My first time out wow in 78 we had a two-bedroom garden apartment for $185 a month!
It was great.
We used our family leader's Pinto for trips, but mostly I walked to work. Because of low funds and limited transportation, I stopped eating at McD's and lost a ton of weight.
We were three teen-agers who were living alone for the first time. We were young and dumb and let our foodstocks dwindle.
My parents came and saw how poor we were and bought us groceries. We also lived for their care packages.
Believers helped us for awhile until leadership told them to avoid us (m+a?)
I never remember going hungry, but then in 1978, gas cost 59 cents a gallon. A second-run movie was a buck and pop went for 50 cents a bottle.
Things got tight, but we made it.
It was fun, but the other parts of the WOW committment were totally unattainable.
First time out - 1974 - to San Antonio, Texas. I still consider it a great town.
It was one of those first "Outreach Cities" - 7 families of four - with a 4th Corps person as the Branch Coor. It was the first time there was an interim year for the Corps - up until then, it had been 2 years straight through.
We had 2 apartments, too, Catcup. Couldn't find a place that would rent to us together.
I worked on the Riverwalk with other WOW's from other families.
My WOW Family coordinator and I hated each other.
It was the year door-to-door witnessing started. I refused to go. I got kicked off the field in March.
My interim year I was a WOW2 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Goey, I disagree, Pine Bluff is the sphincter of the world.
WOW 2 was sort of an experiment that year. It was made up of those who had been WOW the year before who either wanted to go out again to another area, or who wanted to stay in the same city they were in and be more successful. My WOW sisters were actually 2 sisters (who later went into the 9th Corps). One had been in PB the year before and one had been WOW somewhere else. The guy in my family had been in PB the year before. You could 30 hours a week if you wanted to and didn't have to witness 40 hours a week! So that part was relatively easy.
So - when I got there, I had a house, furniture, linens, a kitchen full of dishes and even food waiting for me because 2 of them lived there already and didn't have to pack up their stuff to leave for the Rock. I also received a check for $210 a month because my Corps Sponsorship was still coming in - it was called "Student Aid" at the time. So I was living large!
So that was a good year. I only ran one very pitiful class. The LC and I were the only 2 Corps in the state and we became very close friends. I still hear from him and consider a brother.
So even though the town was horrible, and the sisters constantly fought (as sisters will do) and they guy kept to himself, it could have been worse.
I didn't go to live by the rules of TWI, I went out and used them as a guide line. we were never hounded by leadership on a whole, I was spoken to separately by everyone to the LC, but they knew I wasen't listening and didn't bother me after one talk from each. I did what wanted to with the exception of a couple of door to doors.
of course VP died in my WOW year so I'm sure that had alot to do with why things had gone a little lax in the rules.
the cash from my FC's family? well they were/are rich, do you think TWI would tell them not to send their son money and risk it stop going to HQ? muhahahaha
I was not WOW, but attended two different WOW twigs. I worked with 4 WOWs (I was actually their supervisor), and lived next door to a different WOW family. They had me surrounded. The poor WOWs I worked with all four worked at the same restaurant - so were together all the time! They were quite tired of being under their Corps girl's thumb by the end of the year!
The WOW's next door were really fun - I hung out at their apartment all the time, often eating with them if I wasn't working. They seemed to eat a lot of hamburger helper. We worked in a coffee shop, so they got a free meal and all the latte's they could drink. They also took home the leftover ground coffee at the end of the night - which I sold to them for a quarter - and which kept them in fellowship coffee. There were, I think, 6 wow girls in our city, and I am pretty sure they all gained weight that year - so they did not go hungry.
That was my first year out of college and on my own and I was struggling to pay my half of the rent (for the same size apartment they had), car payment and insurance, college loans, and other living expenses - and I was working 3 times as many hours as they were.
In a phone call to my mom I was excitedly telling her about the WOWs and their abundance, when my mom, who was skeptical of the whole TWI/WOW thing, pointed out that it was not too hard for them to achieve an "abundant life" since they were living 5 to an apartment (2 bedroom) with only a few cars between them, and no debt. It was then that I noticed the existance of Way Homes in our area - with other 30 somethings living 4 and 5 to a home - and being told where to live, and who to live with - and realized this was a TWI way of life - not just a WOW thing.
I was never a wow either, but I did spend one summer doing WONC (Word Over North Carolina).
An interesting experience, to say the least. Another guy and me and a married couple and their one-year old son, living in an apartment in a part of town where people were afraid to go after dark.
The mother of the child didn't work, so she did all the cooking and cleaning, which was pretty nice. It was like having our own maid and she was a darn good cook. Their bedroom and mine shared a wall that was about as thick as a piece of cardboard so I heard some very interesting stuff at night. It was almost like being in the same room with them. Yick.
The other guy clearly had no concept of what this program was supposed to be all about as his main focus was trying to get every female we witnessed to into bed, no matter what their age. He just up and left after the first month, stiffing us for his share of the rent.
One of the things we were supposed to do was run every morning, which we did exactly once. Our "leader," the married guy, never got out of bed to make us do it again.
We managed to run an audio class for three poor saps that kept us from the humiliation of being complete failures. I found out much later that one of them went on to graduate from the way corps. Hard to believe.
The last night we were there, the night Nixon resigned, there was a shooting in the parking lot. Good times. That summer cured me of any desire I might have had to do the wow thing.
My wow year was in 1976 in Chicago. As it happened to work out, my wow brother and I both had skills in construction. We subcontracted jobs as partners and made a bundle of money. Both my wow sisters worked and pulled their weight but the money that my wow brother and I made put us into a category that seemed to disturb the twi leadership dealing with us. We followed the rules, worked just 20 hours a week but together we were pulling down about $800 a week...EACH!
The problem (according to twi leaders) was that we didn't get these jobs by "prayer and believing". We were actually accused of being supplied work by devil spirits in order to distract us from our mission. Looking back, I think that the local wow coordinators were actually jealous of our success. Everytime the area wows would gather for some "event", they would all be crying about how broke they all were. We would be sitting back smiling.
We actually started slipping money to other wow families to help them out...and got reproved for doing it. We lived in a beautiful 4 bedroom apt near Lincoln park. We had done work for many of the local merchants and instead of taking money...we had tabs at restaraunts and different stores. We were rolling in dough and living the good life. At the end of the year we split up are saved assets. I got the vehicle we had bought for our work, my wow brother had his entire tuition paid for the waycollege of emporia, and we gave my wow sisters a bunch of cash.
During the course of the year we were never held up as an example of success but rather we were swept under the carpet. Several times during the year we were threatened with being removed from the field if we didn't get our "priorities" straight. Of course we shut the mouths of our critics when we ran more classes than any other wow family in the state.
I guess they were upset at our financial success because we were not in the same position of desperation that most wow families were in. We didn't need to "pull together and rely on God", We were not at the mercy of some corps leader who would condescendingly bless us with his marvelous words of wisdom that would lead us out of the wilderness of dispair. In other words, we didn't need the "blue book" in order to pay our bills...that seemed to disturb a lot of people. Oh well, the way I look at it...they were getting a free sales force to push their money making piffle class. They should be happy that THEY didn't have to pay me to push that crap.
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Tom Strange
I don't know if that's what I'm hearing WW... I'm hearing they worked more because they had some lazy a-holes who weren't pulling their weight...
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def59
My first time out wow in 78 we had a two-bedroom garden apartment for $185 a month!
It was great.
We used our family leader's Pinto for trips, but mostly I walked to work. Because of low funds and limited transportation, I stopped eating at McD's and lost a ton of weight.
We were three teen-agers who were living alone for the first time. We were young and dumb and let our foodstocks dwindle.
My parents came and saw how poor we were and bought us groceries. We also lived for their care packages.
Believers helped us for awhile until leadership told them to avoid us (m+a?)
I never remember going hungry, but then in 1978, gas cost 59 cents a gallon. A second-run movie was a buck and pop went for 50 cents a bottle.
Things got tight, but we made it.
It was fun, but the other parts of the WOW committment were totally unattainable.
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frank123lol
78-79 Jackson Miss We had 3 countem 3 cars in our family!It was an aboundant year Lots of 1rsts
I was 23 wow brother 20 wow sis48 and sis 43
learnt alot from those ladies
Leadership was repressive.man the stuff we got away with!
As someone said it was for God not the way
Carry on all
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Hope R.
First time out - 1974 - to San Antonio, Texas. I still consider it a great town.
It was one of those first "Outreach Cities" - 7 families of four - with a 4th Corps person as the Branch Coor. It was the first time there was an interim year for the Corps - up until then, it had been 2 years straight through.
We had 2 apartments, too, Catcup. Couldn't find a place that would rent to us together.
I worked on the Riverwalk with other WOW's from other families.
My WOW Family coordinator and I hated each other.
It was the year door-to-door witnessing started. I refused to go. I got kicked off the field in March.
My interim year I was a WOW2 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Goey, I disagree, Pine Bluff is the sphincter of the world.
WOW 2 was sort of an experiment that year. It was made up of those who had been WOW the year before who either wanted to go out again to another area, or who wanted to stay in the same city they were in and be more successful. My WOW sisters were actually 2 sisters (who later went into the 9th Corps). One had been in PB the year before and one had been WOW somewhere else. The guy in my family had been in PB the year before. You could 30 hours a week if you wanted to and didn't have to witness 40 hours a week! So that part was relatively easy.
So - when I got there, I had a house, furniture, linens, a kitchen full of dishes and even food waiting for me because 2 of them lived there already and didn't have to pack up their stuff to leave for the Rock. I also received a check for $210 a month because my Corps Sponsorship was still coming in - it was called "Student Aid" at the time. So I was living large!
So that was a good year. I only ran one very pitiful class. The LC and I were the only 2 Corps in the state and we became very close friends. I still hear from him and consider a brother.
So even though the town was horrible, and the sisters constantly fought (as sisters will do) and they guy kept to himself, it could have been worse.
(sorry for the epistle...)
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papajohn
broke the rules?
I didn't go to live by the rules of TWI, I went out and used them as a guide line. we were never hounded by leadership on a whole, I was spoken to separately by everyone to the LC, but they knew I wasen't listening and didn't bother me after one talk from each. I did what wanted to with the exception of a couple of door to doors.
of course VP died in my WOW year so I'm sure that had alot to do with why things had gone a little lax in the rules.
the cash from my FC's family? well they were/are rich, do you think TWI would tell them not to send their son money and risk it stop going to HQ? muhahahaha
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def59
I still think it was ludicrous to put men and women in the same house and not think something was going to happen.
More like tempting God.
Most times nothing probably ever happened, but sometimes it did. And that fault lies at the feet of vpw and the leaders**t
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Mocha Tree Girl
I was not WOW, but attended two different WOW twigs. I worked with 4 WOWs (I was actually their supervisor), and lived next door to a different WOW family. They had me surrounded. The poor WOWs I worked with all four worked at the same restaurant - so were together all the time! They were quite tired of being under their Corps girl's thumb by the end of the year!
The WOW's next door were really fun - I hung out at their apartment all the time, often eating with them if I wasn't working. They seemed to eat a lot of hamburger helper. We worked in a coffee shop, so they got a free meal and all the latte's they could drink. They also took home the leftover ground coffee at the end of the night - which I sold to them for a quarter - and which kept them in fellowship coffee. There were, I think, 6 wow girls in our city, and I am pretty sure they all gained weight that year - so they did not go hungry.
That was my first year out of college and on my own and I was struggling to pay my half of the rent (for the same size apartment they had), car payment and insurance, college loans, and other living expenses - and I was working 3 times as many hours as they were.
In a phone call to my mom I was excitedly telling her about the WOWs and their abundance, when my mom, who was skeptical of the whole TWI/WOW thing, pointed out that it was not too hard for them to achieve an "abundant life" since they were living 5 to an apartment (2 bedroom) with only a few cars between them, and no debt. It was then that I noticed the existance of Way Homes in our area - with other 30 somethings living 4 and 5 to a home - and being told where to live, and who to live with - and realized this was a TWI way of life - not just a WOW thing.
I also knew that was not my idea of abundance!
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Pirate1974
I was never a wow either, but I did spend one summer doing WONC (Word Over North Carolina).
An interesting experience, to say the least. Another guy and me and a married couple and their one-year old son, living in an apartment in a part of town where people were afraid to go after dark.
The mother of the child didn't work, so she did all the cooking and cleaning, which was pretty nice. It was like having our own maid and she was a darn good cook. Their bedroom and mine shared a wall that was about as thick as a piece of cardboard so I heard some very interesting stuff at night. It was almost like being in the same room with them. Yick.
The other guy clearly had no concept of what this program was supposed to be all about as his main focus was trying to get every female we witnessed to into bed, no matter what their age. He just up and left after the first month, stiffing us for his share of the rent.
One of the things we were supposed to do was run every morning, which we did exactly once. Our "leader," the married guy, never got out of bed to make us do it again.
We managed to run an audio class for three poor saps that kept us from the humiliation of being complete failures. I found out much later that one of them went on to graduate from the way corps. Hard to believe.
The last night we were there, the night Nixon resigned, there was a shooting in the parking lot. Good times. That summer cured me of any desire I might have had to do the wow thing.
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excathedra
the night nixon resigned i was at a bonnie raitt concert, pi
:)-->
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GrouchoMarxJr
My wow year was in 1976 in Chicago. As it happened to work out, my wow brother and I both had skills in construction. We subcontracted jobs as partners and made a bundle of money. Both my wow sisters worked and pulled their weight but the money that my wow brother and I made put us into a category that seemed to disturb the twi leadership dealing with us. We followed the rules, worked just 20 hours a week but together we were pulling down about $800 a week...EACH!
The problem (according to twi leaders) was that we didn't get these jobs by "prayer and believing". We were actually accused of being supplied work by devil spirits in order to distract us from our mission. Looking back, I think that the local wow coordinators were actually jealous of our success. Everytime the area wows would gather for some "event", they would all be crying about how broke they all were. We would be sitting back smiling.
We actually started slipping money to other wow families to help them out...and got reproved for doing it. We lived in a beautiful 4 bedroom apt near Lincoln park. We had done work for many of the local merchants and instead of taking money...we had tabs at restaraunts and different stores. We were rolling in dough and living the good life. At the end of the year we split up are saved assets. I got the vehicle we had bought for our work, my wow brother had his entire tuition paid for the waycollege of emporia, and we gave my wow sisters a bunch of cash.
During the course of the year we were never held up as an example of success but rather we were swept under the carpet. Several times during the year we were threatened with being removed from the field if we didn't get our "priorities" straight. Of course we shut the mouths of our critics when we ran more classes than any other wow family in the state.
I guess they were upset at our financial success because we were not in the same position of desperation that most wow families were in. We didn't need to "pull together and rely on God", We were not at the mercy of some corps leader who would condescendingly bless us with his marvelous words of wisdom that would lead us out of the wilderness of dispair. In other words, we didn't need the "blue book" in order to pay our bills...that seemed to disturb a lot of people. Oh well, the way I look at it...they were getting a free sales force to push their money making piffle class. They should be happy that THEY didn't have to pay me to push that crap.
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excathedra
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Pirate1974
I wish I had been at a Bonnie Raitt concert that night too, excathie.
;)-->
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