Stories From My Bethel Pilgrimage

by cabasilas 12 Replies latest jw experiences

cabasilas

Stories from my Bethel pilgrimage
I've wanted to put some of these memories into words for quite awhile, if only to help me remember my experiences. Many are positive, some are strange, and some are in between. I take a "silver-lining" approach to life.
Even though I no longer count myself as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I can still find some good in what I experienced. I think all life experiences, both good and bad, can teach us valuable lessons; especially those lessons that are gleaned from when we make wrong choices in life.
It was late at night at La Guardia airport one September night in 1973. I had never been to New York before. And, to be perfectly frank, I was terrified. I had travelled all day from Boise, Idaho to get here so that I could start working at the headquarters of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society – at Brooklyn Bethel. I was full of conflicted emotions. Yes, I wanted to be a “Bethelite.” But, I really didn’t want to live in New York. I liked living in the small town of 1500 people that I had come from in Idaho. Still, the biggest problem I had at the moment was that my ride to take me to my new home at Bethel had not shown up. So, I sat down, quite literally, on my luggage as I waited for my ride. Just the month before I’d seen the movie The Out-of-Towners and I imagined someone would be trying to steal my luggage if I averted my eyes away from them. In my paranoia I made sure my body was touching every piece of luggage so that nothing would be stolen without my realizing it. As I waited for my ride I reflected on what had brought me to this point.
In late June of that year I attended the “Divine Victory” District Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. I loved going to Witness assemblies. I think one reason I did was because I had converted to the Witnesses as a teenager against my parents’ wishes. So, attending large meetings of people who believed the same way I did was a validating experience. Here at Dodger Stadium were 50,000 to 60,000 others who took their faith seriously, just as I did. I knew some Witness youth were not as gung-ho as I was, but at this point in time most Witnesses were strong in faith. We knew from Watchtower publications that Bible chronology indicated that 6,000 years from Adam’s creation would be up in the Fall of 1975. We weren’t fixing all our hopes on that date. Yet, we knew that Armageddon and the 1,000 year reign of Christ was not far beyond that date. While I was at the convention, I saw notice of a special meeting for those interested in volunteering for Bethel service. I knew I had to be there and now that I was 19 and old enough, I knew that I had to apply. Ever since I’d first heard of Bethel, I had wanted to go there. ;In my mind, Bethel was as close to God as I could get. At Bethel I could devote myself “whole-souled to Jehovah.” I really had no idea what sort of work I would be doing at Bethel. Still, I figured I could adapt to any assignment I would receive.
Brother Leo Greenlees of the Governing Body led the Bethel meeting. It was held between regular sessions of the convention in a section of the bleachers on the second level of Dodger Stadium with about 75 of us in attendance. This was the first time I had ever been so close to a member of the Governing Body before. Brother Greenlees gave a short talk and emphasized that Bethel was hard work. He also emphasized that our commitment to Bethel service would be for 4 years. About half of us filled out applications for Bethel service and stood in line to give our application to Brother Greenlees. As he took the application from each person, he quickly looked it over and engaged that person in a brief conversation. Then he’d make a brief notation on the application and talk to the next person. I don’t remember what we discussed when it was my turn, but I was conscious that I was having some sort of brief interview as I turned my application in. I hoped that whatever Brother Greenlees wrote down on my application was positive.
When I got back to my home congregation in Idaho a couple of weeks later I got news that I had passed the initial interview with Brother Greenlees. The Presiding Overseer’s daughter was one of my best friends and she told me that the local Body of Elders had received a letter from the Society as to whether they’d recommend me for Bethel service. I didn’t have to wait to find out what the elders had said as she told me they had recommended me. And she added, “When the Society asks the elders if they recommend someone, that means it won’t be long before you get a letter to come to Bethel.” She was right. About one month letter, I got my letter.
The next few weeks were a blur of activity as I prepared myself to enter Bethel service. There was joy with my Witness friends who rallied to provide me with the funds to purchase my plane ticket to New York. They provided a great send off party for me. My parents were devastated, however. They had barely adjusted to my choice to be a Witness and they were bitterly disappointed that I was not going to go to college. Still, I think they hoped that I might change my mind about that. Now, with my moving across the country to work in a factory for 4 years their glimmer of hope that I’d re-think my future was gone. My Mom tried for several days to talk me out of this. My Dad didn’t say much, but I could see the hurt in his eyes. I didn’t even ask them to come to see me off at the airport as that was an hour’s drive away and I knew Dad would have trouble getting off of work. Instead, I asked one of my JW buddies to drive me down to Boise for the flight. How surprised I was when while we were waiting to get on my flight that my parents arrived at the airport. Dad had gone to work and asked his boss if he could be excused to see me off. I knew it hurt them to see me go, but they smiled and hugged me and took pictures before I left.
After about a 20 minute wait, my ride to Bethel showed up at La Guardia. I checked in about 11:30 at night and was warmly greeted by the night desk person at 124 Columbia Heights. My first room assignment was room 511 in the 124 building. ;It overlooked the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and had a nice view of the Brooklyn Bridge. I vividly remember the image as I turned off the lights in my room and tried to go to sleep. The bright lights of the lower Manhattan skyline and the noise from the Expressway poured through the window. For a guy from a small town in Idaho, it was mind-blowing. I don’t think I would have felt much different had I landed on the moon instead of being here in Brooklyn Heights. I said a short prayer to Jehovah and surprisingly I fell asleep without too much difficulty
Fatfreek

Thanks for sharing. It is always good therapy to organize our thoughts on paper.
It looks like our years as Witnesses overlapped somewhat. I left the Watchtower out as your first term expired in 1977.
I'm amazed at your parent's arrival at the airport. Did they live long enough to see you leave the cult?
Len
cabasilas

No matter how hard I tried I could never convince my parents or my brother to join the Witnesses. They've always showed me unconditional love. I guess it's a good thing I did not succeed in converting them as I did not lose their love once I decided later to leave the JWs. My parents are still alive and will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary this year.
I'll be adding more to the story soon. I have a few installments in mind, but it may take awhile to post them all.
Quandry

Enjoying your story. Can't wait for the second installment!!
cabasilas

Part Two
I never heard the first bells when they went off the next morning. For those who don’t know, Bethel life is punctuated by a series of bells. Bells wake you up. They warn you when it’s almost time to be at morning worship/breakfast. They start and end the work day, etc., etc. I had a good friend who had preceded me to Bethel by about 9 months and he was my guide the first few days.
We've only got 20 minutes to get to breakfast he warned. And since I was joining him for breakfast and his seat was at the top of the former Squib complex (30 Columbia Heights), we had no time to lose. We made it just in time as Brother Ray Franz handled the Text and Comments. I had never heard him before and at first wondered if perhaps it was Fred Franz. My friend said, "Not at all. This is his nephew. He's really quite a good speaker." I found that many Bethelites really liked Ray Franz's presentations. I remember one Bethel Elder's wife comparing Fred and Ray, saying: "Ray is much more balanced. I think that's because Ray is married and Fred isn't."
After breakfast I went to the Bethel Office to check in. There were about 20 guys in my group who were reporting for “induction.” We were given an orientation and had a few forms to fill out. One form that gave me pause was a form that gave the Watchtower Society permission to dispose of my body should I die while at Bethel. I suppose it was a necessary document to sign, but it was not something that I had thought about. When I told my friend about the form he laughed. “Yeah, they bury you up at the Farm in a cheap wooden box!” He was trying to creep me out and had pretty well succeeded. But, Bethel burial was not something I figured happened very often.
The first couple of days new Bethelites are assigned to work with a housekeeper. Perhaps it’s a holding pattern while they decide where to put you. Or perhaps, it’s an appreciation course of what the Bethel housekeepers have to go through to take care of the rooms. I was pleasantly surprised that I was assigned to work with a housekeeper who I had known years ago when I had lived in Southern California. I knew she and her husband (he had been my book study conductor at one point) were at Bethel, but I had not kept in touch with them. Now I would get to meet them much sooner than I had anticipated.
After a couple days of making beds and vacuuming, I was sent to the factory and told to report to the bindery. I reported to Building 3, the 5 th floor. On this floor was the book sewing department. I would end up in various departments in the bindery, but I always seemed to come back to the Sewing Department. One of the bright memories of my time at Bethel was the friendships I made with other guys and most of that revolved around the departments where I worked. I had always been kind of a loner before going to Bethel and never had very many real friends, even in the various congregations I’d been involved with. But, here at Bethel I made several friendships.
I strived to avoid the two stereotypical extremes we always heard about: the SRs and the BAs. SR was for those who were Self-Righteous, the overly pious. BA was for Bad Attitude. So, I tried to be sincere in my faith, but not take it too seriously either.
A couple of weeks after starting working on 3-5, the floor overseer John Adams stopped by as I was learning how to operate a Smyth Sewing machine. "My wife and I would like to have you stop by our room for a glass of wine before supper tonight, if you could make it." There were about 3 of us “new boys” who showed up that night. It turned out that was John’s way of making personal contact with each of us new guys, a rather nice gesture. John and his wife had a room with one of the best views of Manhattan from the 124 building. It looked right across to Wall Street and you could see the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island in the background. Behind Wall Street, they were finishing building the Twin Towers. As we gawked at his view, John asked us: "How does it feel to realize that by the time your 4 years are up that this system will all be gone?" None of us denied what John said would be true, but it required a lot of faith to imagine all of lower Manhattan transformed into a paradise!
Sometime the next week as I returned to work in the factory after the noon meal something didn't seem right. The factory bells kept on ringing the code for Max Larsen (the factory overseer) to answer. (His bell was two short bells.) The lobby watchman was visibly upset. He was trying to get a hold of Larsen about something. About a half hour into the afternoon shift, word got around what was up. They had found a Bethelite dead between Building 4 and the Manhattan Bridge. Apparently, he had been there awhile as this was an area where few people went. Someone had looked out one of the windows from above and realized there was a body lying there between the building and the bridge. We were all stunned.
All we knew is that he had fallen from Building 4. Some felt his death was accidental. One guy who sat at my table saw him on the ground before they removed the body and said he was laying on his back and therefore thought that proved it was not a suicide. Many, however, felt he had committed suicide. I did not know Jim Olson, the guy who had died. The fellow I was working with did know him and said Jim had been depressed. He was very quiet the rest of the afternoon. I later heard they buried Jim Olson in one of those cheap wooden boxes up at Watchtower Farms.
greenhornet

Great story. I can relate to it. Like a book I read to my kids. City mouse country mouse.
blondie

I can't read the replies.
cabasilas

Blondie,
Do you mean any of the posts here? Or just what others have written?
Lady Lee

I have edited the html code out of the posts so you should be able to read the posts and the responses
Lee
Atlantis

Cabasilas:
Thank you very much for the very interesting information of your pilgrimage!
N.-

Stories From My Bethel Pilgrimage

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