And the right thing to do was call the cops if that girl was being held against her will. It's called kidnapping.
I don't think the "leadership" over the WOWs was well trained, either. SB did not like having to associate with non-Way Corps who were filled with zeal, love, and enthusiasm, but not "in with the in crowd" of the WC. I think a lot of the WC who were sent out with 27 other people they were supposed to lead and train and love and protect that year didn't know their azz from their elbow about what they were doing. I'm sure I was a special annoyance, because I believed that we were all equal members of the Body of Christ, sent there together by God (yeah, I believed that, too) to save souls and lead people to Christ and a better knowledge of God's Word. Of course I wasn't an Advanced Class grad, let alone one of VP's special friends, but I loved God and trusted Him totally.
It was a long time before I really believed that anyone with a WC tag had special powers and abilities. That year, I was pretty sure God knew more than any of them.
WG
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lapaglia
I'm surprised to get no response from John on this. Its been a week and he is posting all the time. I guess he doesn't love me any more
O well after 32 years I guess I will have to learn to move on. 
Seriously John, Id love to here from you. Its been a long time and it was an interesting year. At least tell me to leave you alone. Then I will know you saw this. If nothing else give me permission to post the story about the 5 lbs of American cheese!! 
Thanks,
Michael.
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bliss
Just PM him! :)
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lapaglia
Did that
and tried email.
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rosestoyou
I went WOW 80-81. The biggest WOW year I was told at the time. I was in Oregon. That year was the beginning of the end for me. I was one of the two that had cars in our family of two guys and two girls; only the girls had cars. It totally ....ed me off that we were expected to let the guys use our cars. Sorry, but they didn't pay for my insurance! And one of them wrecked my car, did I see any money from them? Of course not, and God forbid should I get upset about it! Sorry, but I did not like commune living. It was socialist living to me. Nobody could have more than the other, etc........ I was the only one with a decent job during the year and I had to quit my good job to wash F______g windows with the rest of them because we were a family!!!! WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE! Hate to disagree with those of you who thought that living the socialist way was Godly! I truly believe it was meant to further brainwash you and to totally strip you of any individuality.
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rascal
Yeah, the whole car thing sucked...I knew I was screwed when the first morning I awoke to hearing my car pulling out of the driveway.
I was told that I shouldn`t have brought it if it wasn`t to help move the word...it wouldda been nice to have at least been asked.
He also got a parking ticket and refused to pay it ....
Welcome roses, I went twice...I have to agree it was mighty tough.
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excathedra
i loved you sharing, rosestoyou
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Dot Matrix
Catcup
Those open ends would make me crazy.
You can't hunt her down to ask now?
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johniam
I don't know...before twi I lived with 3 other guys in a house and mostly we all drove our own cars but once I went on a trip for 2 weeks and I handed them the keys to my car and said use it if you need it. Our family coordinator had the only car in our family and she'd let any of us use it to go shopping or something like that but mostly she drove it. Some of y'all had pretty opportunistic wow siblings.
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waysider
Rosestoyou
I find I must agree with you on your comments regarding communes and socialism.
A month or two ago, I started a thread on the Fellowlaborer program, which was a commune in the true academic sense.
It didn't get much response, perhaps because the program was nowhere near as far reaching as some of the others.
The aspect of communal living had a far greater and long lasting effect on me than any of the doctrinal material (such as *4 crucified* or *6 denials*)
Sometimes people will mistakenly think that living together as a group is the same thing as a commune.
It may well include that but it is larger in scope than that.
I think for some WOWs(I was not one), the experience might have been like a group of people living together while for others, it might have been a form of communal living.
This might explain why there is a diversity of opinions on the effects of the WOW program.
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tonto
Roses, when I went wow to D.C. in 75-76 I was the only one in our family with a car, and I rarely drove it. I took the bus to work in Georgetown and either my wow sister or my other wow brother (not T-Bone) ended up driving my little V.W everywhere. One of them (can't remember who) got parking tickets, which the whole family had to pay. I think I was the only one who had had a phone before, so the phone was in my name so I got stuck paying the long distance bills of our co-ordinator at the end of our year.
Regardless of how much money we made, it wasn't ours to keep. It all went into the family account, which the coordinator controlled. We were a bunch of inexperienced and trusting kids, but in my opinion the whole arrangement was encouraged by twi to prepare us for giving up more and more control of our money and our lives.
(Edited because I got distracted when our daughter came in the room to ask about lunch...I wasn't through complaining yet! :lol: )
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