thanks for sharing your memories with us. These stories have a little of everything, rock-n-roll, drinking, spying, secrets, backstabbing,...I didn't notice a lot of drugs or sex though...did I miss something?
keep 'em commin'
lisa
Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books!
by Dogpatch 501 Replies latest jw friends
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Pachemu Nyet
My Bethel service was 1980/83 and was assigned to the 124 kitchen. I had a brief experience with Klien.
My profession before Bethel was a music teacher on a variety of string instruments. I had made some great musician friends at Bethel and we eventually ended up in a 4 man room in towers. Our next door neighbor was Harry and Rose Peloyan who we got to know quite well over time.
Anyways, my buddies and I would do a lot of picking in our rooms (guitar, banjo, bass, fiddle) and on the streets of Manhattan. We made some good money in Greenwich village. About $70 and hour between us which was great pay for a Bethelite! We never kept the cash, but bought a lot of beer and shared it with the other guys on our floor.
One day, we got the ‘bright idea’ of picking in the Towers Lobby. Our motive was to pick up chicks There were always a lot of hot sisters coming through the lobbies on the weekends. So, one Saturday night, we set up shop in the Towers Lobby and started our informal jam and raised quite a ruckus and a big crowd. Dan Cydlik and his ‘hot’ wife Marina came through and stopped to listen in. When we finished our song, Dan asked who we were and how long we had been at Bethel. All of us were there less than a year. He said that after a year of service, we could perform on Family Night. This is a special program that was presented a couple times a year for the Bethel Family at the Towers Assembly Hall. We didn’t think much of it but sure enough, after one year, he contacted us again about playing for everyone. We said that we would.
Our style was county and bluegrass so we were featured three times on the program. The final segment we finished up with a hot fiddle number, ‘Orange Blossom Special’ where the fiddle shows off with train effects and other things that please the audience.
Because of the size of the Bethel Family and the limited seating, the program would be presented three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The first night, the first row was full of ‘heavies’. U. V. Glass, A Schroeder, F W Franz, Suiter and Cotton Mouth Kline. Every thing went well until our encore with Orange Blossom. I’m jamming hard on the fiddle just about sawing it in half, the band was tight and the audience was on their feet hootin and hollering, really loud. Of course, this is expected on a tune like that and it really drives the band to play really tight and hard. Charlie Daniels style.
As I’m playing the fiddle, I can see the front row of heavies… Franz, Cydlik and Schroeder were really getting into clapping in time with the music along with the Bethel Family but Suiter was frowning shaking his head ‘no’ and Cotton Mouth Kline had lowered his head and was covering his ears.
After the show, Schroeder and Freddy came back stage and were quit enthusiastic and expressed how much they loved the show and music. When they left, Dan Cydlik approached us and said in his deep, Polish voice, ‘Well boys, you did a great job, but we’re in trouble’. Evidently Kline and Suiter were less than impressed by the way the Bethel family was carrying on. Standing and shouting like a bunch of rowdy bar patrons. So, we were told to tone it down and inform the family for the next shows, to remain in their seats and not start to riot, screaming and shouting. On Saturday performance, just before playing Orange Blossom Special, I made the annoucement, they obeyed but it wasn’t the same as Friday night's performance.
At a later date, I was approached by U. V. Glass and he asked if I could read music on the violin. I did, since I was classically trained. So, I was invited to perform in the orchestra for Kingdom Melodies and drama junk. Of course, Kline was there for most of the sessions. He was the ‘music master’. He remembered me and family night but I had gotten off on the wrong foot with him then and he had me pegged as a ‘trouble maker’. Glass liked my musicianship however and I was kept in the orchestra during my stay there.
Those were some interesting times. -
Pachemu Nyet
I should clarify, that when we played in Greewich Village, it was on the street. Often times we would uptown Manhattan where there was more money.
On Easter Sundays, and other religious holidays, we would trek on down to St Peter's Basillica and play gospel numbers as the folks filed in to pay their respects to Jesus. We met some interesting people too, Tiny Tim, super model Carol Alt and Bruce Willis were some that I remember meeting. We would fill a guitar case with money, then close it, fill the fiddle case, close it fill the bass case close it and so on until all our cases were full of cash. then we'd head down to the Heights to cash it all in on cases of beer and pizza at Fescati's. (Does anyone remember picking up a slice of cheese pizza there on the way back from the Sunday meetings?)
It was normally too much beer much to trek home with so with the extra cash, we'd get a taxi and cover the booze with a blanket from the kitchen so we didn't make a big scene in Towers Lobby as we rolled it in on a hand truck. However, after a few runs like that, word got out about the free beer and pizza. We had this gig down to a science and hired a couple of other brothers that we would plant in the audience. When we'd play something really hot, he'd say, 'Man, those guys are great!!!' and toss a $10 or $20 in our instrument cases and the rest of the crowd would follow suit with what ever they felt comfortable with. Change or paper money. It all spent the same way. After the gig, we'd load up on beer and pizza then invite most of the guys on our floor and get plastered.
Of course, all good things must come to an end...
One day, we are busking (playing on the street) in Greenwich village and a couple of rough looking hippies where dancing to our music, drinking beer and smoking pot. They didn't have any money to give us but offered us some beer and weed. We accepted the beer since that was our motive in the first place! This time, however, there were some other bethelites with family touring that area and spotted us. They took our photo without mentioning it or saying 'Hi'. It was rather incriminating since there was a six pack of Bud at my feet and this Hippie smoking a joint next to me.
The pix made the Bethel office and we had a meeting with Bob Raines. He said it was 'nobel' that we refused the pot and used the money to share with others but we broke our 'vow of poverty'. We told him we didn't charge people, they just gave us the money freely. He asked how much we made and it was around $200 a show. So, he said if we liked doing that kind of thing, the office could arrange for us to do it permanently. We got the drift and chilled on the live performances in Manhattan.
Those were some great memories.
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Eliveleth
Jeff,
During this one Saturday morning, he told the story of this JW couple who started their relationship by cheating on their mates and getting disfellowshipped. After getting reinstated and married they had a Down's Syndrome child.
Klein went on and on about how this couple had a "mongoloid" child as a punishment from God for their unfaithfulness to Jehovah when they committed adultery and were disfellowshipped.
It really got the Bethel family upset and the Saturday morning he apologized for his comments.
This was my ex sister-in-law. She and the elder were reinstated withing six months or so. My B-i-l was devastated, but he went on several years later to marry the sweetest gal. I guess God
used that for good!!! After we were disfellowshipped, she would not speak to us.
Velta
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NanaR
Hi Warren,
Don't spread it around, but I have it on pretty good authority that the WTS actually did produce a functional Universal Translator down in John Kurzen's office in the Carpenter Shop. However, they ended up selling the rights to make them to Gene Roddenberry, who made extensive use of them on the Enterprise. You probably didn't realize that all those guys on Star Trek were actually speaking their native tongues, which was then translated on the fly into English by the device they bought from the WTS. The Society had to sell it because, although it was quite good at translating Klingon, it tended to overheat badly when translating Watchtower articles. They briefly tried to use it to translate Bethel Office memos into Newboyspeak, but again it tended to overheat. The last straw was when one of the UTs blew up trying to translate John Booth's morning text comments into English. Since they couldn't use it themselves, the only thing left to do was to sell it to Gene. Too bad, after all the work Dean Songer put into it.
Guru TomOkay, you should have put a spew alert on this one. Now there's Sweet Tea spots on my monitor . This is the best thread I've ever read on this board. Carry on, boys!! Nana Ruth Who was tending babies in Kantucky while all y'all were playing in Brooklyn...
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Dogpatch
Cab sez,
The Society had to sell it because, although it was quite good at translating Klingon, it tended to overheat badly when translating Watchtower articles.
Must have been the tacky run-on phrases, like "as it were," and all the rest that are so common in Society lectures. Most of the younger ones at Bethel who are trying to emulate the leadership actually sound like them! You get all their stupid mannerisms! I did, and had to catch myself miming them often in the beginning. Musta been Bethel puberty.
Come to think of it, we had a lot of problem printing certain magazines. We had to placate the presses by drawing cartoons and hanging them all over.
:-))
Randy
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Dogpatch
Sir82, why not elaborate on MEPS? I've never actually heard the real story, even though it was 2 floors upstairs. :-))
Randy
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jookbeard
Quality stuff guys , Randy and Tom ,here in London makes you think about the B/S that the WTS were the world leaders in printing technology with MEPPS etc but you guys have blown it all away about really how far the the WTS were away from the forefront of cutting edge tech. The recent expansion of the Millhill London branch on Bittercy Hill was promoted as being the forefront of a construction method known as a " tilt up " method of producing concrete slabs of concrete that could supposedly increase the speed and production on large construction projects of course I knew this was B/S, any of you chaps remember Worth Thornton(RIP I believe) he came to our congregation (London Wimbledon) and was not short of cash moving into a house that must have been at least £1000/month for rent back in in the early 90's, I believe he was involved in purchasing aircraft from airlines in Europe , surely a very high paying job, seemed a nice guy , but clearly motivated by the £ ,
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Dogpatch
Real Comments from the Brooklyn Bethel Breakfast Table from: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/107814/1.ashx
Some of these comments from the GB are hilarious!!!
FROM MORNING WORSHIP...9/27/00
"...I especially liked your comment about the Society, that it's an organization on the move...and today being the day the Governing Body meets,...I hope they keep that point in mind." -D Sydlik9/19/00
"Well, you asked a question, but you didn't answer it...maybe the next brother will answer it for us. -L Swingle9/6/00 It's no accident!
"Vehicle collisions and crashes are not accidents -L. Schilling (special safe driving program)8/30/00 Bethel 'Keeps Account'?
"The Apostle Paul used an accounting term to emphasize this fact...'Love does not keep account of the injury'...well...here at Bethel we have a whole department that keeps account...of our injuries. It's called Risk Management." -G Losch8/4/00 124 No More
A panoramic view of the last morning worship program from 124 dining room -P. Wilcox7/19/00 Bethel Elders Overtime?
"These Circuit Overseers always end on time...I'm not used to that." -D. Sydlik7/18/00 Other (late) Sheep?
"So, I think of John 10:16 this morning, where it says, "I have other sheep which are not of this fold"...when I see all these brothers walking in late.(after John Foster read Joshua chapter 12; "King of Jericho...One...King of Ai...One......One")
"John Foster...One" -D. Sydlik7/5/00 Holy Hearts?
"We want to have a whole heart...(punch-out hole)...not a hole in our heart." -French C.O.7/4/00 Day Star Rising?
Brother Russell bid Godspeed to the new venture. But did the Day Star magazine have Jehovah's blessing? "Well, have you seen a copy of it lately?" I don't think so. -D Splane5/24/00 Freak of Nature?
"Jehovah didn't take Eve from part of Adam's head or from his big toe. He took Eve from Adam's side and that's where a wife should be, at a man's side as a compliment and helper. She shouldn't be a competing head...like some sort of freak of nature! Two-headed things don't live long..." -Branch Ovsr5/23/00 There's always the resurrection!
"Just a few minutes ago I was telling Brother Barber how bad I feel...He told me that there's always the resurrection...I would like to thank Brother Barber for his encouraging words." -S. Herd3/31/00 Where's the Books?
"The ransom...and now I've been asked to discuss a certain problem we've been experiencing...in our 15 Bethel libraries...after the 107 library was returned to Towers, over 15 books were returned to the empty shelves in 107...magazines have been taken but the yellow card which clearly says 'not to be taken from Bethel libraries' was taken off and left behind...books from Brooklyn have been found in the Patterson library...one book was returned by a brother who left bethel months ago..." -J Eames3/27/00 Who wants a raise?
"The bethel allowance is being increased to $100. The PEA is being increased by $10 per month." -L Swingle12/23/99
"The scenes with wild animals were done in a controlled environment." -K Flodin"Say what you will about sign language...I still like human voices." -D Sydlik
12/14/99"Now we have a special announcement to be given by a special brother...to a special family. (after announcement) Well...maybe you all should think about selling your cars now. So...thank you Brother Couch for that announcement...it was given with sincerity and all the love in your heart. Yes...time and unforeseen occurrences befall us all...and...especially to those with cars." -L. Swingle
11/24/99"Now we'll have Brother Hash-ee-moo-rah say the prayer...oh...what's wrong...OH, I JUST GOT KICKED BY MY WIFE UNDER THE TABLE...let's have the text comments read first!" -C. Barber
11/9/99"I don't know what the joke is, but let's have the text read."
-C. Barber (in reference to all the laughing in the dining rooms...at the blue faces on TV)11/4/99
"When is the last time you talked to your tongue?" -E. Rosam10/11/99
"Well, the text reader didn't show up so I guess I'll have to read it...oh...wait a minute, here he is."-C. Barber10/7/99
"...we don't have time to talk in the morning at breakfast..." -G. M. Couch9/6/99
"It's good to be here on Monday,...it happens about once a week." -L. Swingle9/3/99
"What does an insignificant tea bag have to do with faith?" -J. Lopesalso...No more guests for fireworks roof parties. -Letter from Governing Body
9/1/99
(After a report from a member of the Guadeloupe Branch Committee): "It's good to know that not everyone who speaks French are fighting against Jehovah." -C. Barber8/24/99
"A lot of people enjoy the convention. They clap and have a wild time. Two weeks later they've forgotten all about it." -C. Barber8/16/99
"Well, someone just whispered in my ear that we have the Watchtower tonight....Well, I think we all know by now when the Watchtower Study is, and I think you can find out which issue it is by checking the inside schedule yourself." -L. Swingle8/10/99
(Discussing the Roanoke, VA, and Denver, CO conventions that he attended, in which the hallways were reportedly clear of the usual Singles Dating scene): "Frankly, you could have shot a cannon down the corridor and not hit anyone." -D. Sydlik7/9/99
"When is the last time you started a fire?" -"Can't blame him (Pope) for trying to make an honest buck." -C. Barber