Marion Dunlap as I remember him...

by JWoods 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  JWoods

  Several here have shown interest in Marion Dunlap, even asked about some stories. (I had the great privilige of knowing Marion from around 1963 all the way up to his death a few years back). He was the younger brother of Ed Dunlap from the Ray Franz book, for those who did not know.

  I did a few, but then got bogged down dredging up the various memories. Our own Blondie pulled one up from the depths a couple of threads ago and I wanted to start putting these onto one thread rather than letting them get lost like the two or three I put on various topics before.

  Here goes>>>(Blondie had quoted Fox's book of Martyrs in a thread about the population of early christians)>>>

  Marion was a high-class paperhanger, usually working from the Murray sisters decorating store on the most expensive Oklahoma City mansions. He did some re-decorating for an old lady who appreciated him talking reasonably with her about the bible. (Marion was NEVER the bombastic pro-witness non thinker, and could actually relate to other religions well)

  Anyway, she gave him a selection of religious books from her own library. One of these was Fox's Martyrs - and it ended up in the KH Library at Oak Glen in Oklahoma City. For many years it remained there and I would occasionally sneak it in to read during the really boring meetings.

  We eventually got a new presiding overseer (Marion refused it and remained the assistant for the time). He (new overseer, hand picked society man) spotted me reading it, wanted to know what it was, and that very passage got noticed. Needless to say, the book was declared unfit for human witness consumption, and also declared suspect for demonism - and sadly disappeared from the library. I do not know it's true fate.

  Marion and I were both disgusted. Farhenheit 451 was discussed. And this was in or around 1968 - long prior to Ed's trouble in Bethel. Maybe it indicates some of the seeds of the intellectual revival they had.
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  minimus

  Anyone with half a thinking brain is suspect.
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  JWoods

  Anyone with half a thinking brain is suspect.

  I can see Marion doing an LOL (pre internet actual LOL) over that and then saying thank you for the notion that he might have as much as "half a brain"! Frankly, I remember both Marion and Ed for their delightfully dry sense of humor. An Ed recollection: The Murray sisters and I made the pilgrimage to Bethel in the mid 1970s or so as part of one of those groups. I was sort of asked to walk around with Helen and Lucille there in N.Y. as they were old ladies. We ended up having drinks one evening in Ed & Betty's brownstone apartment (ground floor in one of those historic brownstones that the city would not let the WTS destroy as to the street view). Ed thought that the "Land Shark" skits on SNL were hilariously funny - especially the one where he appears at the door and claims to be a Fuller Brush salesman...guy says NO, YOU ARE THE LAND SHARK. A moment later, another knock on the door: JEHOVAH"S WITNESSES. And of course he lets it in and it eats him. Ed commented to us that really we have in part created this image for ourselves as witnesses by the largely ineffective door to door work...that is, a sort of religious Fuller Brush sales force.
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  minimus

  Ed was no dummy either.
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  Satanus

  No wonder i left the jws, i also was a high end paper hanger. Hung a lot of it at bethe, too. Maybe, it's something in the glue.

  S
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  blondie

  http://www.freeminds.org/mp3.htm

  http://www.jwinfoline.com/Page/audio.htm

  http://books.google.com/books?id=jFDi5jGsyV8C&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=dunlap+watchtower&source=bl&ots=Qr6B_iCFdT&sig=1IVGcC6llkJOx25RyzkEV4PbkPQ&hl=en&ei=A4fYSrGzIdSW8Aak8K23BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dunlap%20watchtower&f=false
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  JWoods

  Thanks for the link, Blondie. That is exactly spot on from the way I remember things back in the old days. I too was disfellowshipped at about the same time - actually Marion held on longer than I did.

  Marion Dunlap paperhanger stories (2):

  First - the battle of the boom boxes: Marion had a paperhanging job where he had to co-exist with a painting crew. These painters had a big transistor radio and kept playing at high volume some really stupid country music. As in twang me, dang me, take a rope and hang me. To counter-act...Marion got his own big honker of a radio box (this was before the rap-style boom boxes, but that is what these things really were, except not in stereo). To give full annoyance, Marion found an Oklahoma City station which had an all day program - "Indians for Indians". This consisted of drum beating accompanied by tribal chants. ALL DAY. This was played to the great delight of all involved, until the end of this job.

  Second - my living room mural. I built a custom house back in 1976. Marion did my wallpaper. The Murray sisters picked my wallpaper for me - they liked to see that everything was in "good taste". I was trusted for cars and airplanes, but not clothes or interior decoration. In the formal living room, they had picked out a wallpaper reproduction of a flemish tapestry...and it was indeed an elegant thing. Marion took great delight in telling me (as he was hanging it) that in the movie "The Godfather" this was the exact same wallpaper in the background of one scene in which one of the Mafia heavies was slapping around his girlfriend! This was not "elder counsel" - this was vintage Marion having a great joke. It was during this paper-hanging episode that Marion and I first discussed what was going on at Bethel and worked out the fact that we were both having great doubts about the future of the organization.

  Technically, Marion was practically the Leonardo of wallpaper. Nobody could match the patterns, figure out how to center the patterns on a wall, turn corners so that no pattern was folded over, etc...like Marion. He always detested wallpaper that came from the factory with its own glue...that was for amatuers. He liked to make his own paste so that it would set up just like he wanted and could be moved around to make exact matches.

  You really had to know Marion and Ed to understand the great intelligence and the wonderful dry sense of humor.
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  cognac

  Great stories! Thanks for sharing!
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  compound complex

  Thank you, JWoods:

  Ed Dunlap, my teacher when I was a newboy at The Big House, was unwittingly responsible for my turnaround vis-a-vis the TRUTH some 25 years after his ouster. The enlightenment came through Terry, Nils and Sherry.

  You just never know ...

  CoCo
• 

  JWoods

  OK, I guess I just got bumped into a couple more Marion Dunlap stories: This one, Marion Dunlap and cars. I guess the baseball bat thread that morphed into some car stuff reminded me.

  First off, Marion was my first (and practically only) JW car hero (age about 12 or 13 when my parents started going to meetings) - because he had a 1956 Chevrolet Panel Delivery in black primer for a work car. This car was then, and is now, almost one of the holy grail for Chevrolet hot rod fans. He actually let me ride in it a couple of times when we were doing KH maintenance stuff...you had to sit on the floor because it only had a bucket seat for the driver; he had taken the other side out to make more room for wallpaper stuff.

  Of course, Marion had no idea - (he was also one of the very worst drivers I have ever ridden with, and I say that with respect). I explained it to him, and he remarked that he did have a number of people coming up and asking to buy the thing and he could never figure out why.

  ______

  Second one was the committee meeting gone wrong. This one is on me. We had a big snowstorm on a Friday in Oklahoma City and when it came time for the meeting Friday night, only my car was in the garage and free of snow. So, my mom and sister stayed home (good enough excuse) but I took my dad in the Pontiac because he had a committee meeting after the service meeting. This was 1971 and my car at the time was a 71 Pontiac Grand Prix. Well, this was about the least suitable thing on snow you could imagine, but at least it did have positraction and we made it in fine shape. However, when the meeting was over, I completely forgot that I had brought my dad and just headed out for home after the magazine and book room finished business for the night. About halfway home, I realize what I have done...and just cut a big power bootleg turn right there in the middle of 16th street on the snow and ice. Heading back, I realize that the car behind me was the Bethany, Oklahoma chief of police. I knew it was the chief because he had the only 2-door Ford on the force - the rest being the usual 4 doors. Well, he attempts to also turn and follow, but he goes down in the ditch instead of making the whole skid turn. I just honk on to Oak Glen kingdom hall...and find it completely dark with no cars in the lot.

  I drive back home, avoiding the scene of the crime, and put the Pontiac up and slink inside the house. Marion and my dad are sitting in front of the fire and having a hot rum toddy. Marion took my dad home because I was gone, and they were coming up 16th street a little ways behind the cop and have seen the whole thing. Any other elder would have had my nads for this, (I of course already had a hot-rodder image because of the Corvair and Porsche) but Marion just laughed it off as no big deal - and they gave me a hot buttered rum. It was to be understood that I was not to be seen doing this again, though.