The next year 76-77, I was in a Way Home. One of the girls in the home was in Pine Bluff as a wow 75-76. I think her name was Darlene.
... Mike and Nancy Beatnik and Allison Fern all went in 9th corpse later ... Sue, Anne, Sara and I forget the other girls name ... pretty sure it wasn't Darlene ... :)
Both Alison and her sister Sheila were my WOW sisters that year along with a guy named Greg (poor guy - he was outnumbered).
We were WOW 2's. That meant that if you'd been a WOW before, you could pick the place you wanted to go. The sisters wanted to be together and Greg wanted to stay in PB, where he'd been a regular WOW the year before I was assigned there. It was a bit of a better deal, we were able to work 30 hours a week instead of 20, and could go home for Christmas.
It was an awful year for me. Had it not been for the Firyn sisters and Billy B.(who was in Little Rock), I would have gone totally nuts.
Mooney - I don't recall a Darlene either.
Rhino - Ron and Joy H*zen - great folks!! They got married when I was there and soon had a baby! He's going to be 29 this year if my memory is correct! I wouldn't be surprised if they're still living there.
Out of all the places TWI sent me, that is the one place I never want to set foot in again. Don't know if it's the town, the memories, or a little of both.
Both Alison and her sister Sheila were my WOW sisters that year along with a guy named Greg (poor guy - he was outnumbered).
I'll be the first to acknowledge my experience was limited, but I never know a WOW family that was gender imbalanced...which maonly included Indy and the WOW branch I helped run at Philly during my interim year. Whether married couples were involved or not, gender wise all the families I ever knew of were all men, all women, or 2/2.
I wonder if there were any that were 3/1 the other way.
When I was out WOW in Chicago in 1980-81, our WOW family was three single guys and two single women and the 10-year-old boy one of the single women had had out of wedlock (before she involved with TWI).
Late in the year, another single guy was added to us because we had room for him and all the rest of his WOW family had left ... I don't remember his name, though, because he was only with us for about six weeks or so.
My WOW family ended up with 3 guys and 2 girls. We started out in Waco, Texas, with 2 guys and 2 girls. The family coord got booted, and they moved the remaining three of us to Midland, Texas, with 2 guys.
We had 2 apartments next door to each other. Also in Midland were another family with 3 single moms and 2 single dads. Each had one child ranging in age from 3 to 14. Talk about a HUGE house!! They all stuck it out. Amazing to me.
We were WOW 2's - so everyone except ME actually wanted to be in Pine Bluff that year. Alison had been there the previous year and Sheila had been a WOW elsewhere. They wanted to be together and ended up choosing Pine Bluff. Greg had been there the year before and wanted another go at it. It was my interim year, and I had no choice in the matter (I remember crying my eyes out after I got my assignment).
I think that was the only year TWI had the WOW 2 program. (1976 -1977). Guess it didn't work very well.
Didn't they have they WOW2 program from 1981-82 in Knoxville, TN during the World's Fair there? I am not sure they called it that, but I remember a guy from my WOW family (who had trouble getting and keeping a job during our WOW year and even lost his first check after many weeks on his way home from work) going there and having in his family a girl from my home area that had trouble managing the issues of everyday life just like he did...because of those two, I did not really get the impression it was the "spiritually elite" everyone said it was ....
Just read through this whole thread and it sure brings back things I had forgotten about. I surely loved all the Joyful Noise music and much of the other music. To me, even the song book songs provided much comfort and encouragement.
I attended that class given by the Maine senator (or wannabe) and remembered liking it. As a college student, the whole college experience including twi was eye-opening in seeing the wide range of thoughts about a subject after growing up in a very homogeneous middle class suburb.
B@rry H!ll was a roommate of mine and I clearly remember her speaking at ROA (or some other big event) after just escaping her deprogrammers. She and corps grad husband L@wrence L@w!s are happily married with grown/nearly grown children last I heard (few years ago). I believe she successfully reconciled with her parents not too long after the deprogramming.
Also remember the conspiracy mindset and the advice to collect the older dimes that were real silver, etc.
Gotta check to see if I still have any of that good music and will surely be glad when ItIsWrittenBooks is up and running.
WW---------Iwas in Fl of Ohio in 1976. If I stopped and thought for awhile I could probably recall several incidents. Mostly, though, what I do recall was the general tone of thinking at that time. We were really hellbent on the "urgency" of the times and the whole survivalist train of thought was rampant. In all fairness and honesty, I don't think this line of thought was unique to twi. These were the times of "None Dare Call It Conspiracy" "GOD'S Smuggler" ,"Thirteenth Tribe", etc. It seemed as though we had moved on from seeing spirituality on a personal level (PFAL, Challenging Counterfit, CF&S,etc. ) to seeing it on a national and even global level. Of course this sure made us all feel somewhat smug because we thought we were really seeing "The BIG Picture". We had a very large garden which we tended to every evening from about 6PM to 9PM and every saturday morning. Remember, we all worked "9 to 5" in the secular world. this garden was to be one piece of the self sufficiency plan. (side note) IT takkes awhole lot of swiss chard and turnips to feed fifty people. We also had a food co-op which was mandatory . We bought in bulk, Made alot of our own items such as yogurt, mayo., familia and so on. we cooked the same preplanned meals in each house and ate as a whole group every day. These were the same communal living, survivalist type activities that were being experimented with in many other groups beside twi.( perhaps some other FL could offer more specifics as I prefer to not make this post too long and boring. The difference between us and other groups doing this was that we, of course were doing it to save the world while others were doing it to save themselves.I'm just glad that as I typed that last thought ;my words were not the least bit distorted even though I had my tongue in my cheek.
WW---------Iwas in Fl of Ohio in 1976. If I stopped and thought for awhile I could probably recall several incidents. Mostly, though, what I do recall was the general tone of thinking at that time. We were really hellbent on the "urgency" of the times and the whole survivalist train of thought was rampant. In all fairness and honesty, I don't think this line of thought was unique to twi.
These were the times of "None Dare Call It Conspiracy" "GOD'S Smuggler" ,"Thirteenth Tribe", etc.
It seemed as though we had moved on from seeing spirituality on a personal level (PFAL, Challenging Counterfeit, CF&S,etc. )
to seeing it on a national and even global level. Of course this sure made us all feel somewhat smug because we thought we were really seeing "The BIG Picture".
We had a very large garden which we tended to every evening from about 6PM to 9PM and every saturday morning. Remember, we all worked "9 to 5" in the secular world. this garden was to be one piece of the self sufficiency plan.
(side note) IT takes awhole lot of swiss chard and turnips to feed fifty people. We also had a food co-op which was mandatory . We bought in bulk, Made alot of our own items such as yogurt, mayo., familia and so on. we cooked the same preplanned meals in each house and ate as a whole group every day. These were the same communal living, survivalist type activities that were being experimented with in many other groups beside twi.
...
The difference between us and other groups doing this was that we, of course were doing it to save the world while others were doing it to save themselves.
Just read through this whole thread and it sure brings back things I had forgotten about. I surely loved all the Joyful Noise music and much of the other music. To me, even the song book songs provided much comfort and encouragement.
B@rry H!ll was a roommate of mine and I clearly remember her speaking at ROA (or some other big event) after just escaping her deprogrammers. She and corps grad husband L@wrence L@w!s are happily married with grown/nearly grown children last I heard (few years ago). I believe she successfully reconciled with her parents not too long after the deprogramming.
Gotta check to see if I still have any of that good music and will surely be glad when ItIsWrittenBooks is up and running.
I knew Laerence back in the 70's. Where were they and are they still in?
I agree with you about the music back then, but what can I say (then again I'm Mrs Ted Ferrell )
It is good to see that there are those who have good memories. I've been thinking about all that I've read on the various threads recently and realize that it is mostly God's grace that kept me from knowing about most of the junk that went on. I never got nearer to the inner circle than TC and College WOW (74-75), and although there seems to have been a good share of error taught, there was also so much truth that really helped me. By the time things got really bad all over, I was already involved with a non-twi guy after divorcing the believer I was married to for 10 yrs, so I was even more on the fringes. I guess the Bible Lands tour in 85 was the beginning of the end for me due to my marriage breaking up right after that.
Lawrence and Barry were living outside of Boston last I knew. We exchange Christmas cards, though I don't think I got one this year. I seem to remember they have 3 kids. Not sure when they exited, we never talked about it.
Found my old tapes yesterday. Royal Tapestry among them - the first one I plan to listen to. I listen to contemporary Christian music most of the time now, so it will be fun to see how the old Way music sounds compared to that new stuff.
WordWolf--------------- When I read your response to my post a little light bulb lit up in my mind. I had never really given much thought to how we may have been impacted by the communal living aspect of all this. True there were many who never went WOW or WC but they very likely interacted with people who did.Was the "commune" experiance a plus or a minus? I don't know. Perhaps it is why so many of us feel the effects so many years later. Perhaps it is why we feel so compelled to band together and help each other.I know this may all sound like one "grande" derail but this communal thinking , I believe, may have something to do with how we thought and how we felt about what we thought in and around the bicentennial year.It may also explain why people will say"Geez Louise , why didn't you just walk away? and not understand the depth of commitment we felt toward each other.
I was thinking today that there might have been a generational influence on how we accepted the teachings and twi ways. You know, the protests of the late 60's and the youthful idealism of the time. Anyone know of a good book analyzing the late baby boomers and their reactions to popular culture, ideas of the time, etc.? I'm thinking that might be a good context for me.
B@rry H!ll was a roommate of mine and I clearly remember her speaking at ROA (or some other big event) after just escaping her deprogrammers. She and corps grad husband L@wrence L@w!s are happily married with grown/nearly grown children last I heard (few years ago). I believe she successfully reconciled with her parents not too long after the deprogramming.
That by itself doesn't mean that she then considered her deprograming a, well. "favorable event", but I can't help wondering. That was something I also heard a lot about at the time, not knowing that later (at the end of 1979) I would have that experience...one which I did not and do not consider a good method of leaving TWI, no matter how bad the bad. Over the years, I have made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at contact through other people, because I was interested in getting her current view of the experience, no matter what it was.
BTW 1976 was the my year of big transition....from pre-PFAL to apprentice corps.
That by itself doesn't mean that she then considered her deprograming a, well. "favorable event",
At the time, I don't think she viewed the deprogramming favorably at all. I think she felt betrayed by her parents. Amazing that there was healing enough for the estrangement to not last years and years. And, since she went right back to twi wholeheartedly, going through the corps, etc. it must not have taken deep root. Can't recall which corps, but I think it was 7th or 8th.
I have really never discussed it with her, but the most recent time I spent any time with her was in 86 and she seemed solid and the same personality as always. (We were hallmates one year, then roommates 74-75.)
How was your deprogramming experience? Hope you are OK...
I was paranoid enough around that same '75 timeframe to wonder if my parents would consider doing that. I even left a note at my student job desk saying who to contact if I didn't come back from a lunch with my mother and a friend of hers.
At the time, I don't think she viewed the deprogramming favorably at all. I think she felt betrayed by her parents. Amazing that there was healing enough for the estrangement to not last years and years. And, since she went right back to twi wholeheartedly, going through the corps, etc. it must not have taken deep root. Can't recall which corps, but I think it was 7th or 8th.
I have really never discussed it with her, but the most recent time I spent any time with her was in 86 and she seemed solid and the same personality as always. (We were hallmates one year, then roommates 74-75.)
How was your deprogramming experience? Hope you are OK...
I was paranoid enough around that same '75 timeframe to wonder if my parents would consider doing that. I even left a note at my student job desk saying who to contact if I didn't come back from a lunch with my mother and a friend of hers.
Thankfully there was no incident.
I'll get into that in a day or two, since I saw your post just as I gotta take off. She was 7th. I ran into her at the 79 ROA, and out of nowhere she started talking to me about something, and I dont thhink I had talked to her before, though of course I knew about her experience. ( I was 8th BTW).
What I meant and probably didnt express well was whether or not she decided her experience was good after all when she reconciled with her parents, or could it have been her parents deciding it wasnt the best thing to do, or maybe they all decided they still loved each other after all. Thats what I think in my own mind, dont mean for anyone to speculate answers to me, since it is someone else's life I'm talking about.
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likeaneagle
That was the period of time I helped to undershepard Bob Stanley..hi ya Bob if your around..I miss you.
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moony3424
The next year 76-77, I was in a Way Home. One of the girls in the home was in Pine Bluff as a wow 75-76. I think her name was Darlene.
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rhino
... Mike and Nancy Beatnik and Allison Fern all went in 9th corpse later ... Sue, Anne, Sara and I forget the other girls name ... pretty sure it wasn't Darlene ... :)
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Lifted Up
Back to Indy...it was the year John Lynn finally passed the limb mantle (to Steve Sann) after all the years he ruled in Indiana.
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Hope R.
Both Alison and her sister Sheila were my WOW sisters that year along with a guy named Greg (poor guy - he was outnumbered).
We were WOW 2's. That meant that if you'd been a WOW before, you could pick the place you wanted to go. The sisters wanted to be together and Greg wanted to stay in PB, where he'd been a regular WOW the year before I was assigned there. It was a bit of a better deal, we were able to work 30 hours a week instead of 20, and could go home for Christmas.
It was an awful year for me. Had it not been for the Firyn sisters and Billy B.(who was in Little Rock), I would have gone totally nuts.
Mooney - I don't recall a Darlene either.
Rhino - Ron and Joy H*zen - great folks!! They got married when I was there and soon had a baby! He's going to be 29 this year if my memory is correct! I wouldn't be surprised if they're still living there.
Out of all the places TWI sent me, that is the one place I never want to set foot in again. Don't know if it's the town, the memories, or a little of both.
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Lifted Up
I'll be the first to acknowledge my experience was limited, but I never know a WOW family that was gender imbalanced...which maonly included Indy and the WOW branch I helped run at Philly during my interim year. Whether married couples were involved or not, gender wise all the families I ever knew of were all men, all women, or 2/2.
I wonder if there were any that were 3/1 the other way.
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DogLover
When I was out WOW in Chicago in 1980-81, our WOW family was three single guys and two single women and the 10-year-old boy one of the single women had had out of wedlock (before she involved with TWI).
Late in the year, another single guy was added to us because we had room for him and all the rest of his WOW family had left ... I don't remember his name, though, because he was only with us for about six weeks or so.
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Nottawayfer
My WOW family ended up with 3 guys and 2 girls. We started out in Waco, Texas, with 2 guys and 2 girls. The family coord got booted, and they moved the remaining three of us to Midland, Texas, with 2 guys.
We had 2 apartments next door to each other. Also in Midland were another family with 3 single moms and 2 single dads. Each had one child ranging in age from 3 to 14. Talk about a HUGE house!! They all stuck it out. Amazing to me.
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Hope R.
Uppity -
We were WOW 2's - so everyone except ME actually wanted to be in Pine Bluff that year. Alison had been there the previous year and Sheila had been a WOW elsewhere. They wanted to be together and ended up choosing Pine Bluff. Greg had been there the year before and wanted another go at it. It was my interim year, and I had no choice in the matter (I remember crying my eyes out after I got my assignment).
I think that was the only year TWI had the WOW 2 program. (1976 -1977). Guess it didn't work very well.
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DogLover
Didn't they have they WOW2 program from 1981-82 in Knoxville, TN during the World's Fair there? I am not sure they called it that, but I remember a guy from my WOW family (who had trouble getting and keeping a job during our WOW year and even lost his first check after many weeks on his way home from work) going there and having in his family a girl from my home area that had trouble managing the issues of everyday life just like he did...because of those two, I did not really get the impression it was the "spiritually elite" everyone said it was ....
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Oakspear
They had a 'WOWvet" program that year where WOWvets weresent out as WOWs, I believe Knoxville was the main destination.
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WordWolf
Any other recollections concerning 1976?
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alleycat
Just read through this whole thread and it sure brings back things I had forgotten about. I surely loved all the Joyful Noise music and much of the other music. To me, even the song book songs provided much comfort and encouragement.
I attended that class given by the Maine senator (or wannabe) and remembered liking it. As a college student, the whole college experience including twi was eye-opening in seeing the wide range of thoughts about a subject after growing up in a very homogeneous middle class suburb.
B@rry H!ll was a roommate of mine and I clearly remember her speaking at ROA (or some other big event) after just escaping her deprogrammers. She and corps grad husband L@wrence L@w!s are happily married with grown/nearly grown children last I heard (few years ago). I believe she successfully reconciled with her parents not too long after the deprogramming.
Also remember the conspiracy mindset and the advice to collect the older dimes that were real silver, etc.
Gotta check to see if I still have any of that good music and will surely be glad when ItIsWrittenBooks is up and running.
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waysider
WW---------Iwas in Fl of Ohio in 1976. If I stopped and thought for awhile I could probably recall several incidents. Mostly, though, what I do recall was the general tone of thinking at that time. We were really hellbent on the "urgency" of the times and the whole survivalist train of thought was rampant. In all fairness and honesty, I don't think this line of thought was unique to twi. These were the times of "None Dare Call It Conspiracy" "GOD'S Smuggler" ,"Thirteenth Tribe", etc. It seemed as though we had moved on from seeing spirituality on a personal level (PFAL, Challenging Counterfit, CF&S,etc. ) to seeing it on a national and even global level. Of course this sure made us all feel somewhat smug because we thought we were really seeing "The BIG Picture". We had a very large garden which we tended to every evening from about 6PM to 9PM and every saturday morning. Remember, we all worked "9 to 5" in the secular world. this garden was to be one piece of the self sufficiency plan. (side note) IT takkes awhole lot of swiss chard and turnips to feed fifty people. We also had a food co-op which was mandatory . We bought in bulk, Made alot of our own items such as yogurt, mayo., familia and so on. we cooked the same preplanned meals in each house and ate as a whole group every day. These were the same communal living, survivalist type activities that were being experimented with in many other groups beside twi.( perhaps some other FL could offer more specifics as I prefer to not make this post too long and boring. The difference between us and other groups doing this was that we, of course were doing it to save the world while others were doing it to save themselves.I'm just glad that as I typed that last thought ;my words were not the least bit distorted even though I had my tongue in my cheek.
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WordWolf
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moony3424
I knew Laerence back in the 70's. Where were they and are they still in?
I agree with you about the music back then, but what can I say (then again I'm Mrs Ted Ferrell
)
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alleycat
It is good to see that there are those who have good memories. I've been thinking about all that I've read on the various threads recently and realize that it is mostly God's grace that kept me from knowing about most of the junk that went on. I never got nearer to the inner circle than TC and College WOW (74-75), and although there seems to have been a good share of error taught, there was also so much truth that really helped me. By the time things got really bad all over, I was already involved with a non-twi guy after divorcing the believer I was married to for 10 yrs, so I was even more on the fringes. I guess the Bible Lands tour in 85 was the beginning of the end for me due to my marriage breaking up right after that.
Lawrence and Barry were living outside of Boston last I knew. We exchange Christmas cards, though I don't think I got one this year. I seem to remember they have 3 kids. Not sure when they exited, we never talked about it.
Found my old tapes yesterday. Royal Tapestry among them - the first one I plan to listen to. I listen to contemporary Christian music most of the time now, so it will be fun to see how the old Way music sounds compared to that new stuff.
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dmiller
Alleycat -- welcome to GreaseSpot. :)
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waysider
WordWolf--------------- When I read your response to my post a little light bulb lit up in my mind. I had never really given much thought to how we may have been impacted by the communal living aspect of all this. True there were many who never went WOW or WC but they very likely interacted with people who did.Was the "commune" experiance a plus or a minus? I don't know. Perhaps it is why so many of us feel the effects so many years later. Perhaps it is why we feel so compelled to band together and help each other.I know this may all sound like one "grande" derail but this communal thinking , I believe, may have something to do with how we thought and how we felt about what we thought in and around the bicentennial year.It may also explain why people will say"Geez Louise , why didn't you just walk away? and not understand the depth of commitment we felt toward each other.
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excathedra
i hated mandatory communal living
the stories i could tell but i wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone who might be lurking or posting here
i'm sure living with me is no walk in the park but some of the folks, oh my gosh
i could hear my mother saying "were you raised in a barn"
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alleycat
I was thinking today that there might have been a generational influence on how we accepted the teachings and twi ways. You know, the protests of the late 60's and the youthful idealism of the time. Anyone know of a good book analyzing the late baby boomers and their reactions to popular culture, ideas of the time, etc.? I'm thinking that might be a good context for me.
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Lifted Up
That by itself doesn't mean that she then considered her deprograming a, well. "favorable event", but I can't help wondering. That was something I also heard a lot about at the time, not knowing that later (at the end of 1979) I would have that experience...one which I did not and do not consider a good method of leaving TWI, no matter how bad the bad. Over the years, I have made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at contact through other people, because I was interested in getting her current view of the experience, no matter what it was.
BTW 1976 was the my year of big transition....from pre-PFAL to apprentice corps.
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alleycat
At the time, I don't think she viewed the deprogramming favorably at all. I think she felt betrayed by her parents. Amazing that there was healing enough for the estrangement to not last years and years. And, since she went right back to twi wholeheartedly, going through the corps, etc. it must not have taken deep root. Can't recall which corps, but I think it was 7th or 8th.
I have really never discussed it with her, but the most recent time I spent any time with her was in 86 and she seemed solid and the same personality as always. (We were hallmates one year, then roommates 74-75.)
How was your deprogramming experience? Hope you are OK...
I was paranoid enough around that same '75 timeframe to wonder if my parents would consider doing that. I even left a note at my student job desk saying who to contact if I didn't come back from a lunch with my mother and a friend of hers.
Thankfully there was no incident.
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Lifted Up
I'll get into that in a day or two, since I saw your post just as I gotta take off. She was 7th. I ran into her at the 79 ROA, and out of nowhere she started talking to me about something, and I dont thhink I had talked to her before, though of course I knew about her experience. ( I was 8th BTW).
What I meant and probably didnt express well was whether or not she decided her experience was good after all when she reconciled with her parents, or could it have been her parents deciding it wasnt the best thing to do, or maybe they all decided they still loved each other after all. Thats what I think in my own mind, dont mean for anyone to speculate answers to me, since it is someone else's life I'm talking about.
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