I was born and raised in Texas, and got into TWI in the Houston area around that year and I DO NOT REMEMBER EVER HEARING OF the Way Texas Farm. I'm wondering what it is and where in Texas, and how come I never got to go there.
As I remember it was not far from Hale center, which is a little north of Lubbock. As in residence 8th corps, we got to go there for a week and (on my visit) pick peppers.
In the mid- to-late seventies there was a Texas farmer associated with The Way International who although his farm was not owned by TWI, worked with them in conjunction with The Way Corps in "training" Corps personnel. Way Corps in training were routinely dispatched via bus or hitch-hiking assignment for week-long stints there to work on this farm. Sometimes he farmed onions, sometimes tomatoes, but mostly onions, in my recollection.
It was a good deal for him, because he was supplied free labor instead of having to pay the illegal immigrants he usually housed in his barracks. He also was known to take his pick of cute young things for ...ahem... extra-curricular activities.
I was there during the infamous "mooning" incident. For the uninitiated, that was when TheEvan dropped his draws in the bus door at said onion farmer, who was so offended (Can't understand why-- he was used to seeing Way Corps arse from what I heard) he raised a big stink with The Corps Coordinator who gave us a huge lecture upon returning.
Maybe the reason Craig hates onions so much is because this guy was encroaching on his pieces o' tail....
Obviously he had various crops...you remember onions but there were nothing but peppers on my trip.
I remember pepper fights....mostly with large rotten red bells. I also remember someone proving themselves by chewing openly on a mouthful of the hottest peppers in TX...dont rememebr which ones but they made jalapenos seem dead.
Come to think of it, I never have liked spicy food too much, but i sure downed that genuine TX chili with the peppers in it, because the work was making me hungrier than you know what.
Getting up to go to the porta john in the middle of the night was an adventure. Once I founf the wrong one. It was empty when I went in, but soon I got the door opened on me.
Anyway, thanks. I remember TWI didnt actually own it, but I couldnt remember if whoever did was associated with TWI at all or not. So, do you or does anyone know how long this association lasted?
When we were in the family corps there was a married couple in residence with us, M & B Fi$#er, who supposedly owned the Texas farm. We were out LEAD with them and they talked about the corps picking their peppers. I never heard about the "extra pickings" the owner received...
Another thing on the work and resulting appetites it produced. On one lunch break there were three extra sandwiches. As soon as it was announced that they would go to the first three pairs who sang for them, I grabbed my old Indy and lightbearters buddy Pxxx (General Patton) Cxxxxx, and we sang a duet of his Irish Jig version of "Family of God", and split one of the sandwiches.
Hey Cat, I wonder if TheEvan went down there twice? I vaguely recalll a mooning incident on my trip, but it couldnt have been the same one from your description. besides, I think this one was on the road to the place, well before we got there. But I dont remember who did it.
Come back and maybe I'll find some tuna for ya....
In the mid- to-late seventies there was a Texas farmer associated with The Way International who although his farm was not owned by TWI, worked with them in conjunction with The Way Corps in "training" Corps personnel. Way Corps in training were routinely dispatched via bus or hitch-hiking assignment for week-long stints there to work on this farm. Sometimes he farmed onions, sometimes tomatoes, but mostly onions, in my recollection.
It was a good deal for him, because he was supplied free labor instead of having to pay the illegal immigrants he usually housed in his barracks. He also was known to take his pick of cute young things for ...ahem... extra-curricular activities.
I was there during the infamous "mooning" incident. For the uninitiated, that was when TheEvan dropped his draws in the bus door at said onion farmer, who was so offended (Can't understand why-- he was used to seeing Way Corps arse from what I heard) he raised a big stink with The Corps Coordinator who gave us a huge lecture upon returning.
Maybe the reason Craig hates onions so much is because this guy was encroaching on his pieces o' tail....
So much for the "it wasn't slave labour" statements....
Liffy, you'll have to ask Evan about that. But, I do think that particular trip may have had more than one incident. The one I witnessed happened on the bus trip back from watching John Denver in the movie Oh God. The bus pulled up alongside the car the farmer was in, Evan stepped down into the stairwell of the front door, and dropped his pants :lol:
During that stint at the onion farm, I worked the entire time in the kitchen of said barracks, and never ventured out except maybe once, to the fields. However, when we got back, Gerxld Wrxnn blew a gasket and called a huge meeting where he reproved our entire group for multiple incidents of moonings. From what I understand, when the slave driver, er, farmer was perusing his slaves, er, domain from a vehicle, an entire group of workers turned and dropped their draws for him. Reminds me of a scene in a Mel Gibson movie...
I believe there were even several more incidents, which is why Wrxnn was sooooooo ticked.
Maybe that is what you remember? And were there pictures?????
I recall going to pick Jalepeneos during the 7th corp......riding in the back of a dump truck filled with standing corp to the fields and having jalepeneo battles......burned like hell if you got hit in the face.
At one point we were told...dunno how true it was...that we were slower than their "usual" workers, but we produced a better quality product...probably true since we threw most of those rotton red bells at each other.
Just an onion clarification .. the Texas sweet onions are not the same as Vidalia onions ... to legally (yes, legally) be called Vidalia onions, they have to be grown within a certain radius of Vidalia, Georgia ...
yeah, i think most of us in the eigth corps did that our first year at emporia. i remember when they sent my bunch it was pretty cold at night, especially in the quonset huts, and i remember the jaded, indifferent stares of the migrant workers in ther who had seen so many of us come and go - who knows what they thought about us. the constant bending was hell on my back injury, and i was greatly relieved when my duteis switched to truck loading and i could be handed bushel baskets of peppers to throw in the trucks without bending over. on the way back the bus broke down only a few miles out from the farm and we were all left to hitchhike back to kansas. we strung ourselves way out along the highway in groups of two and three to have a better chance. on the final leg of the trip my hitching partner and i "witnessed" to the truck driver and practically browbeat him into having lunch at the campus, after which he stood and got "oh we love you, love you etc." sung to him by the crowd. the truck driver was plainly uncomfortable and embarresed at this, and at that moment i was quite ashamed of myself for my ruthlessness at taking advantage of his good nature.
yeah, i think most of us in the eigth corps did that our first year at emporia. i remember when they sent my bunch it was pretty cold at night, especially in the quonset huts, and i remember the jaded, indifferent stares of the migrant workers in ther who had seen so many of us come and go - who knows what they thought about us.
I wonder when you went. I went in October 1977, and don't remember any contact with the locals, or the quonset huts. We pick green bell peppers the first day, then red bells the rest of the week...but as I mentioned, we had some access to the hot ones.
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jetc57
I was born and raised in Texas, and got into TWI in the Houston area around that year and I DO NOT REMEMBER EVER HEARING OF the Way Texas Farm. I'm wondering what it is and where in Texas, and how come I never got to go there.
Jeannette
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Lifted Up
As I remember it was not far from Hale center, which is a little north of Lubbock. As in residence 8th corps, we got to go there for a week and (on my visit) pick peppers.
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Catcup
In the mid- to-late seventies there was a Texas farmer associated with The Way International who although his farm was not owned by TWI, worked with them in conjunction with The Way Corps in "training" Corps personnel. Way Corps in training were routinely dispatched via bus or hitch-hiking assignment for week-long stints there to work on this farm. Sometimes he farmed onions, sometimes tomatoes, but mostly onions, in my recollection.
It was a good deal for him, because he was supplied free labor instead of having to pay the illegal immigrants he usually housed in his barracks. He also was known to take his pick of cute young things for ...ahem... extra-curricular activities.
I was there during the infamous "mooning" incident. For the uninitiated, that was when TheEvan dropped his draws in the bus door at said onion farmer, who was so offended (Can't understand why-- he was used to seeing Way Corps arse from what I heard) he raised a big stink with The Corps Coordinator who gave us a huge lecture upon returning.
Maybe the reason Craig hates onions so much is because this guy was encroaching on his pieces o' tail....
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Lifted Up
Obviously he had various crops...you remember onions but there were nothing but peppers on my trip.
I remember pepper fights....mostly with large rotten red bells. I also remember someone proving themselves by chewing openly on a mouthful of the hottest peppers in TX...dont rememebr which ones but they made jalapenos seem dead.
Come to think of it, I never have liked spicy food too much, but i sure downed that genuine TX chili with the peppers in it, because the work was making me hungrier than you know what.
Getting up to go to the porta john in the middle of the night was an adventure. Once I founf the wrong one. It was empty when I went in, but soon I got the door opened on me.
Anyway, thanks. I remember TWI didnt actually own it, but I couldnt remember if whoever did was associated with TWI at all or not. So, do you or does anyone know how long this association lasted?
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tonto
When we were in the family corps there was a married couple in residence with us, M & B Fi$#er, who supposedly owned the Texas farm. We were out LEAD with them and they talked about the corps picking their peppers. I never heard about the "extra pickings" the owner received...
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
my first twig leader told me he was once at that farm when he was wow near there
sounds like another case of free labor he said he harvested onions
the good sweet vadalia onions that grow best in texas and don't come cheap at your local stop and shop
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Lifted Up
Another thing on the work and resulting appetites it produced. On one lunch break there were three extra sandwiches. As soon as it was announced that they would go to the first three pairs who sang for them, I grabbed my old Indy and lightbearters buddy Pxxx (General Patton) Cxxxxx, and we sang a duet of his Irish Jig version of "Family of God", and split one of the sandwiches.
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Lifted Up
Hey Cat, I wonder if TheEvan went down there twice? I vaguely recalll a mooning incident on my trip, but it couldnt have been the same one from your description. besides, I think this one was on the road to the place, well before we got there. But I dont remember who did it.
Come back and maybe I'll find some tuna for ya....
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WordWolf
So much for the "it wasn't slave labour" statements....
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Catcup
Liffy, you'll have to ask Evan about that. But, I do think that particular trip may have had more than one incident. The one I witnessed happened on the bus trip back from watching John Denver in the movie Oh God. The bus pulled up alongside the car the farmer was in, Evan stepped down into the stairwell of the front door, and dropped his pants :lol:
During that stint at the onion farm, I worked the entire time in the kitchen of said barracks, and never ventured out except maybe once, to the fields. However, when we got back, Gerxld Wrxnn blew a gasket and called a huge meeting where he reproved our entire group for multiple incidents of moonings. From what I understand, when the slave driver, er, farmer was perusing his slaves, er, domain from a vehicle, an entire group of workers turned and dropped their draws for him. Reminds me of a scene in a Mel Gibson movie...
I believe there were even several more incidents, which is why Wrxnn was sooooooo ticked.
Maybe that is what you remember? And were there pictures?????
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jardinero
I think our friend, Alfacat, knows more about the multiple moonings, as I've heard him and *ndy K. retell it a few times.
Alfie?????
J.
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JeffMedic
I recall going to pick Jalepeneos during the 7th corp......riding in the back of a dump truck filled with standing corp to the fields and having jalepeneo battles......burned like hell if you got hit in the face.
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Lifted Up
At one point we were told...dunno how true it was...that we were slower than their "usual" workers, but we produced a better quality product...probably true since we threw most of those rotton red bells at each other.
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ToadFriend
Just an onion clarification .. the Texas sweet onions are not the same as Vidalia onions ... to legally (yes, legally) be called Vidalia onions, they have to be grown within a certain radius of Vidalia, Georgia ...
Friend of the Toad AND Vidalia Onions
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Lifted Up
That setup sounds a lot like the Forestburg melons we have around this part of the country.
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lex1
yeah, i think most of us in the eigth corps did that our first year at emporia. i remember when they sent my bunch it was pretty cold at night, especially in the quonset huts, and i remember the jaded, indifferent stares of the migrant workers in ther who had seen so many of us come and go - who knows what they thought about us. the constant bending was hell on my back injury, and i was greatly relieved when my duteis switched to truck loading and i could be handed bushel baskets of peppers to throw in the trucks without bending over. on the way back the bus broke down only a few miles out from the farm and we were all left to hitchhike back to kansas. we strung ourselves way out along the highway in groups of two and three to have a better chance. on the final leg of the trip my hitching partner and i "witnessed" to the truck driver and practically browbeat him into having lunch at the campus, after which he stood and got "oh we love you, love you etc." sung to him by the crowd. the truck driver was plainly uncomfortable and embarresed at this, and at that moment i was quite ashamed of myself for my ruthlessness at taking advantage of his good nature.
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excathedra
ohgod "thanks" ;) for reminding me how we sang "we love you" to complete strangers. how embarrassing for them and us
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
thanks for that info toad
as a chef i should have known that
now i do thanks
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Belle
Chef, I'm surprised you didn't know that! ;) Now we know fer shur you ain't no southerner! :P
Lex, WELCOME TO THE CAFE!!! Raf will be along with some coffee shortly, but may I offer you a danish?
That poor trucker! We were good at coercing people into doing things they didn't want to do, weren't we?
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outandabout
:D hah that seems so funny now. :lol:
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Lifted Up
I wonder when you went. I went in October 1977, and don't remember any contact with the locals, or the quonset huts. We pick green bell peppers the first day, then red bells the rest of the week...but as I mentioned, we had some access to the hot ones.
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